The director’s nifty new trick has him using the gloss of a crowd-pleasing heist movie to discuss race, industry and politics in 50s America
The difference between the heist movies made by Steven Soderbergh and the heist movies made by everyone else is that he takes as much interest in where the money comes from and goes as in the details of its transferral – the why along with the how. His thieves tend to be independent operators liberating massive sums from institutions on the winning side of capitalism, self-styled Robin Hoods for an age in which the phrase “wealth distribution” appears in public discourse with ever-greater frequency. They steal from the rich and give to the poor, as in the Ocean’s 13 con to force multimillion payouts from an elite casino to its patrons. Or sometimes, it just so happens that they are the poor, as in the boost from Nascar’s coffers by blue-collar West Virginians in Logan Lucky. All the while, the director has kept his eye on the big picture of who’s hoarding and who really deserves the cash in question.
Related: The Forever Purge review – will this franchise ever end?