Clooney was already set to play the charming bank robber Jack Foley. Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Mira Sorvino star Jennifer Lopez, fresh off her hit “Selena” and “Anaconda” succession, as U.S. Marshal Karen Sisko, who is found after arresting Foley while escaping from prison reportedly suppressed. She herself was inconveniently attracted to him. (Soderbergh led Roberts to an Oscar two years later in “Erin Brockovich” and cast Clooney’s first opponent in one of many on-screen team-ups in “Ocean’s Eleven.”) Filled the cast with a gallery of villains. Albert Brooks, Don Cheadle, Viola Davis, Dennis Farina, Luis Guzman, Catherine Keener, Ving Rhames, and (in a free cameo) “Jackie Brown” co-star Samuel L. Ace character actors including Jackson and Michael Keaton.
The reviews were a delight. “variety” called it “Reflexively resourceful criminal”. Janet Maslin of The Times wrote, “Performed with director Steven Soderbergh’s splendid majesty, these two voluptuous stars add heat to the complex Elmore Leonard crime tale.” Anthony Lane of The New Yorker proclaimed, “Soderbergh made Elmore Leonard proud,” and the magazine dedicated a playful sidebar about the Zippo lighter so important to the action.
But it didn’t draw audiences, and its $37 million domestic box office wasn’t even able to cover its $48 million budget. But “Out of Sight” proved that Clooney and Lopez could be photographed gracefully and brilliantly, and was the return Soderbergh needed. By 2001, Soderbergh was competing for Best Director at the Academy Awards, receiving double nominations for Out of Sight. Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic”. He won the latter. Using a deeply saturated and distinctive color scheme to articulate the narrative, its original and striking cinematography began as an experiment to separate timelines and locations “out of sight”. I was. The use of freeze frames, displaced dialogue, and narrative loop-the-loop in this photo will further point the way for his cinematic experimentation going forward.
In a review by Roger Ebert called it “The first film to build on, rather than simply imitate, the highly influential Pulp Fiction. It contains games over time, sleazy dialogue, and absurd and violent situations.” But it also has a texture of its own.” That texture, with intelligence, wit and playfulness, is Soderbergh’s touch, and it has come to characterize his work in the new millennium. “‘People don’t have to choose one or the other,’ he argued in 1998. ‘A film like Out of Sight works well on a mass entertainment level, and has quirky and interesting cinematic elements.’ You can have it.” In 1998, it felt like a novelty. In 2023, it feels like a miracle.
