It’s Time for Steven Soderbergh to Take a Bigger Swing

Certain movie directors — Hitchcock and Tarantino come to mind — constitute a genre unto themselves. Steven Soderbergh was never like that, at least not until he started making his “little” films: the cleverly plotted low-budget indie palate cleansers that he got into the habit of directing in between his more deluxe features. He did it as a way to recharge his batteries, and to remind himself that moviemaking is supposed to be fun.

You could say that Soderbergh’s first official “little” film was “Full Frontal” (2002), an all-star Hollywood satire made for $2 million, or you could say that it was “Bubble” (2005), a Middle American existential crime drama that also happened to be the first day-and-date release. In a way, though, the original Soderbergh “little” film was “Schizopolis,” the aggro experimental doodle he made all by himself and…