"Based on actual secrets." This is The Laundromat. This biographical comedy-drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Scott Z. Burns, and based on Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite by Jake Bernstein. In this The Big Short (2015)-esque dramedy based on the Mossack Fonseca scandal, a cast of characters investigate an insurance fraud, chasing leads to a pair of a flamboyant Panama City law partners exploiting the world's financial system.
In July 2016, it was announced that Soderbergh was set to produce a then-untitled Panama Papers project, based on Bernstein's book that exposed the world revealed by the Panama Papers, a landscape of illicit money, political corruption, and fraud on a global scale. In April 2018, it was announced that Soderbergh would also direct the film, now titled The Laundromat. Burns was set to pen the script. In May 2018, it was reported that Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas were in talks to star in the film with Netflix interested in acquiring the distribution rights. By mid October 2018, Netflix was confirmed to be releasing the movie, as well as Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer, Will Forte, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Cromwell, Chris Parnell, Sharon Stone, Melissa Rauch, Larry Wilmore and Robert Patrick rounding out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place throughout California, Florida, and Nevada. The film marked Soderbergh's return to shooting on the Red Epic cameras, and was shot in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio.
The film stars Streep, Oldman, Banderas, Wright, Schwimmer, Forte, Schoenaerts, Cromwell, Parnell, Stone, Rauch, Wilmore and Patrick. The cast gave performances that were firing on all cylinders. It wouldn't necessarily have been able to cash in as successfully as the characters in the film. The success of this film is due to the work of the actors who played the characters.
The Laundromat approaches a serious, complicated subject with energetic direction and an impressive attention to detail – and manages to deliver a well-acted, scathingly funny indictment of its real-life villains in the bargain. It's a complicated tale palpable for the layperson even as it triggers outrage at the fatcats who helped cause it. It's the strongest film explanation of the Panama Papers, if not the only. Soderbergh hasn't lost his touch as a director of comic performances, and the didactic format lets him shake off a lot of sodden Hollywood convention: the characters aren't required to learn spiritual lessons or even be particularly likeable. It's funny because it's true. And it's tragic and frightening for the same reason. Teems with self-awareness about the complexity of the financial landscape while using that opportunity to inject dark humor into what's otherwise a frighteningly ugly reality. You'll leave with both a firm understanding of bearer shares and a strange fascination with Oldman's German accent. You painlessly learn a lot about financial markets and incidentally discover that understanding them can be fun. Many will find the film a brilliant, intelligent, pointedly funny film.
The Laundromat approaches a serious, complicated subject with energetic direction and an impressive attention to detail – and manages to deliver a well-acted, scathingly funny indictment of its real-life villains in the bargain. It's a complicated tale palpable for the layperson even as it triggers outrage at the fatcats who helped cause it. It's the strongest film explanation of the Panama Papers, if not the only. Soderbergh hasn't lost his touch as a director of comic performances, and the didactic format lets him shake off a lot of sodden Hollywood convention: the characters aren't required to learn spiritual lessons or even be particularly likeable. It's funny because it's true. And it's tragic and frightening for the same reason. Teems with self-awareness about the complexity of the financial landscape while using that opportunity to inject dark humor into what's otherwise a frighteningly ugly reality. You'll leave with both a firm understanding of bearer shares and a strange fascination with Oldman's German accent. You painlessly learn a lot about financial markets and incidentally discover that understanding them can be fun. Many will find the film a brilliant, intelligent, pointedly funny film.
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