Every Steven Soderbergh Movie Ranked From Worst to Best

Steven Soderbergh has remained one of the most independent and influential filmmakers working for over three decades, with 2025 already delivering two new and very different movies from the prolific artist. From the experimental doodle of Schizopolis to the epic sweep of Che to the blockbuster charm of Ocean's Eleven, this director has never made the same movie twice. Storming onto the scene with 1989's Sex, Lies, and Videotape, the 26-year-old Soderbergh became the youngest solo director to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

That film would launch an indie boom and change the cinematic marketplace. However, it would eventually bring its director to Hollywood, where he would helm the major hit Ocean's Elevenand become only the third filmmaker in history to receive two Best Director nominations in the same year, ultimately winning for Traffic(against his own Erin Brockovich). Every one of his works is worth watching if only to see his extraordinary talent for reinventing himself and always bringing the maximum amount of fun possible.

36 Full Frontal (2002)

A Day In The Life Of Hollywood Players

After winning Best Director for Traffic, Steven Soderbergh took $2 million, a few DV cameras, and went as low budget as possible on his next movie. That ended up being Full Frontal, a comedy-drama about a day in the life of several Hollywood characters. What is most impressive is that Soderbergh shot the movie with an amazing group of actors but ensured it was the most indie effort of his career. The cast included David Duchovny, Catherine Keener, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Terence Stamp, and many more.

The film received a limited release but still managed to make back its production budget. It received negative reviews from critics, though, with many confused about the story and critical of the "amateurish" camera work. Over a decade later, the movie was critically reassessed, with modern-day critics appreciating the amateur camerawork and production values on display.

35 The Underneath (1995)

A Man Returns Home & Is Sucked Into A Heist

In the afterglow of Soderbergh's debut Sex, Lies, and Videotape, this neo-noir reunited the director with Peter Gallagher. A remake of the 1949 film Criss Cross, The Underneath follows a man returning to his hometown when his mother remarries. While there, he gets entangled in a risky plot to liberate a former lover from her abusive boyfriend. It's a great-looking movie, and Soderbergh is clearly experimenting with many editing tricks.

However, critics were not happy with the final result, giving it a 62% Rotten Tomatoes score, with many saying it lacks the emotional connection that film noirs are known for. The director himself called it "sleepy," and he's not wrong.

34 The Laundromat (2019)

3 Stories Surrounding The Panama Papers Scandal

The Laundromat sees Steven Soderbergh take the book Secrecy World about the Panama Papers scandal and turn it into a comedy-drama with an all-star cast along for the ride. The film tells three different stories about people around the world affected by the Mossack Fonseca company, although it is somewhat fictionalized. Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas narrate the three stories, with a cast that includes Meryl Streep, Jeffrey Wright, James Cromwell, Sharon Stone, and more.

They praised the cast but showed disappointment with the unfocused approach to dealing with real-life events.

Critics were mixed on the film, giving it a 41% Rotten Tomatoes score. They praised the cast but showed disappointment with the unfocused approach to dealing with real-life events. However, some critics were more positive about the effort, praising Soderbergh's more "playful" nature when dealing with serious topics.

33 Kafka (1991)

Franz Kafka Joins An Underground Group While Working As A Writer

A biopic that cleverly mixes details of the famous writer's personal life with the surreal, nightmarish imagery of his stories, Kafka is one of the more interesting failures in Soderbergh's filmography. In Prague in 1919, Franz Kafka (Jeremy Irons) was working on becoming a writer while also juggling his career as an insurance adjuster. He then joins an underground group when a co-worker is murdered.

Gorgeously shot in striking black and white, the film's multiple layers see the director juggling a lot of balls, and even though he can't quite keep them all in the air, it's never boring. This one is worth a watch for completists, and it has become a cult classic since its release, compared to Brazil and Naked Lunch.

32 Bubble (2005)

Three Doll Factory Employees Become Involved In A Murder Case

Fifteen years before HBO Max struck a deal with Warner Bros. to release their films in theaters and through streaming simultaneously, this Steven Soderbergh oddity was the first film to debut in cinemas, on DVD, and on-demand on the same day.

Eschewing stars for a cast of unknowns, the director tells this story of murder in a small town with a fairly un-showy hand.

There's some creepy imagery (a decapitated doll head, for one) and some impressive acting, but the movie's overall stilted quality makes this another one for completists only. Critics did praise the movie as a "stripped down" and mundane film that remains creepy and somewhat engrossing.

31 Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023)

Mike Returns To Bartending After The Pandemic & Finds His Place in The World

The third and final movie in the Magic Mike series sees former male stripper Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) lose his furniture store business thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has to return to bartending, but he soon meets a new woman named Maxandra "Max" Mendoza (Salma Hayek), who invites him to London and makes him a business proposition — she wants him to choreograph the play Isabel Ascendant in the theater she received in her divorce settlement from her husband.

The movie takes the erotic dance scenes in a new direction thanks to the stage play format, but critics were not convinced, awarding it only a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while saying that the franchise had lost a step since its start. However, Channing Tatum received praise once again for his performance as the lead in the franchise.

30 The Good German (2006)

A Neo-Noir Film Set After World War II

The Good German

Release Date: December 8, 2006
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast

Jack Thompson
John Roeder
George Clooney
Tobey Maguire

Main Genre: Drama

Steven Soderbergh once again took an unexpected route with his 2006 movie The Good German. Soderbergh shot the movie in black and white and had it take place after the Allies beat the Nazis in World War II. The movie poster paid homage to Casablanca, and it is clear that was Soderbergh's focus when making the movie as well. The story opens with a murder mystery that then adds in subplots of America hiring Nazi rocket scientists during Operation Paperclip.

The film received mixed reviews and was a box office flop. This was highly disappointing since not only was this Soderbergh following up his Ocean's Eleven films, but it also starred industry titans George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Critics mostly gave The Good German negative reviews, with some saying Soderbergh went too far in sticking with the old style of filmmaking. It did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score by Thomas Newman.

29 Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

Danny Ocean Sets Out To Ruin A Man's Casino In A Revenge Tale

This is exactly the movie Steven Soderbergh cleverly avoided making when he helmed the first Ocean's sequel, Ocean's Twelve. It's bigger and louder but isn't nearly as smart as its predecessors. Still, it's still plenty of fun getting the gang together again. In this movie, Reuben Tishkoff decides to build a casino in Vegas, despite people telling him it was a bad idea. Soon, his investors and a man named Willy Bank (Al Pacino) double-cross him and take the casino from him, leaving him with nothing, resulting in Reuben having a heart attack.

This leads Danny to put his team back together again and set out to ruin Banks' new casino's grand opening. Their plan is to force him to lose the Five Diamond Award competition, which is important to Banks, and, more importantly, to rig the games in the casino to pay out millions in winnings, which could cost Banks enough money to lose control of the casino to his Board of Directors. The movie was a box office success, and it received decent reviews, but it was still a slight letdown that ended the franchise for a decade.

28 Schizopolis (1996)

A Man Becomes Lost In A Cult-Like Religious Group

Sex, Lies, and Videotape was the debut, but this was the big reset. Unhappy with the trajectory of his career, Soderbergh set off to his hometown of Baton Rouge with $250,000 and cast himself in this gonzo experimental film. Absolutely absurd and charmingly incomprehensible, this is mostly a self-indulgent palate cleanser, but it becomes more and more charming with every great new movie Soderbergh makes.

Schizopolis does not possess a linear plot but attempts to tell the same story from three different perspectives. The film had a poor reception at the Cannes Film Festival despite it appearing as a surprise screening. While it was also a box office failure, it did pick up a small cult following and even received a Criterion Collection release.

27 Gray's Anatomy (1996)

A Monologue Film With Spalding Gray

Spalding Gray filmed four of his monologues, hiring phenomenal directors like The Silence of the Lambs' Jonathan Demme, to translate them to the screen. His fourth and final one is his murkiest, a rambling and depressing account of a bad experience he had with eye surgery. Soderbergh, however, brings his A-game, enfolding Gray in a visual landscape that is as overwhelming as it is complementary to the text.

It is one of Soderbergh's most curious movie releases.

This was the last Spalding Gray monologist film, co-written by Renee Shafransky and directed by Steven Soderbergh. It is one of Soderbergh's most curious movie releases, and it received mixed reviews, with some critics praising its bizarre odyssey into the neurotic mind and others complaining that it is insincere.

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