So, with little to grab at this weekend for list themes, I decided to grab onto the fact that I still see murmurs online of people discussing Magic Mike, a film I’m dying to see now, so here I am giving you the films I most adore from a filmmaker I most adore. Please enjoy.

10. The Good German (2007)

I believe this was one of the first films of Sodergh that I was exposed to that wasn’t in any sense of the word “traditional”. I was taken in by not only the throw back story that he tried to tell, but also the older techniques of filmmaking that he employed to help make that story become even more grounded than ever before. Sometimes we’re willing to forgive a lot in the view of hindsight and age I discovered thanks to this film.

9. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Here’s a fun film that I never seem to get bored of popping into the DVD player. While I take umbrage with the original — and somehow I feel that’s a case of who got there first more than anything else — this film manages to do everything I ever wanted in a quick play comedy ensemble. Every scene is filled with moments where everyone is doing what they need to do but being hilariously funny, on purpose, while doing it and it feels almost like every actor is just trying to one up the other minute after minute, line after line and it’s beautiful.

8. The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

Probably the moment I truly fell in love with Soderbergh is with this film. I won’t be so brazen as to call it his best, but I do consider it a very showing piece of his canon. He’s known for going off and doing these smaller “experimental” pieces where he takes non actors and gives them room to almost find themselves as actors and it’s so lovely to watch. This movie doesn’t do much, but what it looks for it accomplishes so well.

7. Contagion (2011)

It’s as if one night up too late Soderbergh saw Outbreak on TV and then immediately was inspired to fix it. The dread that this movie creates with the most realised apocalypse that we could all face at any moment is so terrifying that I almost never wanted to leave my home after seeing this. Every character in this ensemble is given their own time to shine and accomplish their own parts and proves that even with a bloated base of characters a film can still manage to resolve all these threads without feeling stretched at all.

6. Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)

His first film and without a doubt one of his most interesting. With the idea of sex being explored, by a character unable to perform sex in the traditional sense, we end up talking about a lot of other great things and how it relates to life.

Read The Top Five on the Next Page>>>