Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Open Road Films
It would be easy to take a look at the director of one of the most outwardly steamy film franchises this century and think, “Ah, that guy knows a thing or two about sex!” With the Magic Mike films, Steven Soderbergh ignited an entire generation of horny moms, repressed gays, and good-time guys who just wanted to see a dramedy about hanging with your buds. It’s rare that film can traverse those three highly specific demographics, but that’s what happens when you harness the mesmerizing power of Channing Tatum’s rock-hard nipples.
But the Magic Mike trilogy was simply Soderbergh at his most overt. As a feature film director, Soderbergh has been dissecting sex and sexuality across his entire 34-year, storied filmography. Movies like Magic Mike XXL and 2009’s The Girlfriend Experience—starring pornstar turned actress Sasha Grey—explore sex on a fundamental level; what it means to have it, who wants it, and what they’ll do for it. But things haven’t always been that fundamental.
Side Effects—Soderbergh’s small 2013 thriller about a woman who kills her husband while in an antidepressant-induced sleepwalking haze—quietly meandered into theaters 10 years ago this week. And it toted plenty of unassumingly sexy baggage with it. The film had all of the trappings of a 1990s erotic thriller: Violent crimes of passion, sultry subterfuge, and plenty of twists.