Kimi (2022)

Direction: Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA

The very opportune Kimi - a tense, character-driven and technology-motivated thriller with a dandy payoff - showcases the American director Steven Soderbergh in top form, and provides more than enough dark giggles to compensate for the lighter tones of previous flops like The Laundromat (2019) and Let Them Talk (2020). Written by David Koepp (Stir of Echoes, 1999; The Panic Room, 2002), the film soars above most of the recently released thrillers, presenting an intriguing story that takes place in Seattle, Washington. 

Angela Childs (Zoë Kravitz) is an agoraphobic voice stream interpreter who works from home for the thriving tech corporation that runs Kimi, a voice-activated device with strong similarities with Alexa. While working on a piece of audio, Angela finds out disturbing words suggesting sexual assault and later evidence of murder. But when, miserably and resolutely, she sets foot out of her apartment to report the incident to her superiors, there's only  pressure and hostility instead of appreciation. 

Vividly directed and acted, Kimi is not deprived of some plot swings but, well supplied with panicking situations and oppressive atmospheres, provides a bravura mixture of psychological trauma and crime. The integrity is always there beneath the thriller elements, but Angela conquers her fears with unremitting rage and a special fondness for nail guns. This is a potent cocktail of mystery, phobia and danger. This is the Soderbergh we’ve all been missing so much. 

No Sudden Move (2021)

Direction: Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA

We all know about Steven Soderbergh's penchant for heist movies (the Ocean’s trilogy; Logan Lucky, 2017; Out of Sight, 1998); and he returns to the genre with positive results, backed by a grandiose ensemble cast and boasting an evocative tone. No Sudden Move is pelted with funny lines, a constellation of unpredictable and suspicious characters, deliciously offbeat moments, pertinent social commentary to boot and gratifying twists. However, the film is stronger in its extremities, whereas the midsection loses some adherence without risking a wreck.

The story, competently written by Ed Solomon (Men in Black, 1997; Now You See Me, 2013) is set in 1954 Detroit, following an apparently simple three-man job that goes sideways. Washed-up gangsters Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle), Roland Russo (Benicio Del Toro) and Charley Barnes (Kieran Culkin) are given the mission of stealing an important document, and the key for that purpose is the car salesman Matt Wertz (David Harbour is impressive here). Soon, with a series of game-changing events, the boys are trailed by detective Joe Finney (Jon Hamm) and start negotiations with bigger sharks like the brute Frank Capelli (Ray Liotta) and the sly, conceited automobile kingpin Mike Lowen (a convincing Matt Damon in a cameo role).

The problem with this neo-noir is the shortage of suspense, which makes it look cerebral. This is curiously overcome by a jocular posture and the succession of betrayals. Also, Roland and Curt don’t make an explosive team, a quibble that doesn’t necessarily spoil the whole. An immediate classic? Certainly not. But a steady source of entertainment, I would say.

Let Them All Talk (2021)

Direction: Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA

Directed by Steven Soderbergh and boosted by the performances of a creditable trio of screen divas - Meryl Streep, Diane Wiest and Candice Bergen - Let Them All Talk is an innocuous Woody Allen-esque dramedy that seems more interested in conversational gambits than really creating any sort of tension or conflict.

Streep commands the screen as Alice Hughes, a celebrated author who tries to reconnect with two old university friends - Roberta (Bergen) and Susan (Wiest) - by inviting them to a cruise trip to the United Kingdom, where she will receive the coveted Pulitzer Prize. The occasion was arranged by her literary agent, Karen (Gemma Chan), who secretly infiltrates aboard the Queen Mary 2 as she tries to figure out what Alice’s new book is about. In order to do that, she persuades the writer’s young nephew, Tyler (Lucas Hedges), to provide her with all the information she keeps in secrecy.

Without feeling necessarily staged, the film is always talky, occasionally engaging and often manipulative. The unexpected finale elevates the material a tiny bit, but the road that leads there remains conventionally undeviating. The problem with this film is that some scenes really work, but some others don’t. 

The slowly emerging details about the characters and their relationships keep us going, but both Soderbergh, who competently handles the photography with natural light, and the screenwriter Deborah Eisenberg could have used more mordant tones and humor to pepper it. It’s a pragmatic yet rippling navigational episode rescued by the performances.

The Laundromat (2019)

Direction: Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA

The unequalled filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has proven capable of the best (Sex Lies, and Videotape; Traffic; Ocean’s Eleven) throughout a career than spans nearly 40 years. At times evoking the theatrical slapstick, this documentary-style comedy based on the Panama Papers and aptly called The Laundromat is not among his most successful efforts despite featuring an incredible cast with Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, and Gary Oldman occupying central roles. The plot’s occurrences were taken from the incidents described in Jack Bernstein’s novel The Secrecy World, and starts with Ellen Martin (Streep), a persistent widow who decides to investigate who’s behind the fraudulent scheme that left her without insurance compensation after she had lost her husband in a boat accident.

Curiosity and perseverance take her to Panama, where she locates two greedy lawyers, the film’s narrators Jürgen Mossack (Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Banderas), who keep mining the global financial system to their personal advantage. Corruption, fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, the exploitation of innocent people, and illegal offshore machinations are exposed and explained with a ridiculous posture that is often feels more vexatious than favorable.

From the three stories emerging from Scott Z. Burns’ screenplay, the one involving an adulterous African billionaire (Nonso Anozie) turns out to be the drollest, while the third one, a reconstruction of the assassination of British businessman Neil Haywood (Matthias Schoenaerts) by Chinese attorney and businesswoman Gu Kailai (Rosalind Chao), is permeated with supplementary tension.

Even with the best of the intentions in mind, Soderbergh didn’t avoid a mess, plunging The Laundromat into a sea of silliness and artifice. The revelation of names, their scams, and their shameless impunity are all that was left, and despite the mixed feelings, I hope the film can get people to avoid this plague in the future.

Unsane (2018)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA

Steven Soderbergh is one of those directors whose unconventional style could easily incorporate an iPhone as a working tool. In “Unsane”, a so-so psychological thriller, he has indeed used an iPhone 7 Plus with satisfactory results, yet incapable of beating Sean Baker and his absolutely delightful “Tangerine”.
Hence, there was nothing wrong with the frames captured by Soderbergh here, but the film would have been stronger if the screenplay, penned by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer (“Just My Luck” and “The Spy Next Door”), hadn’t covered so many holes with a viscous absurdity. 

Clare Foy is the real star here, impersonating Boston-born, Pennsylvania-based Sawyer Valentini, a psychologically unstable woman who resolves to test her own delusional mind by committing to an obscure program in the Highland Creek Behavioral Center. Surrounded by insane people, Sawyer is forced to remain in the center against her will due to a terrible mistake. She also finds out that an old stalker and harasser from Boston, David Strine (Joshua Leonard), is a staff member.

Despite the distressing relationship with her quarrelsome roommate Violet (a Rastafarian-haired Juno Temple), she befriends Nate (Jay Pharoah), a sane patient who lends her his cellphone from time to time and explains to her the center’s fraudulent scheme to collect insurance money at the cost of involuntary patients. 

Haunted by demons from a very recent past and having the obsessive David around to control her moves, will Sawyer be able to return to her ‘normal’ life? Can her wealthy mother, Angela (Amy Irving), save her from the hands of a tormentor and the filthy corrupt system that holds her captive?

Many situations are conducted with a comedic touch, sometimes dark and somber, whereas the finale comes wrapped in ferocious brutality. The whole idea, as an experiment, is interesting, but the film lacks in credibility what it gains in boldness. Even pushed to the limit through multiple contrived situations and with limited thrills, there is an urgency to see how things will develop.

Logan Lucky (2017)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA

Suspending his directorial retirement, Steven Soderbergh categorically guides a skilled cast in order to ensure the indispensable levels of entertainment in his recent heist comedy “Logan Lucky”.

Farcically penned by the newcomer Rebecca Blunt, the script follows the dissatisfied Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), a dedicated father who couldn’t envision a better solution to provide for and spend time with his daughter than robbing his work site at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The idea nurtures extra stimulus after he has been laid off below the belt.

Jimmy first relies on his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), an Iraq war vet who lost half of his left arm on duty, and both start ruminating about the best way of getting the unavoidable, experienced cracksman Joe Bang (a bleach-haired Daniel Craig) out of jail. The furtive Clyde intentionally commits a minor offense to be sent to the prison, where he orchestrates everything so Joe can break free with no major effort.
 
It’s not too much to emphasize that is their intention to return him to the correction facility immediately after the job is accomplished, without anyone noticing. The other cunning comrades joining the team are Joe’s sloppy brothers Sam (Brian Gleeson) and Fish Bang (Jack Quaid), who joke about needing a good excuse to break the law, and Jimmy and Clyde’s sister, Mellie (Riley Keough). The team stages their act with resoluteness and intention, resorting to unorthodox procedures to succeed. When everything seemed meticulously studied and solved in their heads, a challenge arrives from a forced schedule adjustment, making the stratagem coincide with the famous Coca-Cola 600 race on Memorial Day weekend.

While the acting is effervescent and the camerawork assertive, the plot stays a few holes below Soderbergh’s remake of “Ocean’s 11”. However, one can sense his passion when dabbling in this particular genre, even if I dig better his low-budgeted, art-house independent inventions. 

You’ll certainly find bracingly funny moments scattered throughout an amusing tale that benefits with the sprightly insouciance adopted by a filmmaker who has nothing to prove.

Tatum, who also co-produces, collaborates with Soderbergh for the fourth time. Their association started with “Haywire” in 2011 and proceeded with titles such as “Side Effects” and “Magic Mike”.

As a curiosity, Soderbergh is co-producing the upcoming “Ocean’s Eight” together with Steven Spielberg (direction by Gary Ross), and couldn’t resist the temptation of directing a horror movie entitled “Unsane”, starring Claire Foy, Juno Temple, and Jay Pharoah. While hoping for these 2018 releases, you may indulge yourself in this ingratiating money-snatching scheme.