Peter Andrews Movies
The Girlfriend Experience stars adult film actress Sasha Grey as Chelsea, a high-priced escort who offers her wealthy clientele the eponymous service. In other words, on their long, often overnight "dates," she assumes the role of a temporary romantic partner, attending highbrow cultural events, engaging in intellectual discourse, and eating at hip and expensive restaurants, all while expressing an interest in the client's life and work. She keeps a detailed journal about her clients. Chelsea's live-in boyfriend, a personal trainer (Chris Santos, who previously worked as a personal trainer in the real world), struggles with trying to earn a fair share of the upscale business he brings into his gym. Chris is conflicted when a wealthy client invites him on a weekend trip to Vegas. The couple faces further problems when Chelsea finds herself sincerely attracted to one of her clients, a married screenwriter. Over the course of the film, Chelsea is interviewed by a journalist (played by real-life journo Mark Jacobson, whose reporting on Frank Lucas inspired the film American Gangster), and visits "The Erotic Connoisseur," a sleazy blogger who reviews escort services (portrayed by film critic Glenn Kenny). Director Steven Soderbergh shot The Girlfriend Experience (under the pseudonym Peter Andrews) using the same high-definition camera he used on Che. The script is by the writing team David Levien and Brian Koppelman (Rounders), who previously worked with Soderbergh on Ocean's Thirteen. The Girlfriend Experience was shown at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. As with Soderbergh's Bubble, it was released theatrically and on pay-per-view on the same date. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, (more)
- 2009
- R
A rising star in the agricultural industry suddenly turns whistleblower in hopes of gaining a lucrative promotion and becoming a hero of the common people, inadvertently revealing his penchant for helping himself to the corporate coffers and ultimately threatening to derail the very investigation he helped to launch in this offbeat comedy from Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh. Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) was fast rising through the ranks at agri-industry powerhouse Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) when he became savvy to the company's multinational price-fixing conspiracy, and decided to turn evidence for the FBI. Convinced that he'll be hailed as a hero of the people for his efforts, Whitacre agrees to wear a wire in order to gather the evidence needed to convict the greedy money-grabbers at ADM. Unfortunately, both the case -- and Whitacre's integrity -- are compromised when FBI agents become frustrated by their informant's ever-shifting account, and discover that he isn't exactly the saintly figure he made himself out to be. Unable to discern reality from Whitacre's fantasy as they struggle to build their case against ADM, the FBI watches in horror as the highest-ranking corporate bust in U.S. history threatens to implode before their very eyes. Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, and Melanie Lynskey co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, (more)
- 2008
- R
Nearly 40 years after Che Guevara's execution in Bolivia, director Steven Soderbergh retraces the life of the iconic Cuban revolutionary in this nearly four-and-a-half-hour saga. Part 1 begins on November 26, 1956, as Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir) sails into Cuban waters with 80 rebels in tow. Among those rebels is Argentine doctor Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Benicio Del Toro), a man who shares Castro's dream of overthrowing corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista. As the struggle gets under way, Guevara proves an indispensable part of the revolution due to his firm grasp on the concepts of guerilla warfare. Guevara is heartily embraced by both his comrades and the Cuban people, and quickly rises through the ranks to become first a commander, and ultimately a revolutionary hero. Part 2 of the saga begins with Guevara at the absolute peak of his fame and power. Disappearing suddenly, Guevara subsequently resurfaces in Bolivia to organize a modest group of Cuban comrades and Bolivian recruits in preparation for the Latin American Revolution. But while the Bolivian campaign would ultimately fail, the tenacity, sacrifice, and idealism displayed by Guevara during this period would make him a symbol of heroism to followers around the world. Part 1 and Part 2 were screened together as Che at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and also received a limited theatrical release under that same title in U.S. theaters later that same year. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, (more)
- 2008
Part 2 of director Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara saga begins with the famed Cuban revolutionary at the absolute peak of his fame and power. Disappearing suddenly, Guevara subsequently resurfaces in Bolivia to organize a modest group of Cuban comrades and Bolivian recruits in preparation for the Latin American Revolution. But while the Bolivian campaign would ultimately fail, the tenacity, sacrifice, and idealism displayed by Guevara during this period would make him a symbol of heroism to followers around the world. Though Parts 1 and 2 were screened together at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, they were set to be released separately in U.S. theaters in early 2009. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Part 1 of Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara saga stars Benicio Del Toro as the legendary Argentine revolutionary. The film opens with Che as one of the important figures in the growing Cuban rebellion led by Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir). The movie charts how the two successfully built an underground army large enough to successfully overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benicio Del Toro, Javier Bardem, (more)
Cinema icon Al Pacino joins a powerhouse cast headed by of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, and series newcomer Ellen Barkin for this, the third installment of director Steven Soderbergh's popular series of glitzy crime comedies. The only hotelier in Las Vegas who can claim that each and every one of his establishments has earned the Royal Review Board's Five Diamond Award, Willy Bank (Pacino) has made more than his share of enemies during his impressive ascent. While most of Bank's adversaries amount to little more than the occasional nuisance, however, this powerful player is about to find out that picking your enemies in Las Vegas can be a true gamble. In betraying Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), Bank has finally crossed the one man who could bring his entire empire crumbling to the ground -- Danny Ocean (Clooney). Now Reuben is in critical condition, and Ocean is determined to strike back at the man who nearly murdered his mentor. Bank may have taken down one of the original Ocean's Eleven, but his efforts only managed to unite the remaining ten closer than ever before. As the opening of Bank's newest casino draws near, Danny and the crew set into motion a bold plan to humiliate the cocksure casino owner and forever tarnish his spotless reputation. It won't be easy, but if Ocean and his team can get their elaborate plan together in time for the opening of The Bank, they just might be able to deliver some serious Las Vegas justice. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Brad Pitt, (more)
A U.S. Army war correspondent is drawn into a deadly mystery in post-war Berlin as he seeks out his wartime mistress in this adaptation of author Joseph Kanon's best-selling novel. The war is over, and Jake Geismar (George Clooney) is an American journalist assigned the task of covering the peace in Berlin -- but he was once lovers with a mysterious woman named Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett). Lena is a lady with many secrets to hide, however, and now that the fighting has ceased, she has every intention of burying her sins and escaping her dark past. As Jake searches for Lena in war-torn Berlin with the assistance of American Army motor pool driver Tully (Tobey Maguire), the complex web of deceit woven by the desperate woman soon leads all three into the black market, which could prove either the ticket to Lena's ultimate escape or the downfall of both her and her pursuers. Filmed entirely in the style of such Hollywood classics as Casablanca, The Good German was shot by director Steven Soderbergh (under the pseudonym Peter Andrews) using 1940s era lenses, sound-recording techniques, and a decidedly less-mobile camera. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, (more)
Steven Soderbergh followed up his slick, star-studded sequel, Ocean's Twelve, with Bubble, a small-town drama about workers in a doll factory, played by a cast of unknowns. Martha (Debbie Doebereiner) seems to have acclimated herself to a very simple life. She works at the factory, where she eats lunch with a younger co-worker, Kyle (Dustin Ashley), and goes home to take care of her elderly father. Her routine is disrupted when an attractive young woman, Rose (Misty Wilkins), is hired at the factory to help them with the holiday rush. Rose soon tells the others that she's eager to leave their town, where there is "nothing to do." She immediately attracts Kyle's attention. One night, Rose asks Martha to baby-sit for her two-year-old daughter while she goes out on a date. Martha is startled to learn that her date is with Kyle. When Rose returns home that night, she's greeted by her angry ex-boyfriend, Jake (K. Smith), who accuses her of stealing from him. Martha looks on while Rose and Jake have a heated confrontation. The next morning, one of the characters is found murdered, and a detective (played by Decker Moody) begins to investigate. Bubble was written by Coleman Hough, who also scripted Soderbergh's Full Frontal. It was shown at the 2005 New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debbie Doebereiner, Dustin Ashley, (more)
Three of the world's most gifted filmmakers offer their own unique perspectives on love and lust in this omnibus film. The initial episode, "The Hand," was directed by Wong Kar-Wai, and tells the story of Zhang (Chang Chen), a young, virginal dressmaker's assistant who finds it difficult to control his desire when he is sent to the home of Hua (Gong Li), a beautiful and refined prostitute, for a fitting. Steven Soderbergh directed the film's second story, "Equilibrium," in which Nick Penrose (Robert Downey Jr.) spends a session with his analyst (Alan Arkin) discussing a recurring dream of a beautiful naked woman in his apartment, but he keeps wandering off on tangents about alarm clocks and hair loss. Finally, Italian virtuoso Michelangelo Antonioni brings his short story The Dangerous Thread of Things to the screen, a story of a jaded couple, Christopher (Christopher Buchholz) and Chloë (Regina Nemni), whose relationship comes to a crossroads when both husband and wife become infatuated with the same woman, Linda (Luisa Ranieri). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gong Li, Chang Chen, (more)
After pulling off the heist of their lives, Danny Ocean and his pals unexpectedly find themselves back in harness in this sequel to 2001's blockbuster hit Ocean's Eleven. After robbing a cool $160 million from the Bellaggio Hotel Casino and winning back his former wife, Tess (Julia Roberts), from Bellagio owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is living quietly on the lam in Connecticut when he's unexpectedly approached by Benedict. It seems Benedict has tracked down Danny and the ten men who helped him pull off the seemingly impossible robbery, and Benedict offers them a proposal -- if they can repay the $160 million in two weeks, he won't have them killed. As it turns out, both Danny and his best friend, Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), haven't been doing so well in terms of money management and could use some cash, so they set out to plan a robbery to recover the loot, with the same crew helping out -- Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), Yen (Shaobo Qin), Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck), and his brother Turk (Scott Caan). Danny and Rusty discover that an incredibly rare Fabergé egg is being displayed at a museum in Rome which would fetch the price they need, but they soon discover a notorious cat burglar, François Toulour (Vincent Cassel), is also after the egg, and it turns into a race to see who can claim it first. Adding to the intrigue is Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a woman Rusty used to be involved with who is now a top agent with Interpol and is after both Toulour and Ocean's crew. Shot on location in both the United States and Europe, Ocean's Twelve was, like its precursor, directed by the stylish Steven Soderbergh, who also photographed the picture under his nom de lens, Peter Andrews. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Brad Pitt, (more)
Described as a modern-day Hollywood version of Day for Night, director Steven Soderbergh's first digital video production was also shot employing a modified version of the frills-free Dogma 95 rules set forth by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, allowing a relatively small budget of about two million dollars. Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood star, respectively, as Francesca and Calvin, actors performing in a motion picture directed by David Fincher and co-starring Brad Pitt (who play themselves). Woven in and out of the film production story thread are several other subplots including one about a lovelorn woman, Linda (Mary McCormack); the self-absorbed Gus (David Duchovny); and a husband, Carl (David Hyde Pierce), whose wife (Catherine Keener) is falling for Calvin. Described initially as a follow-up to Soderbergh's independent breakout hit, sex, lies and videotape, Full Frontal isn't a sequel in the strictest sense of the word and is only thematically related to the earlier film in its exploration of voyeurism and sexuality. The film also stars Brad Rowe, Enrico Colantoni, and Nicky Katt. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Duchovny, Nicky Katt, (more)
A therapist travels to a distant space station to treat a group of astronauts traumatized by mysterious entities -- and ends up having to deal with an entity of his own -- in this second film version of Stanislaw Lem's philosophical sci-fi novel. Solaris stars George Clooney as Chris Kelvin, a psychologist still mourning the loss of his wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone) when he's implored by a colleague named Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur) to investigate the increasingly weird goings-on at the Prometheus space station. By the time Kelvin gets there, Gibarian has committed suicide, leaving only the cryptic, babbling Snow (Jeremy Davies) and the paranoid, guarded Gordon (Viola Davis), both of whom are holed up in their respective rooms. As Kelvin interrogates the skeleton crew, he learns that they've had unwanted "visitors," apparitions of long-dead friends, family, and loved ones who are apparently being generated by the interstellar energy source Solaris. The doctor is dubious of their claims until one night he, too, is greeted by his wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone), whose death still torments him. At first skeptical of the new Rheya, Kelvin gradually becomes obsessed with her -- and with the guilt that he feels over their troubled marriage -- to the point where the others begin to fear for his sanity. Produced by James Cameron, Solaris represented director Steven Soderbergh's first screenplay credit since the independently financed Schizopolis in 1996. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, (more)
A rag-tag group of con artists and ex-cons team up for the heist to end all heists in this high-profile remake of the 1960 Rat Pack favorite. As with its predecessor, Ocean's Eleven opens with its titular hero Danny Ocean (George Clooney stepping into the Frank Sinatra role) eager for a new challenge. The similarities to the original end there, as Ocean conspires with his old pal Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) to rob 150 million dollars from an underground vault that serves three of Las Vegas' biggest casinos. Between the two of them, they recruit nine other men, each with his own criminal specialty, to assist in the mission: moneyman Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould), card dealer Frank (Bernie Mac), pickpocket Linus (Matt Damon), aging con artist Saul (Carl Reiner), British explosives pro Basher (Don Cheadle), techie Dell (Eddie Jemison), rude-boy brothers Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk (Scott Caan), and professional acrobat Yen (Shaobo Qin). What Ocean doesn't tell the group is that there's another reason he's coordinating the heist: the three casinos they're robbing are all owned by ruthless gambling mogul Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who just happens to be married to Ocean's former love Tess (Julia Roberts). Ocean's Eleven was updated by scribe Ted Griffin and marked the third feature shot by director Steven Soderbergh under the alias Peter Andrews. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Brad Pitt, (more)
Described by director Steven Soderbergh as "Nashville meets The French Connection," this multi-character drama explores the effects of international drug trafficking on all fronts: from their source, to the U.S. border, to the federal government, to the private lives of users. Based upon a miniseries originally aired on Britain's Channel 4, Traffic divides its time among three main storylines and almost a dozen locales. The first and primary plot thread, set in Ohio and Washington, D.C., concerns freshly-appointed drug czar Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), whose enthusiasm for his new prestige position is quickly offset when he realizes his 16-year-old daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is graduating from recreational drug use to habitual abuse -- a secret that his wife, Barbara (Amy Irving), has kept from him. South of the border, Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to wage his own war on drugs, heading off a cocaine shipment in the middle of the desert with his less-than-virtuous partner Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas). Surrounded by corruption, Javier approaches the drug war with an attitude of patience and compromise, which opens him up to investigation from General Arturo Salazar (Tomas Milian), the country's dubious drug-enforcement liaison to the U.S. Meanwhile, San Diego drug kingpin Carlos Alaya (Steven Bauer) is caught in a sting operation spearheaded by DEA agents Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), leaving behind his very pregnant and very oblivious wife, Helena (Catharine Zeta-Jones). At the behest of Carlos' lawyer and shady confidante, Arnie Metzger (Dennis Quaid), Helena decides to carry on the family business -- with tragic consequences. Adapted by Rules of Engagement scribe Stephen Gaghan, Traffic marked Soderbergh's second major release in 2000 after the critical and box-office success of Erin Brockovich, as well as his second feature as cinematographer (credited under the pseudonym Peter Andrews). A favorite with various guild and critics' awards, Traffic won four Academy Awards in 2001, including statues for Best Supporting Actor (Del Toro) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gaghan), and surprise wins for Steven Mirrone's editing and Soderbergh's direction. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, (more)
