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.

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.

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.

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*.