Sterling K Brown names the “slickest, sexist, funniest” movie ever made
Sterling K Brown deserves to be in the type of high-concept comedies that he admires so much.
It was evident from the moment of his breakout role in American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson that Brown was a bona fide movie star in the making, simply waiting on the opportunity to prove himself, and although he went on to win an Emmy award for his role in NBC’s This Is Us, while now leading the popular Hulu drama series Paradise, he clearly has the charisma needed to be on the big screen.
He has certainly received accolades for his work in cinema, having earned a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Oscar nomination for his hilarious and heartbreaking role in American Fiction, and if there was ever any doubt about Brown being a film buff, he confirmed his affinity for ‘90s crime thrillers by describing Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir heist romance Out of Sight as ”the slickest, sexiest, funniest, just coolest damn movie out there”.
Although Soderbergh had been an acclaimed filmmaker ever since his debut feature Sex, Lies and Videotape won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, he had spent most of the ‘90s making smaller films that had less commercial appeal, and even Out of Sight was only a modest hit, but it spoke to broader sensibilities because it was based on a popular crime novel by Elmore Leonard.
The film came to characterise what the next three decades of Soderbergh’s career would look like; it was smart entertainment with a keen eye for process, inventive filmmaking techniques that kept viewers on the edge of their seats, and a showcase for its two stars. Although Out of Sight included an amazing ensemble of Steve Zahn, Don Cheadle, Michael Keaton, Ving Rhames, and Albert Brooks, it wouldn’t have worked without the chemistry between George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.
Clooney owes his status as one of the biggest movie stars in the world to Soderbergh, as his career had been in a rough state when he signed on to the project, having just come off the embarrassing failure of Batman & Robin a year prior.
Clooney faced speculation that he should have simply stayed on ER and never attempted to be in films, but Soderbergh gave him the opportunity to be a classical scoundrel with a heart of gold, as he gave the sort of performance reminiscent of those by Cary Grant or Tony Curtis. It marked the first in a recurring collaboration, as Soderbergh would later cast Clooney as Danny Ocean in the remake of Ocean’s Eleven, which received two sequels.
Lopez’s acting talents may have been more limited, but the filmmaker certainly gave her the opportunity to nail a very specific role, and yet, equal credit must be given to screenwriter Scott Frank, who earned an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for his script.
Even if films like Out of Sight seem to be made less often, Soderbergh still makes films on a regular basis, with last year seeing the release of his horror-drama Presence and the spy thriller Black Bag, and this year his new art heist film The Christophers will be on screens. It seems like there is only a matter of time before he recruits Brown to be a part of one of his sprawling ensembles.
