The corners of the screen almost fade out, as if we’re being asked to accentuate or highlight what’s happening in the middle.īut it’s on the periphery, just out of sight, where the real action is. The action on the edges is distorted-actors look skinnier and taller-but the focus in the middle of the screen often distracts from where the real action is, on the periphery. Steven Soderbergh directs a script by Ed Solomon, and it is times like these when I wish I had a better grasp on the technical side of filmmaking so I could better describe exactly what Soderbergh is getting at in his decision to employ an anamorphic lens in close up and medium shots that puts a literal bend in much of the action. Republicans are going to launch an impeachment inquiry against Biden to divert attention from the… And I haven’t even mentioned Amy Seimetz or Julia Fox or Frankie Shaw, the put-upon women forced to take matters into their own hands when the men in their respective lives turn out to be no good. The great Bill Duke brings a quiet forcefulness as a mob boss, while Ray Liotta gives us a look at what Henry Hill might have looked like if he’d made it to middle management. Fraser, doughy and rocking a fedora, occasionally feels as if he’s channeling the look, if not quite the vocal cadence, of Orson Welles in Touch of Evil. Cheadle plays Curt with a sort of low growl, while Del Toro slides comfortably back into the weary ennui of The Way of the Gun’s Longbaugh. More fun than the twists and turns of the plot is simply watching these actors work. What follows is an impressively curvy series of both occupational and sexual double crosses that culminates in an enormous amount of money changing hands, a bunch of people dying, and a handful of folks getting what they want. Indeed, it’s not even clear what any of these guys are actually trying to steal. They’ve been hired by Doug Jones (Brendan Fraser), though who Doug is working for-and who Doug’s boss is working for-is unclear. Ronald Russo (Benicio Del Toro) and Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) are hired along with Charley (Kieran Culkin) to watch the family of Matt Wertz (David Harbour) while he retrieves a document from a safe for the trio of hoods. These two ideas aren’t in tension-many, if not most, crime dramas highlight the ways in which the big guy is screwing the little guy-but they are fused in a slightly clumsy manner that marginally detracts from the film’s overall impact. On the other hand, No Sudden Move aspires to be something more, a searing look at the systems of power that demonstrates just how rigged the game that we’re all playing is. N o Sudden Move is, on the one hand, a very good crime drama, a darkly comic neo-noir capturing the corruption at the heart of modern suburban (and urban) life that uses its eclectic cast to electrifying effect.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |