Thankfully director Steven Soderbergh’s decision to retire from movie making following the release of Side Effects in 2013 was one he reversed a few years later. He is back with his first feature film in four years and it is a real treat. Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is unjustly fired from his job and is struggling financially. With the help of his brother Clyde (Adam Driver) and sister Melly (Riley Keough) he hatches a plan to rob a stadium during a NASCAR race.
With its offbeat but not caricatured protagonists and a beautifully written script by Rebecca Blunt* this is a total delight. It is the sort of film you watch with a big goofy grin on your face and the plot strands after the heist fall so satisfyingly into place. With the subject matter and director, it is bound to be compared to Oceans 11. Time will tell if it has the same re-watchability but it does not suffer from that comparison.
One thing it does share with that 2001 movie is a great ensemble cast. Tatum continues to surprise with his abilities, and of the supporting performers I particularly enjoyed Dwight Yoakam as a slippery prisoner governor and a terrific Daniel Craig, his hair dyed blonde and affecting a convincing Southern accent, as an expert safe cracker that the brothers have to break out of prison. The brilliant Katherine Waterston appears briefly but tellingly as Mummy’s potential love interest.
I can’t find many faults, though Seth MacFarlane’s character, after an amusing first scene, seems unnecessary and you could argue that when the details of the heist are revealed it shows Jimmy and Clyde to be cleverer than is believable. That in no way spoilt my enjoyment though and it is great to have Sodebergh back. I hope he doesn’t make any more retirement plans in the near future.
Rating: 9 out of 10
*No one has met Blunt and she is believed to not exist. Who is using that name and why is not known.