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Steven Soderbergh:
Admit that this retirement stuff is all a big hoax.

We’ve been hearing this talk about Soderbergh giving up filmmaking for over a year now, so it’s gotten pretty silly, the way he keeps moving his retirement goalposts in order to squeeze in one more Channing Tatum movie or one more HBO mini-series. But word around the campfire is that once those two projects (Side Effects and Beyond the Candelabra, respectively) are completed — both are currently in post-production — he’s done, walking away from the movie-making business at the top of his game. And to that we say ha ha, very funny Steve, joke’s over. Because 2012 saw two new Soderbergh films that were miles better than their loglines would indicate: the bone-crushing MMA action/spy thriller Haywire and the Tatum/McConaughey male stripper comedy/drama Magic Mike. Both found Soderbergh tinkering with genre expectations and gender roles; both were unreasonably entertaining and unexpectedly smart. All we’re saying, Mr. Soderbergh, is that you’re one of the most interesting and skilled of all modern American filmmakers — so quit kidding around about giving it up. Okay?