REVIEW: ‘No Sudden Move’ is a Soderbergh and friends jam session
Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro star in No Sudden Move, directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Comparing a movie set to a musical performance only gets you so far, but it’s the first thing that comes to mind with No Sudden Move. Making a movie usually involves a lot more planning, setup, and a start-and-stop rhythm; the final product hides all of that. And yet Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, available on HBO Max, feels like the product of the filmmaker getting together with some frequent collaborators to knock out a film just because they enjoy it, not unlike a jam session. The result isn’t particularly cutting-edge or fresh, but there’s something to be said for when creatives meet up to bounce ideas around.
Again, that’s merely the vibe that No Sudden Move gives off - I doubt anyone would be willing to front millions of dollars to let Soderbergh and company mess around without any strings attached. But it speaks to the experience and confidence of the cast and crew that they make something like this look easy.
Amy Seimetz as a put-upon wife of an auto executive.
Coincidentally, the movie in question is all about trust - more specifically, the danger of trusting the wrong people and how easy it is to be outmanoeuvred by forces beyond your control. Most of the main characters make bad calls about where to put their trust, and the second half of the movie steadily follows how their plans unravel from there. In short, the kind of thing Soderbergh (who also serves as editor and cinematographer) can make in his sleep.
The action begins in Detroit in 1954. Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) is a small-time crook trying to outrun the blowback from an operation he mishandled. Out of nowhere, a contact named Doug Jones (Brendan Fraser) offers him a job: work with an Italian enforcer named Ronald (Benicio Del Toro) to pressure an auto executive (David Harbour) into stealing a lucrative technical document from General Motors. It’s not long before the original plan goes sideways, sending Curt and Ronald on their own mission to find the document and secure a buyer before their respective pasts catch up with them.
Soderbergh shoots the proceedings with a super-wide, almost fish-eye lens. It warps the edges of the frame and reinforces the idea that the characters are trapped somewhere, forced to fight out petty grievances until no one is left. The costumes and locations all help ground us in the time period, with the exception of the masks that Curt, Ronald and their co-conspirator Charley (Kieran Culkin) wear. They look like goofy 50s TV costumes, with cutouts for the crooks’ ears, a choice that led me to expect more comic relief than we ultimately get.
Brendan Fraser as the middleman in a scheme to sell lucrative technical plans.
Being a typical Soderbergh production, the supporting cast sprawls to include Amy Seimetz as Harbour’s character’s wife, Bill Duke as the kingpin tracking down Curt, Jon Hamm as a state lawman, and Julia Fox putting in another pitch-perfect performance (following Uncut Gems) as a gangster’s moll. People who like the variety and dynamics of large ensemble pieces will feel very at home - it almost feels like a companion piece to the most recent season of the Fargo TV series, set in the same time period and in a location name-dropped by Curt: Kansas City.
All that being said, the ambitions of No Sudden Move aren’t particularly high. It sometimes feels like an excuse for the cast and crew to keep themselves from getting rusty during the pandemic. Even the MacGuffin of the film feels interchangeable: while a closing block of text muses about the ills of collusion and weak government punishments, none of that really ties in with the characters in a meaningful way. They could all be vying for the secret recipe of a nascent fast food chain and the outcome would be the same (an alternate history version of The Founder, perhaps?)
Cinematic jam session or not, if you like the people involved, No Sudden Move is an easy recommendation. Just don’t expect a chart-topping album just yet.
No Sudden Move gets three stars out of four.
Stray thoughts
There are a few times where strange overcoat-wearing thugs pop up, and it’s hard to figure out who they’re working for.
I’m surprised Netflix didn’t snap this up, considering that they bought two of Soderbergh’s most recent films.