The performance of labor and downward mobility in Steven Soderbergh’s recession trilogy (2009–2012): The Girlfriend Experience, Haywire, and Magic Mike

ABSTRACT

This essay argues that Steven Soderbergh’s 2009–2012 films – The Girlfriend Experience (2009), Haywire (2011) and Magic Mike (2012) – form a loose trilogy depicting the plight of the working class (or precariat) during the Great Recession Linking textual analysis to the economic downturn reveals Soderbergh’s significant critique about this period, ultimately causing him to announce his retirement. His protagonists’ predicaments are the same as contract workers in the new, neoliberal economy, including the creative class in conglomerate Hollywood.

KEYWORDS:

• Steven Soderbergh
• Great Recession
• film authorship
• precariat
• contemporary Hollywood

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For a full account of the ‘Indie Cinema’ phenomenon, consult Tzioumakis (2013), King (2005, 2009, 2014), Newman (2011), and Perren (2012), whom I will refer to throughout this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Colin Tait

Richard Colin Tait is a film and television historian and the author of De Niro’s Method: How Robert De Niro Reinvented Acting in the 1970s (UT Press, 2025). As a freelance writer, he published articles for The Los Angeles Review of Books, the History Daily podcast, and reviews for The Playlist. He is the co-author of The Cinema of Steven Soderbergh: Indie Sex, Corporate Lies, and Digital Videotape with Andrew deWaard for Wallflower/Columbia Press in 2013.