i am watching every steven soderbergh film (and tv show) he has made, in order that he made them. i just finished sex, lies and videotape but unfortunately his follow up film kafka is not available and so i had to skip it. instead, i just watched king of the hill, a film i had never heard of until i collected all of soderbergh's work and was until recently also unavailable. thanks to the folks at the criterion collection who released this unheard of film. going into it i knew nothing about it, not the cast, not the story, nothing but that soderbergh was the director. just for curious minds i thought i should mention that this has nothing to do with the mike judge cartoon of the same name. this film is about a boy growing up in the 30's (?), he's poor but confident and no matter how bad things get he never accepts defeat and things do get pretty bad. it stars a few well known faces, including a really young and pudgy adrien brody and a lot of unknowns. the lead actor, just a kid at the time, is jesse bradford and he was fantastic. in fact all the acting was fantastic. as was the cinematography which looked unbelievable on the criterion blu ray. the editing was great, the script was well done, the tone of the piece was sublime and the story was interesting. this was a very well done movie. was it amazing? was it a hidden soderbergh masterpiece from his early days? was it truly original in its undertaking? the answer to all those questions is no. it was very good, very enjoyable (the runaway car sequence was a standout), very well made, very well shot, very well put together and pretty much a very well rounded film but it also isn't a film that i will rave about to people. it wasn't something i hadn't seen before, it wasn't unique in any fashion and it wasn't something that when it's over i want to watch right away nor is it something that i would run to tell people about. it most definitely was something i did not expect from soderbergh (especially coming so soon after sex and lies). there is nothing wrong with the film and it is a fun, funny, sad and ultimately uplifting film that is perfect for a rainy day. it is soderbergh's first studio film and i think he took advantage of what the studios had to offer when it came to sets, locations, production values. for his first studio picture he has made a 'nice' film that will be well received but in the end it won't be (and isn't) as well remembered as many of his other films, although, if my memory holds correct, it is probably better than some of them. production design: 9 out of 10 cinematography: 9 out of 10 re-playability: 7 out of 10 originality: 7 out of 10 costumes: 9 out of 10 directing: 9 out of 10 editing: 8 out of 10 acting: 8 out of 10 music: 8 out of 10 script: 8 out of 10 82/100