An Oscar-Winning Director Just Figured Out the Exact Right Way to Use James Corden

Now that he’s out of the talk show business, James Corden is free to act in as many movies as he wants, provided that they don’t conflict with his “screaming at members of the service industry” schedule. 

But Corden doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to making feature films. He’s provided voice work for brainrot children’s movies like Smurfs, Peter Rabbit and The Emoji Movie and popped up in forgettable comedies such as Gulliver’s Travels and Ocean’s 8. Then, of course, there was Cats, which even without the CGI buttholes, was a complete trainwreck.

Corden’s filmography is so cursed, Wicked fans even launched a petition to keep him away from the recent movie adaptation, which perhaps not-so-coincidentally, went on to become a massive box office hit. But now one person has figured out how to make a movie with Corden that doesn’t suck: Steven Soderbergh, the acclaimed director of Sex, Lies and Videotape, Traffic and, of course, Magic Mike.

Soderbergh’s newest film, The Christophers, just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s a fun, but modest, character-driven dramedy about an art forger (played by Michaela Coel) who is hired to fraudulently complete a series of unfinished, potentially highly-valuable works by a legendary painter (Corden’s fellow Cats cast member Sir Ian McKellen). The architects of this con are his son and daughter played by Corden and Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning, who are hoping for a major payday when their famous dad kicks the bucket. 

Most of the film is a back-and-forth between Coel and McKellan. Gunning and Corden are deployed sparingly to great effect. In a later scene, Corden gets one of the biggest laughs in the movie, presumably even from audience members who couldn’t stand watching him stop traffic to thrust his pelvis at drivers while belting out the Cinderella soundtrack. 

Why does Corden work well here when his other performances have proven to be the equivalent of cinematic poison? 

Well, in addition to the fact that his screentime is kept to a minimum, Corden’s character is an entitled, petty, two-faced lout. In real life, Corden has faced multiple allegations of being a major jerk, arguably making it pretty tough to see him play down-to-earth good guys, or voice one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature.

But Soderbergh has finally given Corden a role that actually seems to reflect the Corden that we’ve all heard about in online anecdotes, rather than the one who’s friendly and affable to celebrities on TV. Sure we cringe a little bit every time we see him on screen in The Christophers, but this time, that’s the point.