![]() Entertainmentĭirector Steven Soderbergh revisits the Detroit crime world in his new heist movie. 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 neighbourhoods 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. The accountant has been given an offer he can’t refuse: Influential men in low places want what he can give them, which is a set of highly confidential plans (contents revealed later in the film) being sold at a premium to a rival auto company. He’s hired by the Italian Mob to “babysit” the family of an automotive company accountant (David Harbour). Cheadle’s character, Curt Goynes, is recently sprung from prison. Solomon’s script puts enough narrative machinery in motion for a four- or six-part limited series, and in its two-hour structure it’s a challenge to keep up. Entertainmentĭon Cheadle, left, and Benicio Del Toro dial up the darkness in the plot-heavy crime flick No Sudden Move. Also, caper movies, which tend to be less violent, more puzzle-solving - plus a whole bunch of great character actors.”īingo! This explains why No Sudden Move hits the spot, in its wry evocations of mid-20th century Detroit, in a clever story of the Black and Italian American syndicates. “They engage your brain in a way that’s very distracting, in a good way. 1 request? “Heist films,” she says, followed closely by whodunits. Unintentionally, Lyon adds, the outreach effort ended up collecting informal data on audience tastes. Lyon leaned on her colleagues for help depending on the question. “We did this thing during COVID,” says Rebecca Lyon, assistant technical director at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, “where people would send in requests for suggestions on what to watch… They’d send me a question, and especially over the winter, people really appreciated the advice.” Romantic comedies of the ’90s, silent films, whatever. ![]() 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). But the underworld setting and hints of sociological awareness point to a variation on film noir and its moral labyrinths. Set in 1954, starring Don Cheadle in his sixth Soderbergh movie along with other Soderbergh alums including co-star Benicio del Toro, screenwriter Ed Solomon’s No Sudden Move script has elements of the Ocean’s banter and low-keyed wit. Among Soderbergh’s most commercial projects are the 2001 Ocean’s 11 remake plus two sequels. Soderbergh has prowled its streets many times. His latest project, the sleek, zigzaggy crime story No Sudden Move, currently streaming on Crave in Canada, was shot and takes place in Detroit, where much of Soderbergh’s terrific 1998 Out of Sight unfolds. This article was published (755 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
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