‘Full Circle’ Review: Steven Soderbergh Sustains His Hot Streak on Max
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At a time when overall deals are getting the side-eye, no disapproving stares need be sent toward Steven Soderbergh. The Oscar- and Emmy-winning director signed a three-year deal with WarnerMedia in 2020, when Max was still HBO Max and HBO still had exclusive rights to its original library, and he’s continue to deliver throughout the streamer’s tumultuous transition — one film per year, including the third in his trilogy with Channing Tatum (“Magic Mike’s Last Dance”), a buzzy thriller starring Zoë Kravitz (“Kimi”), and a little movie featuring the one-and-only Meryl Streep (“Let Them All Talk”). (Not to mention my favorite of the lot: the sneaky meta, smartly stylish, “Friends of Eddie Coyle” riff, “No Sudden Move.”)
For an artist who once thought he was done with filmmaking for good, Soderbergh has become the portrait of reliability. People can quibble over quality — none of his films have garnered the awards attention seen in his early career or the critical adoration of, say, HBO’s “Behind the Candelabra” — but he’s produced thoughtful stories, filled with stars, that carry the director’s trademark visual curiosity. He’s doing exactly what he was hired to do, and better yet, his work never feels like there’s a hired-hand behind it.
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Enter “Full Circle,” a six-part limited series directed entirely by Soderbergh and written in full by his recurring collaborator Ed Solomon (“No Sudden Move,” “Mosaic”). The slow-developing ensemble thriller centers on a kidnapping near Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, yet expands to include such disparate groups as Guyanese migrants and U.S. Postal Inspectors. Some of these details come to feel like red herrings: The postal employee (played by Zazie Beetz) functions exactly like a cop, but rather than write her as a cop, Solomon’s slight tweak to a familiar archetype helps throw the audience off the scent, delaying the seemingly distinct storylines’ inevitable connections. Certain viewers may lose patience with these early obfuscations, but you’ll know if you’re in or out on “Full Circle” as soon as the first episode’s closing twist hits. One simple, purposeful pivot can have quite the domino effect, especially in a series about how so many of our choices impact so many people outside our immediate circle.
With considered decision-making very much in mind, let’s start where “Full Circle” starts: the titular circle. CCH Pounder plays Savitri Mahabir, a grieving sister (and minor mafia leader in Queens) whose brother was just killed and robbed. Convinced his death is signal of bad luck befalling her family, Mahabir enlists help from her Guyanese elders to break the curse and set things right. The plan involves, yes, an actual circle (both spread outside in chalk and scattered on paper with rice) — but really it requires doing a favor for a person she’s wronged, and the favor requires exacting vengeance on a separate family who wronged that person. So Mahabir calls upon her nephew, Aked (Jharrel Jerome) and his friends to help out. Lately, they’ve been running their own hustle (all at the behest of Auntie M), which involves, well, let’s leave that part out.
Aked’s friends have no idea what they’ve signed up for. Xavier (Sheyi Cole) and Louis (Gerald Jones) are just two bored teens, living in Guyana, who want to visit America. Louis’ sister, Natalia (Adia), is already there, making money as Aunt Mahabir’s masseuse-in-training and engaged to Aked (who often calls her his fiancé, but rarely does she appear excited to spend her life with the emotionally erratic young man). Only after the boys arrive and discover how they’re expected to pay back their passage to the United States do they start to realize just how dangerous the Mahabir family can be.
Sam (Claire Danes) and Derek (Timothy Olyphant) have never heard of the Mahabirs, nor would they be able to identify any of them if the crossed paths on the subway — just kidding, Sam and Derek don’t ride the subway. The married couple works for Sam’s dad, Jeff (Dennis Quaid), a celebrity chef (dubbed “Chef Jeff,” in what I hope is a nod to “The Bear”), who’s built a culinary empire despite having the worst ponytail this side of “The Idol.” Their marinara sauce pays the mortgage on a colossal, recently remodeled condo in lower Manhattan, but they still try to impart down-to-earth values in their son, Jared (Ethan Stoddard). But over the last few weeks, a hoodie, his cell phone, and other odds and ends have disappeared, which Derek is quick to chalk up to the casual disregard of a spoiled teen.
There may be a bit more to it than that, but sharing any further would verge on spoiler territory. “Full Circle” can’t be ruined by spotting the puzzle pieces ahead of time — unless you’re incapable of appreciating Soderbergh’s lean-and-mean shooting style, filled with decadent natural lighting and more real locations than even a lifelong New Yorker could count — but it does deploy plot points with intention. Some turns tease how one character may run into the next. Others make you reconsider what show you think you’re watching. Still more emphasize thematic ties, including generational responsibility (and culpability), global vs. local communities, and the blind reach of capitalism.
Throughout, Soderbergh and Solomon rarely let the momentum lag. Whether they’re moving from character to character or balancing suspense and action, “Full Circle” thrives on efficiency. Episodes run only as long as required. (Four of the six land somewhere between 50 and 57 minutes, while the other two clock in under 40.) Information is disseminated at a steady drip — even when the exposition hits, it’s typically necessary or curtailed — and the starry cast isn’t chewing scenery. The Summer of Olyphant gets off to a good start with the “Justified” lead playing a panicked, knocked-back father. Jerome has his own solid summer streak going between this and “I’m a Virgo.” Danes lends her raw conviction to a character who grows more complicated every hour. Beetz is refreshing, if somewhat hobbled by the script, since her not-a-cop cop only starts clicking in the second half. Even Pounder, who’s handed a role that could’ve easily gone off the rails, keeps her hex-averse mob boss grounded.
“Full Circle” tends to paint its white protagonists in greater detail than its Black leads, and the ending examines the former’s guilt more than the latter’s reality. The last episode also swaps the series’ propulsive tension for a somewhat subdued evaluation — all its forward movement strategically downshifts into a question of how to move forward. But there’s a surprising level of emotion evoked in these final scenes, which lends the tight little thriller a greater resonance than something simply concocted as an entertaining distraction. “Full Circle” may not return Soderbergh (or his fans) to the glories of yesteryear; it’s not as ambitious as “The Knick” or crowd-pleasing as “Erin Brockovich,” “Logan Lucky,” or the “Ocean’s” movies. But it’s not trying to be. Taken as a creative twist on a tried-and-true format, it balances the experimental and the satisfying in a way TV should strive for more often, especially in an era when filmmakers are being asked to create content. If you’re going to churn out stories for streaming, you may as well maintain your artistic credibility.
Grade: B+
“Full Circle” premieres Thursday, July 13 with two episodes on Max. Two new episodes will be released each week through the finale on July 27.
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