No sudden move camera used9/11/2023 ![]() Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) is just out of prison, back in Detroit, and already in deep shit. And fret not, this isn’t a Laundromat situation where all these great actors are getting table scraps. The production delays meant you could construct another solid cast just from the actors who had to bow out (tell me you wouldn’t see a movie starring Cedric the Entertainer, John Cena, Josh Brolin, Sebastian Stan, and George Clooney), but the cast that made it on-screen is worthy of being called a galaxy of stars, combining the best of prestige TV, Film Twitter faves, and previous Soderbergh movies. And this is how, in late September 2020, Kill Switch finally came to fruition, now retitled No Sudden Move. As a fun side hobby, he also headed the Directors Guild’s committee to decide the protocols for safely shooting films during COVID, which put him in the position to shoot a movie as a trial balloon for his own guidelines. ![]() That movie, then titled Kill Switch, was on-rails and mere weeks away from shooting when the pandemic shut down all Hollywood productions, leaving Soderbergh with nothing to do but write a sex, lies, and videotape sequel and two other screenplays, remaster and reedit several of his older movies for a box-set release, host a Singani 63 webseries interviewing bartenders, and watch a lot of Below Deck. ![]() In November 2019, a month after the heartbreak of The Laundromat and three months after he shot all of Let Them All Talk, Steven Soderbergh decided that was enough downtime and he was ready to make another movie. Its filmmaking finesse, meantime, feels liberating. The confinement feels both of its filming moment, and true to the period. The movie is full of terse encounters between actors in tight spaces, small kitchens, sedan back seats. Soderbergh filmed this last fall, helping to establish Covid filming protocols as he went on behalf of his industry. But there’s enough going on in “No Sudden Move” to cure any momentary bouts of “wait … what?” Anyway, that’s COVID for you: These days we’re all a little wait-what. The double crosses are more like sextuples. The movie is devoted to the presence of its beautiful old cars, and when the camera follows a vehicle on a pivot, the effect is noir in a nutshell: For these weasels - most of them, anyway - what goes around, comes around. On the other hand, the location work and Soderbergh’s compositions are often wonderful. He shoots with ultra-wide lenses, perhaps too slavishly the fish-eye effect and curled-up edges of the frame can seem a little self-conscious, at least when used this aggressively. Like many of Soderbergh’s achievements, this one is dominated by a stylistic decision that’s a bit of a mixed bag. But Soderbergh, backed by another fruitful and sly collaboration with composer David Holmes, is really on his game here, editing bursts of violence for maximum efficiency without maximum sadism. Screenwriter Solomon does more name-checking than dramatizing when it comes to what’s going on in Detroit (and elsewhere) in 1954, from redlining of Black neighborhoods to the corporate conspiracy that gives “No Sudden Move” its eventual story development. Some is inspired: Bill Duke’s crime boss may be a flamboyant conceit, but Duke’s terrific, as is Ray Liotta as the venal adversary on the other side of town. Some of the casting is oddball, as with Brendan Fraser’s impish take on a mob knucklehead. The actor pushes his voice down into Miles Davis territory ( easy access for Cheadle he played Davis once) and finds levity, gravity and casual poetry in that range. At its best, “No Sudden Move” lets Cheadle set the tone and the rhythm when he’s on screen, the movie’s about a human being we want to know more about. Solomon’s script could use some ventilation, and not in the machine-gun way. It’s plot-forward, this movie, and it’s good enough to make you wish it were just that much better. ![]() Lyon leaned on her colleagues for help depending on the question. They’d send me a question, and especially over the winter, people really appreciated the advice.” Romantic comedies of the ’90s silent films whatever. This was through the Music Box Instagram account. “We did this thing during COVID,” says Rebecca Lyon, assistant technical director at the Music Box Theatre, “where people would send in requests for suggestions on what to watch. We can agree only on this: To everything that has plagued us since early last year, we’re just trying to say farewell, my lovely. Our screen lives have become all too consuming these past 16 months, so maybe neo-noir terminology is inevitable in describing a pandemic lurching from “No Way Out” (this’ll never end we’ll never get enough people vaccinated everything’s hopeless) to where we are now, which is either “One False Move” (for those bracing for variant disaster) or “A Better Tomorrow” (for the optimists, many with tickets to Lollapalooza). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |