Steven Soderbergh, who has become admirably prolific in the age of streaming, is a director of paradox. He positions himself as a classical professional who can take on any subject and personalize it with his own style and range of obsessions. But, regardless of his manifest skills and pleasures, the quality of his work fluctuates widely, depending on his connection to the subject matter. Of all current Hollywood filmmakers, Soderbergh is the most physical, the one who comes the closest to the painterly ideal of touching the image. He has long been doing his own camera work (under the pseudonym of Peter Andrews) and also his own editing (as Mary Ann Bernard), and the way that he engages with his subject evokes a bodily music, something like dance--a cinematic swing.

Lady Gaga has announced a new album, and her first under her birth name -- well, almost. The singer debuted the news of a new record on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show Thursday. The LP, titled "Joanne," will come out Oct. 21 on Streamline/Interscope. The record is titled after Gaga's middle name (she was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), one she shares with her late aunt. Her family also owns the NYC Italian restaurant Joanne Trattoria.