In a way it’s kind of amazing it has taken me this long to check off Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight in this blind spot project. It’s a movie I have heard about for years and is a favorite of many of my friends but I just never got around to seeing it. A lot of my blind spots are rated R films from the 90s and earlier because growing up I didn’t watch mature films. It really wasn’t until around 2012 that I realized the rating system was dumb and began challenging myself with more adult content in my media.
It’s funny because this trailer for Out of Sight makes it seem like it’s practically a rom-com and it is a very sexy movie but the relationship is more of a side-story rather than the main focus of the film. I would think of it more as a sexy version of Oceans 11 than a rom-com (Soderbergh also directed George Clooney in the Oceans films.)
It’s funny because Jennifer Lopez plays the least likely person to be named Karen ever in a film…but her role is as a US Marshall who is forced into a trunk with Clooney’s Jack Foley as he escapes from prison. They then end up in a tit-for-tat with each other over the course of several years. The two actors do have sizzling chemistry and the main sex scene is very spicy but it all works for the story.
One of the strongest aspects of this film is the atmosphere and tone Soderbergh along with his cinematographer Elliot Davis creates. It looks great and all the characters ooze with cool and a slick style that draws you into the story. It reminded me of Pulp Fiction without Tarantino’s more annoying qualities. These are people I am interested in that don’t seem concerned with crafting sound bites but instead making the next great deal and how good they look while doing it.
It’s interesting because Out of Sight was one of Lopez’s first roles and it showed a lot of potential she wouldn’t realize again (despite my enjoyment for her mostly terrible rom-coms) until Hustlers in 2019 (which I think was just an ok movie but she was good in it.) In this movie, however, she brings a strength to Karen that makes her a believable force alongside Clooney and the rest of the cast.
We also get memorable roles from Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Michael Keaton, Albert Brooks and more. Like I said, it’s a film that’s loaded with great atmosphere and panache which makes it a very engaging watch. I can see why it has gained a bit of a cult following and is a favorite of so many.
8 out of 10
Smile Worthy
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