The Movie or TV Show: No Sudden Move (2021)
One Sentence Premise Summary: A trio ofcriminals are brought together for a job, and chaos ensues.
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max (As of July 7, 2021)
Why I Streamed It: When Steven Soderbergh makes a new film and it’s released on a streaming service I’m already paying for, of course I am going to watch it as soon as possible.
Why You Should Stream it:
While not as strong a crime or heist type film as Soderbergh has done in the past with Out of Sight, Ocean’s Eleven, or Logan Lucky, this is an interestingly plotted and well acted film.
It speaks to the era that we’re in that a Soderbergh movie can just be released and be accessed so easily by anyone who has an HBO Max account. He could have easily stuck with his retirement and done…whatever, but I’m glad he’s making movies for various streaming services. Maybe High Flying Bird, The Laundromat, and Let Them All Talk aren’t at the top of his greatest hits, but he’s clearly interested in working, playing with the format, and trying to evolve.
No Sudden Move is an entertaining movie visually and has very strong performances across the board. Don Cheadle gets to play the lead role while Benicio Del Toro does his thing. They’re criminals who get asked to do a job with Kieran Culkin, who is a wild card. Culkin doesn’t last long, and the job gets increasingly chaotic. Quite honestly, it’s just great to watch Jon Hamm in a throwback (again) and Brendan Fraser just getting to be acting in movies again. The plot gets convoluted to the point I can’t tell you what Bill Duke and Hamm’s characters are doing during certain points. Cheadle does have the clearest purpose at all times, and it helps he’s the centerpiece of the movie.
A lot of credit should go to Julia Fox, Amy Seimetz, and Frankie Shaw. Female characters often get the short shrift in crime movies where the boys are just playing with their toys (guns) and driving around playing cops and robbers. Fox was impressive in Uncut Gems and working with Soderbergh is a common sense move for her career. She’s got the chops to play even bigger roles. Ditto for Seimeitz who does as much as she can with the hapless wife role.
Ultimately, No Sudden Move is a mid tier Soderbergh film…and that’s fine! Not every movie needs to be the greatest thing ever. There is a lot of enjoyment to be found in movies that are just pretty good. That’s what this is, pretty good.
Best Performance: I’m torn here because Matt Damon’s cameo really does steal the show, but’s rare to get a leading performance out of Don Cheadle in a movie like this. He is so typically used as a supporting player but to see him in a strong leading role was great. This is also a different character than ones he’s played in Ocean’s Eleven or what he’s done in the Marvel films as Rhodey. Don Cheadle is great and deserves more roles like this.
Best Quote: ‘You know what I love? When characters you’ve long since forgotten in this great novel called Life show up at the end, and the whole story gets filled right in.’ – Mike Lowen
Final Grade: B
Coming tomorrow, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)!
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