Showing posts with label Steven Soderbergh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steven Soderbergh. Show all posts

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Side Effects

Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
2013. Rated R, 106 minutes.
Cast:

Vinessa Shaw
Ann Dowd
Polly Draper
David Costabile
Mamie Gummer


Having most recently tackled the super secret agent flick (Haywire) and the stripper movie (Magic Mike), director Steven Soderbergh now wrestles with the psychological/medical thriller. That means someone ends up dead fairly early. We know who did it. We just have to figure out the how, the why and if the person who did it is ultimately responsible. That who is Emily (Mara). She has been holding down the fort while waiting for her husband Martin (Tatum) to come home from prison after being convicted of insider trading. For her, this is even tougher than it is most in a similar situation because she suffers from severe depression. As one person puts it, she’s been putting on a brave face. However, shortly after Martin gets out she starts having dangerous episodes. The first of which, purposely ramming her car into a brick wall, puts her under the care of Dr. Jonathan Banks (Law). He prescribes her some medication and that’s when all the fun begins: more suicide attempts, some hardcore sleepwalking and, ultimately, murder.

The good doctor seems most affected by all the goings on. Since the case involves a brand spanking new and very high profile drug, he’s constantly hounded by the media. He loses his practice and is in the midst of losing his family as some very ugly things about his past begin to surface. Maintaining they’re not true, he sets out to expose the truth. Jude Law handles the role solidly, if unspectacularly. Of similar caliber in performance is Catherine Zeta-Jones as Dr. Victoria Siebert, Emily’s former shrink. She lets her ‘look at me, I’m smart’ glasses and vividly painted lips do most of the heavy lifting. Tatum, now a Soderbergh regular, doesn’t have much to do until it’s decided he can’t have anything to do at all. Hint.


The shining star is leading lady Rooney Mara. As with her outstanding turn in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she gives us a thoroughly damaged young woman. Like the people in the movie, it takes a long while to figure out if she’s a victim or creator of her circumstances. Is she possibly both? Mara wrings every ounce of emotion she can from the character keeping us on our toes.

Of course, Mara is greatly aided by Soderbergh. The man simply makes beautiful looking movies. Side Effects is no exception. It’s filled with both subtle and bold touches that congeal into exquisite frames. Unfortunately, the story eventually reveals itself to be too generic for him to elevate to greatness. We figure things out too soon because it feels like any number of Basic Instinct clones. The two things that might be considered twists are hardly unexpected. Still, the director’s craftsmanship and the star turn by Mara make for a good first hour or so. After that it devolves into too familiar territory.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Magic Mike

Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
2012. Rated R, 110 minutes.
Cast:
Alex Pettyfer
Cody Horn
Olivia Munn
Matt Bomer
Joe Manganiello
Adam Rodriguez
Kevin Nash
Gabriel Iglesias


Meet Magic Mike (Tatum). He’s a different kind of magician. He makes most of his clothing disappear. That’s just my convoluted way of saying Mike is a male stripper. Let’s get the most important piece of information out of the way first for any curious ladies, or guys, out there: we do not get to see Magic Mike’s magic mike. Sorry. Or, thank goodness, depending on your particular point of view. Someone else’s is momentarily on display, but presented in a decidedly non-erotic manner. As a consolation for any misguided hopes, or confirmation of any suspicions, there are plenty of beefy, oily, hairless guys in thongs. Yay for you. Well, a little more than half of you.

Even though flesh is the main selling point, it’s only a part of what Magic Mike has to offer. It’s not a sprawling sexually charged epic like Boogie Nights. However, like that movie, MM realizes that while people come for the carnal pleasures, pun not intended, they stay for the stories built around the decadence.

The story here starts with Mike. He’s not only a stripper, he’s an entrepreneur as he’s quick to tell people. He also dabbles in roofing and auto-detailing. What he really wants to do is get his hand-crafted, custom design furniture business off the ground. After a couple chance meetings with directionless 19 year old Adam (Pettyfer), Mike finds himself with a protégé. Of course, boys will be boys. This gives us most of our theatrics and dramatics. Adam lives with his ever-so-slightly older sister Brooke (Horn). Pretty much from the moment they meet, she and Mike have this opposites attract thing going on, providing the romance for our tale.



Supplying our comic relief, of both the homoerotic and hetero-sleazy persuasions, is strip club owner Dallas, played by a magnetic Matthew McConaughey. He dominates every scene in which he appears with a deliciously over the top performance. Since MM is a popcorn flick about strippers that was released during the summer, he probably won’t get the kudos he deserves for giving one of 2012’s most enjoyable performances. True, it has none of the subtle nuances we movie buff types batter our keyboards to produce loving prose for. He reveals almost nothing of the inner-workings of the man he’s playing. On the other hand, his bombastic façade overwhelms us. We simply cannot take our eyes off him whether we’re attracted to or repulsed by his greasy pecs.

The rest of the cast is solid, for the most part. Tatum is in his element as a street savvy, urban/suburban white guy who can really, really dance. In fact, the movie is inspired by his real life experience as a young stripper. Olivia Munn is surprisingly good as the party girl who answers his booty calls. Pettyfer is okay as what amounts to an overgrown, ungrateful child. Horn is not so good as the over-protective big sis. Her chemistry with Tatum feels awkward and forced. The same goes for many of her line deliveries. We can tell she’s acting. That’s never a good thing. She’s not helped by the way the relationship between her character and Tatum’s is written. It never truly feels like a budding love affair. Instead, it’s like we’re watching two people whom we know, through our experiences with other movies, will inevitably wind up together because the script requires them to. It is so obvious I do not feel the need to say “Spoiler Alert.”

Fortunately, the lackluster love story is saved by the rest of the movie. The dynamics between the three male leads is lively and, eventually, contentious. MM has a nice flow to it when they are interacting with each other and the other strippers. The locker room talk snaps and the man-child antics mix with their stage routines to create hyperkinetic energy. Admittedly, these routines are a challenge to those of us who wouldn’t be caught dead in a club like the one these guys work in, but they’re still fun within the context of the movie. It’s too bad all that energy dissipates whenever we slog through the perfunctory romance. It also fizzles out a bit when it can’t decide if it wants to be a cautionary tale or not. I won’t spoil that part. Otherwise, it’s an entertaining flick that a lot of guys will refuse to watch.

MY SCORE: 7/10

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Contagion

Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
2011. Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.
Cast:
Laurence Fishburne
Kate Winslet
Matt Damon
Jude Law
Gwyneth Paltrow
Marion Cotillard
Sanaa Lathan
Anna Jacoby-Heron
John Hawkes
Stef Tovar
Grace Rex

Bryan Cranston

Elizabeth (Paltrow) returns home from a business trip to China feeling a bit under the weather. She gets worse over the next few days until she has an apparent seizure and dies. By the way, she infects her six year old son with the same mysterious ailment and he suffers the same fate. Miraculously, her husband Mitch (Damon) deosn’t get sick. Yes, this is explained. Very quickly we find out Elizabeth is one of many such cases occurring around the globe at a rapidly increasing rate. The Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization spring into action in hopes of creating a vaccine before much to the world’s population is wiped out.

A large part of the movie’s magic is derived from the combination of writing and acting. The dialogue is often clinical, filled with enough medical jargon to make your eyes glaze over. However, the cast still manages to convey both passion and compassion. This comes through most in the performance of Kate Winslet as Dr. Mears. Her character isn’t someone most of us want to hang out with. She’s pragmatic, aloof and occasionally blunt. On the other hand, we can tell that her caring runs deep. Though she may be the uncompromising face of some far away medical group to the other characters, we never see her that way. There’s also an angst-ridden portrayal by Matt Damon and a conflicted turn by Laurence Fishburne. All handle their roles quite well.


The dire tone and unsettling score add mightily to the proceedings. Along with most of the characters, the world itself seems to dread what the next day may bring. This aspect is enhanced by the trusty counter that pops up every now and again to tell us how many days we’re into this situation. By the way, we start on “Day 2,” which happens right before Thanksgiving. Talk about ruining the holidays.

Many so-called horror movies delight and/or disturb us with various methods of mutilating the human body. Others try to scare us with ghosts, goblins and other things that go bump in the night. Contagion does neither. In fact, it will never be found if you click the link to horror movies the next time you’re on Net Flix. However, that’s precisely what it is. And a darned good one. The secret to the frights it gives is we can envision it really happening. At various points in the not-so-distant past many thought the events depicted here were already happening. This is a movie that plays into our collective germophobia, using it to draw us to the edge of our seats.