By Dr. Garth Twa 24 April A drama set in the days leading up to the Presidential election, and centered on a high-end Manhattan call girl meeting the challenges of her boyfriend, her clients, and her work. Steven Soderbergh. Colby Trane , Peter Zizzo. An odd beast, Steven Soderbergh; an odd, Janus-faced movie beast. He also has a doppelganger, his Imp of the Perverse, that turns out uncompromising, indie fare like Schizopolis , the brilliant Full Frontal , and the even more brilliant Bubble.
Miller and Nashville. The bigger the hit, the bigger the follow-up self-aimed torpedo, like he was morbidly phobic about stratospheric success.
No; Soderbergh actually seems like two different directors. In this same year he gives us The Informant!
The latter is deep within indie territory and—in the true indie spirit—the film explores difficult, inhospitable terrain like unsympathetic characters and icky commercial sex with smelly men. We think. The narrative is disjointed, fractured, non-linear. There seems to be little connection between Chris and Chelsea except in a self-gratifying way. He jets off to Vegas with a client with little motive other than climbing a rung or two socially and the possibilities of new vistas—and clients—to sell to.
Soderbergh helps us not care about them, keeping the camera distant and the focal length short. Often the leads are ignored in lieu of foreground, inconsequential detail and kept underlit and out of focus. Chris and Chelsea are played by relative newcomers, Chris Santos and Sasha Grey well, newcomers to movies that can be advertised in a family newspaper.
