For those who want to see the movie, here's the context: the Panama Papers is one the biggest leaks that detailed how governments, movie and sport stars, companies worked with law firms to avoid pay taxes and make scam schemes. Having said that, the movie should be good right? But no...the movie itself is slow, boring and only watched entirely because of the (average?) perfomances of the main actors.
The Laundromat (2019)
Dir: Steven Soderbergh
The Laundromat is a Netflix distributed comedy drama which follows the story of Ellen Martin, played by Meryl Streep, who after an unthinkable accident takes plan on her holiday, she begins investigating a fake insurance policy.
The plot of this movie was an incredibly interesting story, and the way that the movie was directed just didn't stand up unfortunately. The cast list is incredible but the movie was just inherently flawed and not at all enjoyable in my opinion. I genuinely never thought that I could be bored by the filmography of Steven Soderbergh but this film really has me stumped, even with the film progressing at such a fast pace with a lot of dialogue.
Don't get me wrong, not everything about this film was bad, the acting was incredible, Meryl Streep was incredible, Gary Oldman was incredible, Antonio Banderas was incredible, the cinematography was very nice. Where as the rest just fell flat for me, the film was poorly executed and after all of the hype and waiting for this, I was honestly just left disappointed.
It could've been more to do with the script than the direction alone that created the flaws in this movie, at points it felt really kind of scattered as if too much had been forced in to this film, making it way too busy and too much to process and take in.
Overall, for me unfortunately The Laundromat isn't a film that I would recommend to my friends, although I would say for some it may be a valuable watch and could be an entertaining movie if you're just looking for a casual watch and can get past the poor execution.
If the film had focussed more on one aspect of the scandal, it might have been been more interesting. As it is, Sodbergh disappears up his own behind and overwhelms the viewer with 'cleverness' and fourth wall nonsense that borders on pretension. Still, Streep is worth a watch in a dual role.
Remember the Panama Papers? Those leaked documents that detailed how various people and companies created off-shore shell companies in order to avoid paying billions if not trillions in taxes around the world? No?
I’m not surprised. It was a huge story that seemed to become a flash in the pan and many people forgot about it after the coverage dried up because, very likely, the corporations that run the news media tried to bury it. But these folks didn’t forget.
The film’s title refers to the whole operation as generally being a money laundering scheme. Featuring an ensemble cast of Hollywood who’s who as well as who’s that, this Steven Soderbergh film invariably draws comparisons to Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” both in subject matter and style. The narrators, played by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, frequently address the camera directly. Usually, this has the effect of making the audience feel like they’re in on the scheme, but it’s not as effective as when it was used in, say, “House of Cards.” Why? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it likely has to do with the complexity of the scheme. Their characters are more than just narrators, but are actual players in the overall story, lawyers who created the paperwork and did the legwork to get these schemes off the ground. As such, they actually try to explain it, both simplified and with a certain complexity that leaves one a little unsure of the truth. Maybe that was the idea, but from a storytelling perspective, it didn’t quite work.
And effect is part of the problem with this film. Aside from being done as a comedy for what is in fact a very serious subject (the reporter who exposed this story was later killed by a car bomb), this film doesn’t feel very effective in conveying outrage. In fact, it feels less like outrage and more like being impotently miffed. The film doesn’t feel like it conveys the gravity of the situation. Which is very disappointing given the talent involved and the chance to really bring this subject back into the public eye. While I have to give the filmmakers credit with trying to make the complex money laundering scheme in the Panama Papers digestible to a general audience and keeping this visible, ultimately it feels like it’s too little too late.
Steven Soderbergh is one of the most interesting and unpredictable film directors out there.
Great movie, don't listen to the critics.
Certainly not what I was expecting given the seriousness of the scandal, but I enjoyed the playful spin this movie took on the panama papers. I generally like movies where a few different stories are told with a common denominator and this was no exception. In a playful manner, it gave a vague explanation of shell companies and their impact/role from different perspectives and surprisingly gave me a new understanding of how the shell companies affected thousands of people.
What a waste of time. Very disjointed. Impossible to follow dialog. Hit every one of liberal's "hate capitalism hot button" and of course had to include the former Islammunist In Chief. If you don't like laws which allow corporations to shield themselves from taxes you problem is with the law makers not the businesses.
This trailer is good but the film is nothing like that at all
It is so boring seriously don’t bother. It’s just like something about an affair and barely about the woman with the law stuff
With this having such a great cast and being a Soderbergh film, it's truly amazing how aggressively bland it is. It tries to break the fourth wall similar to The Big Short, but it feels undercooked and disconnected from the various subplots of the film. And speaking of those subplots...I had a hard time caring about any of the characters. Of course it is gross how the mechanisms of financial world work, but this film didn't really give us any new insights. I tried to like this but was just...so...bored.
Can not believe Soderbergh directed this drek.
I didn't enjoy this at all, yet I still weirdly reflect on it to be better than it had any right to be.
That's thanks to the cast of 'The Laundromat'. Meryl Streep (Ellen), Gary Oldman (Mossack) and Antonio Banderas (Fonseca) are the main reasons I'm not rating this lower. They stop it becoming an annoying watch. You also have Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer and Nonso Anozie involved too - as well as even Sharon Stone and James Cromwell.
I just didn't like the way they chose to portray everything, I appreciate what they went for but it simply didn't work for me. It's definitely one of those things, though, that will depend on the viewer - I'm sure many will find it good.
The comedy is extremely lacking, in accordance to my tastes anyway. Also, even though I praised Oldman and Banderas themselves, I found their characters particularly irritating - same goes with the ending.
Feels like it merits an inferior score and yet... A charitable 5*.
An anthology comedy that tries to show rich white people have nothing to worry about. Yet why they need a whole movie to say this is confusing. Oh well, at least Gary Oldman seems to be having fun, so at least one person is.
So the structure of this movie is simple: Take a personal Story combine it with the themes Fraud and Panama Papers try to explain it. But as a result this experiment is more messy than entertaining.
Yes, Meryl Streep is marvelous, no doubt about it. But in first part of the movie it is quite important. But then ?
The best momemts of the movie works best, are when Oldmann and Banderas talk to you, while anybody in the scenes is waiting.
But like Jermey Jahns said, you will forget this movie in T-Minus One Day ("Yeah, already forgot").
It tries to look like a docu-drama but blatantly fails. The acting is bad to worse, even Meryl Streep can’t save face in this movie. Leave docu-dramas to Roger Moore.
I really enjoyed it. Directing style and script are outstanding. I haven't seen anything like this before.
This was a very boring movie. There's no incentive to care. Yes, it was an interesting real-life event, but why not draw in the viewer better? Meryl Streep's performance was actually quite good and surprising. Otherwise it was a wasted 1 1/2h.
would have made a weird documentary. message was good. absolutely shite entertainment. one of the worst movies I have ever seen. save some of your life instead of wasting it on this huge ginourmous turd of a diatribe of a so called movie. honestly avoid this piece of shit. this is not a movie this is a statement by entitled rich about the corrupt rich. AND WHEN YOU DO WATCH THIS EFFLUENCE YOU WILL SAY I DIDNT REALLY NEED TO WATCH THIS SHIT...BUT GOOD LUCK ANYWAY.
"Entertaining sequences, a master director's touch and Meryl Streep, but the pieces don't make a satisfying whole."
Would have been better as an actual documentary. It was a waste of so much star power and part of me wonders if this was penance for these actors some how.
I expected so much from this, what with such a cast and such a good story to tell! It gave a feeling of The Big Short at first (like others mentioned) but this movie is so much worse. The story is all over the place and even though I know all the background they tried to tell, it felt confusing and boring at times. Was there even a linear story in all this? Or just sketches somewhat connected to Mossack Fonseca? What was the message - "these guys were bad but USA is worse"? I'm not even sure they conveyed that these guys are bad, was it a joke that "it wasn't our idea that our clients did this and that", just a blank statement, or exoneration? I am really disappointed, I was so excited seeing that Mossack Fonseca sued Netflix over this - thought it's gonna be THAT good. It isn't.
It has an interesting structure. It reminded me a lot of The Big Short. The story and acting are fine but I was never fully invested in any of the characters.
Shout by RedouaneBlockedParent2019-10-19T21:18:04Z
It's like The Big Short but... boring. The reason being, as the previous commenter has pointed out, that the movie failed to give the viewer any reason to care about what is happening, the script and the direction failed in giving the story a personal dimension, so it feels like you're being lectured for an hour and a half.