And now, for the other Steven Soderbergh feature from this year, and indeed my last proper review of 2021. After how far outside the margins he went with Let Them All Talk, I’ll admit to being somewhat relieved that we’re back in more familiar territory this time around. A crime drama set in mid-‘50s Detroit, it starts out as a small-scale hostage thriller, but ends up ballooning out into a much deeper conspiracy involving industrial espionage and (as is usually the case with Soderbergh) a look at capitalism’s lack of ethics.
The cast is full of legendary underdogs, from Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro as two gangsters who are hired for the domestic hostage situation, David Harbour as the main victim, Jon Hamm as an investigating officer, Brendan ‘in the middle of preparation for Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale’ Fraser as the man who hired the gangsters, a later appearance by Ray Liotta in another solid criminal turn from this year, as well as… actually, I’m not gonna spoil this last one. Let’s just say that this actor in particular seems to be having bigger successes recently with guest appearances than he has with starring roles, this being no exception.
This film looks weird. Sure, the muted and darkened colour palette is fairly standard, but the cinematography has Soderbergh at his wild creative ways again. Calling the effect ‘fish-eye lens’ seems inaccurate, as the level of distortion on offer here manages to go even further than that, right down to its unorthodox 2.16:1 aspect ratio. It takes a bit to get used to, similar to some of the scenes from The Favourite, but once it settles in, it turns out to be an appropriate frame for a story all about warped priorities and relationships.
Writer Ed Solomon has a bit of a spotty filmography to date, but when the man is on a roll (Men In Black, the Bill & Ted trilogy, even Now You See Me), he can spin some damn effective yarns about oblivious people in perplexing circumstances. And here, he turns that expertise towards a crime story full of double- and triple-crosses, where working criminals get caught up in an attempt to stop government regulation of the automobile industry. The dialogue, especially that of Cheadle’s Curt Goynes, hits the right hard-boiled note to deliver the grit of the story, and while it definitely fits with Soderbergh’s economic sensibilities, it even carries a few notes of his Ocean’s films in the intertwining character motivations.
Just like with Let Them All Talk, a lot of this film’s energy comes from the actors on offer, considering quite a few of these guys are either woefully underrated or have recently been dealt some bad hands (watching this after Space Jam: A New Legacy is a wind tunnel’s worth of fresh air), but it helps that the adherence to old-school noir tones and a compelling addition of real-world history bulks it up into more than just an acting exercise. It’s dependable, it’s experimental in odd places, it’s got a murderer’s row of talent on-screen, it’s more than aware of exploitation in its spotlighted industry; it’s a Steven Soderbergh joint alright.
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