Christophers, The (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Steven SoderberghRelease Date(s)
2026 (July 14, 2026)Studio(s)
Department M/Butler & Sklar Productions (Neon/Decal Releasing)- Film/Program Grade: A
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: C
Review
Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers (written by Ed Solomon) is a smart little chamber play focused on art restorationist Lori Butler (Michaela Coel) who is given the opportunity to get revenge of sorts on one of her artistic heroes turned nemesis. Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) is a famous artist on his last days, no longer painting and instead, whiling away his days recording passive aggressive Cameo videos. Julian’s past work has gained a bit of juice and his two children, Sallie (Jessica Gunning) and Barnaby (James Corden), hire Lori to work as his assistant knowing both her skill at replicating Julian’s work and hating him for a past action he committed against her. While posing as his assistant, Lori will secretly be forging a set of unfinished paintings hidden away in Julien’s home studio. Except something happens between Lori and Julien turning that plan on its head. There are enough twists and turns in this small film that frankly puts the Ocean’s Trilogy to shame. What starts as a tale of revenge ends up being a story about grace, redemption and the power of forgiveness. It’s a very emotionally satisfying film and a showcase of the talents of Coel and McKellen.
The video presentation is an AVC encoded 1080/24p at 1:85:1 and looks exactly like a Steven Soderbergh movie. Detail is nice, colors are spot on and there’s a somewhat dreamy quality with a soft background focus. Audio is a choice between Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Atmos 7.1 (and a gentle stereo English audio description track). All sound great with solid atmosphere and clear dialogue—important for a film focused on people talking. There’s also subtitles in English, French and Spanish.
Extras include an autoplay trailer for I Love Boosters, Conversation with Ed Solomon and Charlie Kaufman—a promotional two-minute except from a staged conversation that happened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025, that I’m guessing Neon originally used for social media and the film’s trailer. I wish there were more. This is one of Soderbergh’s better films of the last few years. Maybe there will be a better (-cough- Criterion -cough-) edition down the road.
- Todd Doogan