Out Of Sight (1998) ****1/2
I love Steven Soderbergh's Out Of Sight (1998). I've always loved this film. It's my favorite Elmore Leonard adaptation. Along with Jackie Brown the year before it, OOS was responsible for my fascination with Leonard novels. I believe I saw 1995's Get Shorty prior to either of those films but it wasn't until JB and OOS that I really started paying attentions and then buying many of Leonard's books. (And wow—all three of those great Leonard adaptations arrived within a three-year span!)
GS is a fun one, and JB is a masterpiece in its own right because it manages to be both one of the best Leonard adaptations and still feel like a Quentin Tarantino film (it's my second favorite by him). But OOS is the most authentic Leonard adaptation, as if it's ripped straight from the pages of his 1996 novel (and really just perfectly captures that "Elmore Leonard feel").
OOS is effortlessly cool, charming, sexy, and stylish. Some of the filmmaking choices and techniques are decidedly 90s but I still love them. The cast is pitch perfect (and stacked!), down to the smallest parts. Every character feels lived in and has a personality, which is displayed onscreen with minimal dialogue and effort. Speaking of dialogue, Scott Frank's excellent script is firmly embedded in my brain, thanks in part to David Holmes' super sexy, slinky, and funky soundtrack (which also includes some tasty Jazz/Latin/Funk/Soul cuts), which features snippets of dialogue from the film. Due to many spins of said soundtrack (plus plenty of viewings of the film), I often quote lines from OOS to myself.
OOS has a lot of connections to the other two big 90s Leonard films mentioned earlier—by way of actors, characters, a writer and producers. It's interesting because it seems Get Shorty producers Barry Sonnenfeld (who also directed that film) and Danny DeVito (who also starred in that film) and writer Scott Frank were trying to recreate the success of that film, but when they served the same roles on Out Of Sight they ended up making an even better movie. I can only imagine that making this picture was an absolute blast.
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