Steven Soderbergh

KIMI: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK

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Photo caption: Zoe Kravitz in KIMI. Courtesy of HBO.

Steven Soderbergh is very good at making tight little thrillers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In his Kimi, Angela (Zoe Kravitz) is a Seattle techie living and working in her loft apartment during the COVID lockdown, where she and the loft apartment dwellers across the street watch each other being locked down. But she’s not really trapped in her apartment by public health protocols, which have eased – she’s agoraphobic.

Angela works for a big, sinister tech firm that harvesting way too much private information from each of us and that is the basis for the paranoid facet of this paranoid thriller. She believes that she has heard a violent crime, as in an audio version of Rear Window. Now she knows too much, and she’s in danger.

Kimi is an okay paranoid thriller until the finale, when it turns into a superb action movie. It turns out that the tiny, sniveling Angela has some commando resourcefulness in her. The final set piece is like Wait Until Dark on steroids – very tight, very imaginative and very entertaining.

Kimi is streaming on HBO MAX.

NO SUDDEN MOVE: more double crosses than movie stars

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Don Cheadle in NO SUDDEN MOVE. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

Double crosses abound in Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller No Sudden Move. Here’s all you need to know about the story – two Detroit hoods, Curt (Don Cheadle) and Ronald (Benicio Del Toro) are hired for a one-time job. They are being substantially overpaid for the job, which means that they might be getting set up…

The plot contains more betrayals than movie stars, and No Sudden Move is star-studded – Cheadle, Del Toro, Matt Damon, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Bill Duke, David Harbour and a very, very fleshy Brendan Fraser. Amy Seimetz, the noted indie director of Sun Don’t Shine and She Dies Tomorrow. is in here, too.

Soderbergh relishes genre movies, and here he delivers a satisfying thriller. There have been comments about the plot being challenging to follow, but I didn’t have a problem keeping the twists coherent. One of the persistent themes in film noir and neo-noir is the riskiness of overreaching – and No Sudden Move is instructive about settling for one’s share.

No Sudden Move is streaming on HBO Max.

Behind the Candelabra: when sugar daddy is a queen

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BEHIND THE CANDELABRA

HBO’s Behind the Candelabra is the well-worn story of a rich older guy and his pretty young thing – except the rich older guy is Liberace.  Michael Douglas (of all people) completely inhabits the character of Liberace, nailing his every mannerism of speech and gesture and delving deeply into his ego, neediness, self-absorption and genius for showmanship.  Matt Damon (of all people) enthusiastically and skillfully plays Scott Thorson, Liberace’s boy toy of the late 1970s.

We have all seen the arc of this story before, with the relationship doomed by the power imbalance between the lovers.   Of course, this is the story of a celebrity who was tightly closeted while he was intentionally projecting the persona of a flaming queen.  And because Liberace was the Emperor of Excess, we don’t get often a chance to witness such extravagance (except for historical movies about Louis’ Versailles, Cleopatra’s Egypt, etc.).

Steven Soderbergh directed Behind the Candelabra in the smart and economical way he uses to elevate genre films like Side Effects, Haywire and Magic Mike.  Rob Lowe is hilarious as a 70s Dr. Feelgood plastic surgeon to the stars.

There’s not that much to Behind the Candelabra, but it is entertaining.  If you were missing Liberace, Michael Douglas definitely brings him back to life. 

DVD/Stream of the Week: Side Effects

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Jude Law in SIDE EFFECTS

Side Effects is a psychological thriller that keeps thriller-lovers on the their toes by constantly changing its focus.  First one character is on the verge of falling apart, then another and then another.  Initially, we think that the story is about mental illness and prescription psych meds, but then it evolves into something else quite different.   The plot might have seemed implausible in the hands of a lesser director, but Steven Soderbergh pulls it off with panache.

Soderbergh got superb performances by his leads: Jude Law, Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Mara, so striking in The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, serves notice that she is a perfect fit for psychological dramas; she can turn  apparent fragility and unknowability into menace like few other film actresses.  And few actors can take a character from charming confidence to a desperate meltdown like Law does here.  Zeta-Jones shows that she play a frigid mistress of the universe who is passionate and needy underneath.  The supporting players are all perfectly cast.

The insistent music by Thomas Newman, while never obvious, is an integral part of the suspense.  Soderbergh, a master who has repeatedly elevated genre films, has another winner in Side Effects.

Side Effects is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Vudu,YouTube and GooglePlay.

Side Effects: a thriller for thriller-lovers

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Side Effects is a psychological thriller that keeps thriller-lovers on the their toes by constantly changing its focus.  First one character is on the verge of falling apart, then another and then another.  Initially, we think that the story is about mental illness and prescription psych meds, but then it evolves into something else quite different.   The plot might have seemed implausible in the hands of a lesser director, but Steven Soderbergh pulls it off with panache.

Soderbergh got superb performances by his leads: Jude Law, Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Mara, so striking in The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, serves notice that she is a perfect fit for psychological dramas; she can turn  apparent fragility and unknowability into menace like few other film actresses.  And few actors can take a character from charming confidence to a desperate meltdown like Law does here.  Zeta-Jones shows that she play a frigid mistress of the universe who is passionate and needy underneath.  The supporting players are all perfectly cast.

The insistent music by Thomas Newman, while never obvious, is an integral part of the suspense.  Soderbergh, a master who has repeatedly elevated genre films, has another winner in Side Effects.

Magic Mike: male strippers, no magic

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MAGIC MIKE

Magic Mike is about watching male strippers, period.  There are a couple lame plot threads, but it’s about the stripping.  The star, Channing Tatum, is winning and impressively athletic.  Matthew McConaughey helps re-brand his career with a funny performance as a sleazeball strip club owner – and shows off his body, too.

Director Steven Soderbergh is known for his prestige pictures but still relishes making B movies.  Good for him – he brought something special to the B picture Haywire last year (which co-starred Tatum).  But there’s no magic in Magic Mike.  And, at 110 minutes, it’s too long.

DVD of the Week: Haywire

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One of the first 2012 releases, Haywire is a rockem sockem spy action thriller by Steven Soderbergh, starring Gina Carano.  I was not familiar with Gina Carano, who is an accomplished star of mixed martial arts.  Haywire is a vehicle seeking to launch her as an action film star.  And why not, for she is attractive (with “real girl”, not Hollywood, looks), well-endowed and can kick ass?  She can, after all, kick ass for real, not just pretend to in a movie.

As an actor, Carano is plenty good enough.  She’s way better than Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan and the Rock, and is at least as good as Schwarzenegger.  And, when she beats up a swat team, it is believable (and fun).

Soderbergh is always interesting, as he moves between high brow/arty (sex lies and videotape, The Good German) and lowbrow/popular (Ocean’s Twelve, Contagion).  Here he takes an inexperienced leading woman and an unremarkable story and makes the most of it.  It’s a good watch.

Soderbergh delivers fast pacing and great locations (Barcelona, Dublin, New Mexico).  Soderbergh and Carano benefit from a top rate cast:  Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Angarano and Bill Paxton.  Overall, it’s good entertainment and, for once,  I’m actually looking forward to the sequels.

Haywire: an action star is born

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One of the first 2012 releases, Haywire is a rockem sockem spy action thriller by Steven Soderbergh, starring Gina Carano.  I was not familiar with Gina Carano, who is an accomplished star of mixed martial arts.  Haywire is a vehicle seeking to launch her as an action film star.  And why not, for she is attractive (with “real girl”, not Hollywood, looks), well-endowed and can kick ass?  She can, after all, kick ass for real, not just pretend to in a movie.

As an actor, Carano is plenty good enough.  She’s way better than Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan and the Rock, and is at least as good as Schwarzenegger.  And, when she beats up a swat team, it is believable (and fun).

Soderbergh is always interesting, as he moves between high brow/arty (sex lies and videotape, The Good German) and lowbrow/popular (Ocean’s Twelve, Contagion).  Here he takes an inexperienced leading woman and an unremarkable story and makes the most of it.  It’s a good watch.

Soderbergh delivers fast pacing and great locations (Barcelona, Dublin, New Mexico).  Soderbergh and Carano benefit from a top rate cast:  Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Angarano and Bill Paxton.  Overall, it’s good entertainment and, for once,  I’m actually looking forward to the sequels.