Steven Soderbergh is the brains behind the intense, edge-of-your-seat new psychological thriller Unsane, featuring The Crown’s Claire Foy as a woman held in a psychiatric facility against her will.

But this is by no means Soderbergh’s first time at the rodeo. The American director has been an active player in the Hollywood scene since the ‘80s, with an oeuvre including critically-acclaimed titles like Erin Brockovich, Magic Mike and The Ocean’s Trilogy – all of which deserve a re-visit ahead of Unsane’s Australian release later this month.

Soderbergh’s directorial credits number well into the thirties. Here’s a handy guide to his most iconic works.

‘Sex, Lies, And Videotape’ (1989)

Soderbergh’s feature film directorial debut popped off at the Cannes Film Festival 1989 – it won awards for Best Picture and Best Actor. Starring certified ‘80s babe Andie MacDowell and a very young Peter Gallagher (AKA Sandy from The O.C), this indie hit depicts a troubled man (James Spader) taping women as they divulge their secrets.

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‘Kafka’ (1991)

Kafka marks the first of many plot twists in Soderbergh’s career. As a highly stylised, OTT psychological thriller shot entirely in black and white, the film is an obvious departure from everything audiences and critics loved about Sex, Lies and Videotape but equally as watchable. Jeremy Irons plays Kafka, an insurance clerk in Prague who finds himself entwined in a murder mystery.

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‘Erin Brockovich’ (2000)

This film follows the true story of a tough-as-nails legal clerk (played by a fabulously clad Julia Roberts) who pulls together a gigantic lawsuit (like, US$ 333 million big) against a corporation over contaminated water.

Julia Roberts went on to win an Oscar award for Best Actress, and Soderbergh cemented his reputation as a whip-smart director with an eye for telling innately human stories with the right amount of heart. As much as this film is about a legal battle, it’s about an infinitely likeable young mum fighting for what’s right – and the audience backs her the whole way.

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‘Traffic’ (2000)

Another break in Soderbergh’s mould is this contemporary crime thriller that revolves around the various aspects of the drug trafficking industry. Featuring a cast of late ‘90s-early 2000s ‘it’ actors like Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta Jones and Salma Hayak, Traffic is Soderbergh’s foray into the world of gritty cinema.

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‘Ocean’s Eleven’ (2001), ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ (2004) And ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ (2007)

Fun, frivolous and oozing with style, all three comedy-heist films in the Ocean’s Trilogy are hell-bent on making audiences smile more or less the entire way through.

What these films lack in female representation, they make up for in sparks-flying chemistry between their ensemble cast, a healthy dose of cheek, and a near-always eating Brad Pitt, who coincidentally (and inexplicably) understands Mandarin perfectly. We love you, always-eating Brad Pitt.

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‘Che: Part One’ and ‘Che: Part Two’ (2008)

Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro reunite for this unconventional biopic that documents the final years of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara’s life in Bolivia. Soderbergh tells the story over two parts, each based on the writings of the revolutionary himself. The films have rightly earned the reputation of an epic –they’re the go-to reference for anyone who wants to learn about Guevara but doesn’t know where to start.

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‘The Informant!’ (2009)

A mustached Matt Damon plays the titular Informant, who blows the whistle on a price-fixing scandal organised by a large American food company in the mid-‘90s. Once again, Soderbergh shows his deft handling of wry comedy, and an ability to package up a complex subject in an approachable, unserious way.

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‘Magic Mike’ (2012)

The surprises keep coming in Soderbergh’s lengthy career. In this one, Channing Tatum plays Magic Mike, an affable, Tampa-based male stripper with aspirations of making furniture. Matthew McConaughey joins in on the (invariably shirtless) fun. This film is different not just tonally, but stylistically, too – but that’s almost to be expected from Soderbergh, difficult as he is to pin down. Our advice? Don’t overthink it. Unless you’re thinking about Channing Tatum’s abs.

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‘Logan Lucky’ (2017)

A heist film with a difference, based on a screenplay that brought Soderbergh out of early retirement. Logan Lucky tells the story of Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum, again), his handless brother (Adam Driver) and a shaky get-rich-quick plan, helmed by a peroxide blonde Daniel Craig as Joe Bang. What could possibly go wrong?

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‘Unsane’ (2018)

Following the break-out success of psychological thrillers like Get Out and A Quiet Place comes Soderbergh’s latest offering, Unsane. It stars The Crown’s Claire Foy as a woman involuntarily placed in a psychiatric institution only to face her greatest fear: a man who has been stalking her for two years. As the narrative unfolds, the audience is unsure whether the stalker is real or a product of delusion, and in true Soderbergh fashion, is left questioning perceptions of reality.

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(Lead image: Unsane/20th Century Fox)

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Don’t miss Unsane, the heart-pounding new psychological thriller from Steven Soderbergh. In cinemas April 25.