The Observer.

Why are all these actors in this movie and what, exactly, is this other film trying to say?

We all get directed toward films by some mysterious through-line or just by chance. I found Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire” (2011) because I was researching spy and espionage films on Letterboxd, clearly my go-to thing this year. I like to go into a film knowing almost nothing about it and in the case of “Haywire” that was probably the best method or I wouldn’t have started it. I mean, that’s my guess about I would have done in a parallel world.

In that world I probably would have watched “Contagion,” a Soderbergh film shot after “Haywire” but premiering in the same year due to some issues with editing “Haywire.” (Probably a red flag.) That said, if you have the time, isn’t it always a good idea to at least sample something that Soderbergh has done, if for nothing else the surprise of it all (having your senses expand with his best work; having your forehead contract wondering why he made certain other lesser works)?

Soderbergh makes wild, unpredictable career decisions and stylistic choices. There’s a long enough track record now that it’s worth following behind him, picking through the wreckage of those decisions.

The mind reels…