The topic of this post is Steven Soderbergh,

who is apparently giving up filmmaking for painting. You got that right.

Parenthetically, remember when Daniel Day-Lewis gave up acting to learn to make shoes? That's cool, I guess--I mean, seriously, I do wish I knew how to make shoes in the manner of the Italians--but what about us, guys? What about the movie-going public? Shoes and paintings don't put a movie on the screen, my friends.

Here's a discussion from Dan Kois, who watched every Soderbergh film to that point (leaving out Magic Mike and the new one, Side Effects and also Haywire). (And here's a ranking of those films, in Kois's judgement.)

happy? or laughing diabolically at our distress?

A couple years back, Soderbergh let a daily/weekly listing of his reading and viewing for almost a full year. It's fascinating. (while you're at it, you might as well watch a bunch of little videos, with accompanying discussions, from ten different directors, of their favorite films--delicious!)

And here's a long and wide-ranging interview with the director, on Vulture.

What are my favorite Soderbergh films, you ask? There are many:

• The Limey (perfect.)
• Out of Sight (brilliant--based on one of my favorite Elmore Leonard novels--the two, film and book, are perfectly suited.)
• Che
• King of the Hill (perhaps underviewed? I heartily recommend this.)
• Erin Brockovich (one of my favorite categories of movies: an exceedingly well-made, well-written popular/-ist film)
• Traffic (Benicio del Toro, ladies and gents.)

--and I certainly did enjoy each of the Oceans movies, and admired The Informant!, Solaris, and Contagion. 
 
I hope you have a really good time painting, Steven Soderbergh. And I hope you find a great television show to direct. And I also hope--I really really hope--that you start making films again. I think that should happen in maybe five years. Five to seven years.