(Credit: Netflix)

Steven Soderbergh is the kind of director who does not wait for permission. He jumps from genre to genre, switches between big-budget and indie, and still makes it look effortless. His style is precise, experimental, and often full of dry humour. One minute, he is making a glossy heist film. Next, he is building a financial satire from spreadsheets and monologues. And somehow, it all works.

What makes Soderbergh stand out is not just his range but his attitude. He does not aim to impress. He directs to explore. Whether it is the moral greyness of corporate law, the high-wire tension of a robbery, or the quiet resilience of a single mother fighting a system, his stories are always grounded in human detail. He understands people even when they are ridiculous, broken, or in over their heads.

Netflix currently hosts some of its best work. These are not just “great films”; they are wildly different from one another. Yet they all carry his fingerprints: crisp editing, smart dialogue, and an eye for performance. If you are new to his work, this is the perfect starter pack. But if you are already a fan, this is your excuse to revisit the magic.

Here are five must-watch Steven Soderbergh films available right now on Netflix, each one offering something different from the last.

Five Steven Soderbergh movies to watch on Netflix

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Before the heists, there was Erin Brockovich. Julia Roberts delivers a career-best performance in this based-on-a-true-story drama about a legal assistant taking on a major energy corporation. Soderbergh strips the story of courtroom theatrics. Instead, he focuses on small details like phone calls, water samples, and handwritten notes. The result is a grounded, gripping film that builds tension through persistence, not spectacle.

This is where Steven Soderbergh shows his range. He gives space to every emotion, every frustration. Erin is not a perfect hero. She is messy, loud, and relentless. But the film treats her with respect. There is no over-the-top speech, no big courtroom moment. Just hard work, community pain, and a woman refusing to be ignored. It is quietly radical.

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

This is the film that redefined the modern heist genre. Ocean’s Eleven is extremely slick, stylish, and endlessly rewatchable. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon lead a cast that feels like a dream team. But the real mastermind here is Soderbergh. He takes a simple premise of robbing three Las Vegas casinos at once and turns it into pure entertainment. Everything about it is smooth. The editing, the pacing, the tension: it all clicks.

What sets the film apart is that it never tries too hard. It knows it is cool but never smug. The characters are clever without being caricatures. The plan is elaborate but never confusing. It is fun without being dumb. That balance is hard to pull off, and Soderbergh makes it look easy. Two decades later, Ocean’s Eleven still holds up, not just as a caper but as one of the smartest studio crowd-pleasers of the 2000s.

Ocean’s Twelve (2004)

Instead of trying to top the first film’s plot, Soderbergh decided to go meta. Ocean’s Twelve is riskier and far more playful than people expected. The crew heads to Europe to face off against a rival thief, and everything becomes looser, be it the timeline, the structure or even the tone. There is a subplot where Julia Roberts’ character pretends to be Julia Roberts. It should not work, but somehow it does.

This film is not about the heist. It is about the performers having fun with the genre. The story bends just enough to surprise you, while the energy stays light and self-aware. It is less about tension and more about style. If Ocean’s Eleven was a sharp suit, Twelve is a patterned scarf.

Logan Lucky (2017)

Soderbergh returned to the heist genre with Logan Lucky, but this time he traded the polished suits of Las Vegas for muddy boots and NASCAR. The story follows two brothers played by Channing Tatum and Adam Driver, who plan to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during a major race. It is a blue-collar heist with duct-tape solutions and small-town logic, but it is every bit as clever as Ocean’s Eleven.

What makes this film stand out is how grounded it feels. The characters are not slick professionals. They are underdogs with nothing to lose and everything to prove. Daniel Craig, playing a bleach-blond explosives expert named Joe Bang, is a scene-stealer. Logan Lucky is funny without being silly and smart without being smug. Soderbergh calls it an “anti-glamour” heist, and it delivers on every count.

The Laundromat (2019)

This one is stranger, bolder, and more experimental than anything else on this list. The Laundromat tells the story of the Panama Papers, the global financial leak that exposed how the rich and powerful hide their money. But instead of a dry documentary-style approach, Soderbergh turns it into a dark comedy starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas.

The film breaks the fourth wall. It jumps between characters and continents. It is chaotic by design, and not everyone loves it. But that is what makes it so interesting. Steven Soderbergh is not afraid to take risks, even when the subject is complicated. He turns tax havens and shell companies into punchlines until you realise the punchline is on us.