Steven Soderbergh has reached a fascinating point in his career where the question is no longer whether his next movie will be good, but whether it’ll be memorable enough to stand apart from the dozen other good movies he’s made over the last decade.
His output is so prolific, and his baseline level of craftsmanship so consistently high, that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to let each individual film breathe before the next one arrives. That’s a pretty enviable problem to have, all things considered. Even a middling Soderbergh picture is usually more interesting than most filmmakers’ best work. The Christophers isn’t among his all-time greats, but it’s the first film since at least Magic Mike’s Last Dance where I genuinely felt him having fun again.
His latest conceit is wonderfully cynical. As renowned artist Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) nears the end of his life, his estranged children (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) hatch a plan to maximize their inheritance. They hire talented art forger Lori (Michaela Coel) to secretly complete Julian’s unfinished series of paintings so they can later be “discovered” and sold for an enormous profit following his death. Naturally, the scheme becomes considerably more complicated once Lori actually begins spending time with the notoriously difficult artist she’s been sent to deceive.
It’s fertile ground for Soderbergh, who has always excelled at stories built around morally compromised people navigating increasingly messy situations. More importantly, it gives him far more thematic material to chew on than some of his recent work. Watching Presence, I often felt the first-person perspective functioned primarily as a gimmick to compensate for a story that didn’t have much new to say. Here, the filmmaking feels motivated by ideas rather than formal experimentation.
That starts with Michaela Coel, who I liked considerably more here than I did in Mother Mary earlier this year. Soderbergh understands exactly where her strengths as a performer lie. Lori initially presents herself as a quiet professional simply taking another job, but Coel gradually peels back layers of uncertainty, guilt, ambition, and resentment as her relationship with Julian evolves. There’s a subtle “wolf in sheep’s clothing” quality to much of her first-half performance, where you’re constantly questioning who she’s manipulating and whether she’s beginning to believe her own deception. As the film progresses and loyalties begin shifting, Coel effortlessly navigates those changing motivations without ever making Lori feel inconsistent.
Her scenes with Ian McKellen are easily the heart of the movie. McKellen gives Julian the sort of prickly rigidity that great artists in movies often possess. He’s brilliant, defensive, frequently insufferable, and deeply aware that the people surrounding him are already calculating what his work will be worth after he’s gone. Public scandals have tarnished his reputation, his family has largely abandoned him emotionally, and his relationship with Lori begins as little more than mutual suspicion. Watching that dynamic slowly evolve into something resembling respect becomes the film’s greatest pleasure.
Soderbergh wisely lets those conversations breathe, trusting two exceptional actors to carry scenes that are often little more than people discussing art, legacy, and mortality.
By the time the third act arrives, The Christophers reveals itself to be something considerably sweeter than its premise initially suggests. Without spoiling where it goes, Soderbergh constructs one of the strongest endings he’s directed this decade, transforming what begins as a darkly comic story about exploiting an artist’s death into a surprisingly moving reflection on artistic creation itself. It’s an ode to the work people leave behind and the complicated relationships between artists and those who inherit their legacies, and I found it considerably more affecting than I expected.
David Holmes deserves plenty of credit as well. His score gives the film a breezy energy that keeps even its heavier conversations feeling nimble. Combined with Soderbergh’s typically efficient direction, the movie maintains a lightness that never undermines its more serious ideas. Casting Jessica Gunning and James Corden as Julian’s opportunistic children also helps reinforce that balancing act. Their characters are unquestionably self-serving, but there’s enough humor surrounding them that the film never collapses under the weight of its own cynicism.
If I have any real criticism, it’s less about The Christophers itself and more about where it exists within Soderbergh’s filmography.
This is the director of Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, the Ocean’s trilogy, The Limey, sex, lies, and videotape, and Logan Lucky. The standard is absurdly high. As much as I enjoyed this film, it still feels like another very good Soderbergh movie rather than one destined to sit alongside his very best work.
I also wonder if the sheer pace at which he makes movies occasionally works against him. Every new release seems to arrive before audiences have fully processed the previous one. It’s not unlike watching an actor deliver three excellent performances in a single year. At some point, they begin competing with one another for your attention rather than standing on their own merits. I certainly don’t want Soderbergh to slow down – few filmmakers working today are this consistently reliable – but I do think some of these movies deserve a little more room to breathe before the next one inevitably arrives.
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That’s about as significant a complaint as I can muster. The Christophers may not rank among Steven Soderbergh’s defining achievements, but it reminded me why his baseline remains so much higher than almost everyone else’s. It’s sharp, funny, surprisingly heartfelt, and has more to say about artistry, legacy, and the people who profit from both than most films on the subject ever attempt. Calling it “just another Soderbergh movie” sounds dismissive, but in practice, that’s still one of the stronger endorsements I can give.
Score: 7/10
The Christophers (2026)
- Cast: Michaela Coel, Ian McKellen, Jessica Gunning, James Corden
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
- Runtime: 100 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: April 10, 2026
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