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This means that some topics may have been discussed in posts labeled otherwise. Its betrayals are buoyant.A note about topics: Some blog posts have more than one topic, in which case only one main topic can be chosen to represent that post. Still, the whole experience is just so smart, surprising, witty, and darkly knowing. But the remark feels less ominous than it should, and leads to an ending that’s not so much tragic as much as it is ain’t-that-a-bitch disillusioning.
#No sudden move fisheye free
“You are under the illusion of control,” says one titan as he explains who really pulls the strings in a world where no one truly is a free agent. As the story slowly arcs from backroom-barbershop whispers to wood-paneled conference room powwows, it reveals a Chinatown-esque sense of the powers that be that never really gets deepened or refined. That said, there’s a slight overreach in the wide span of the film’s thematic net. Best of all is Matt Damon’s uncredited cameo, dropping matter-of-fact truth bombs in a Ned-Beatty-in-Network monologue that would have made Paddy Chayefsky proud. Ray Liotta pops up as a harrowing heavy who winces at his underlings’ ambitions like they’re bug-bites annoyances. Amy Seimetz makes a feast out of her supporting role as Harbour’s smartly flummoxed, emotionally rattled, ennui-riddled wife. “Everything is so weird right now,” he says at one point, underlining how quickly the film’s events turn almost surreal. Harbour especially mines unexpected humor out of the most harrowing moments. This beautifully built low-key thriller delights with every new revelation, especially since it’s those taut moments where the members of its stacked cast really shine. Starring: Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Kieran Culkin, Ray Liotta, Bill Duke, Matt Damon
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“Don’t get greedy,” his wary partner Ronald tells him. At one point, ghetto kingpin Aldrick Watkins (Bill Duke) has the chance to reap a fortune. Curt wants to get what he’s owed at a time when black people - and black criminals - are expected to know their place. The terse reply: “More like Negro removal.”Ĭurt is the reason No Sudden Move expands its canvas from just being a snappy neo-noir to making a statement about The State of Things circa 1954. “Urban renewal?” Curt asks a man from his past. It’s the way things have to be, racial fissures and all. Progress, in the form of the interstate highway system, means the reshaping of more than 100 cities and the demolition of low-income neighborhoods. “The country is re-landscaping itself, gentlemen,” a third-act deus ex machina character lectures our intrepid lowlifes. The backdrop is mid-century Detroit, then-capital of the mammoth auto industry and the engine for America’s Eisenhower-era growth. And increasingly powerful people take note. Turns out those documents are a lot more than they seem. The job goes sideways, and that’s when the film really gets going.
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Joining Guynes is pompadoured thug Ronald Russo (Benicio del Toro) and weirdly wired Charley (Kieran Culkin).
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Small-time gravelly-voiced goon Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) accepts a shady babysitting job: Hold a family hostage to force its breadwinner, quietly desperate accountant Matt Wertz (David Harbour), to break into his boss’s company safe and steal some documents. The film starts off with a simple errand. Benicio del Toro and Don Cheadle in Soderbergh’s ‘No Sudden Move,’ now streaming on HBO Max The twist here is how Ed Solomon’s quietly vicious script gradually raises the stakes with every deadpan remark, as cat-and-mouse hoods try to outwit each other while being just a little too smart for their own good. It’s Steven Soderbergh in his favorite sandbox, an underworld of charming crooks with outsized aspirations, and just the kind of milieu that defined career peaks like Out of Sight and the Ocean’s franchise. Twists and turns and nasty double-crosses make the handsomely built No Sudden Move a slithering delight.
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