Behind the Candelabra

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Side Effects

(spoilers)

For the last few years director Steven Soderbergh was growing increasingly disenchanted with Hollywood. He finally decided to retire and Side Effects is his second to last movie - that title belongs to Behind the Candelabra, HBO produced film that actually found its way to this years' Cannes competition. Soderbergh's disenchantment definitely shows - Side Effects is one of his dullest and most uninspired movies.

Movie of the Month - December - Solaris

You are all I see

For the beautiful and somber month of DecemberII decided to chose Solaris, hugely under appreciated and misunderstood movie directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film, based on brilliant and difficult novel by Stanisław Lem, focuses on just one part of the story - the love the protagonist Chris and his now deceased wife Rheya share.

Some time after Rheya commits suicide, Chris is called by his friend and asked to fly to mysterious ocean-like planet Solaris. The ship that was investigating the planet had some trouble on board and when Chris gets there he finds out the truth - some of the crew members were driven insane because the planet has the mysterious ability to duplicate their loved ones who died. During his first night on the ship, Chris wakes up next to Rheya. Though he gets rid of her first duplicate, when she comes back again he finds himself unable to let go of his love.

Haywire

79/100 (93 min, 2011)
Plot: A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission.
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Lem Dobbs
Stars: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor and Michael Fassbender

They gave her no choice. 

"Haywire" is all you can expect from the movie Steven Soderbergh does during considering retirement from film making - I see that he isn't going to do that after all from the trailer for "Magic Mike" which is a peculiar choice of a story for this director - it's entertaining and quit simple, but it still has distinctive style known from Soderbergh's films - slick cinematography, smooth editing and jazzy, elegant score. Another thing that will hint at this being his movie is the presence of many well known actors, who while still used in too big quantities than it is necessary aren't as underused as in "Contagion".

When it comes to Soderbergh's movies I often complain about that - there are so many well known people in his films and yet we never get to focus on each of them enough. In the effect his films are usually a classic case of style over substance - yes, it's all cleverly executed but who cares if all those stars are wandering around without getting a chance to shine? In "Haywire" we finally have a clear protagonist - Mallory Kane, ironically played by someone unknown to the average movie goer - Gina Carano.

Contagion

83/100 (106 min, 2011)
Plot: A thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Scott Z. Burns
Stars: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Jude Law

Don't Touch Anyone

Behold, the scariest movie of the year.
Do you remember that retarded little film called "The Happening" that was in the cinemas few years ago? Well, in that film M. Night Shyamalan was trying to scare us...using the wind that spread plant toxins. He didn't figure out, along with the writers, that if you are going to scare people using something as unorthodox as wind, you need to make sure we are familiar with possible dangers of it and we are already scared of it. "Contagion" contains three things everyone fears - the disease, the unknown and death. And it manages to scare us...with a single cough.

Solaris

(99 min, 2002)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: Stanislaw Lem (novel), Steven Soderbergh (screenplay)
Stars: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone and Ulrich Tukur 

everything you DESIRE... 
everything you FEAR..

everything you THINK....
becomes REAL.

(spoilers)

I'm just so overwhelmed by the harmful opinions about this movie. It has been trashed by public, by critics, by almost everyone. Yet when I looked at forums, reviews and comments about "Solaris" it has occurred to me that nobody actually made the effort to understand the movie. And it's both a shame and a waste.

Steven Soderbergh made a true, cinematic masterpiece. He captured the very idea of love, the emotion, the feeling itself in carefully composed film frames, in two heartbreaking performances from George Clooney and Natasha NcElhone and with help of Cliff Martinez in heartbreaking, stunningly beautiful music.

"And death shall have no dominion"
Chris Kelvin lost his wife. He's in grief. It was his fault and now it's too late. Few years later he's being called to arrive on spaceship inspecting mysterious planet - Solaris. Shortly after that event, his dead wife...reappears.

"Dead men naked they shall be one with the man in the wind and the west moon."
It is so simple to understand that movie, the only thing you have to do is to open your heart and carefully observe. We see all the events from Chris's point of view, except for one short scene concerning Rheya.