Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, Black Bag is a frosty, talky, but intriguing Le Carre-esque British spy thriller where the events mostly play out through computer screens and spiky conversations rather than violent action. Michael Fassbender plays George, an unnervingly clean-cut intelligence agent whose penchant for skivvies and thick-rimmed black glasses make him look like someone from the 1960s and a
Read moreIn 2016, director Steven Soderbergh announced he was taking a break from filmmaking to concentrate on other projects. Thankfully, this intriguing, idiosyncratic auteur has returned to the big screen for the subdued but quirkily charming hillbilly heist comedy/ drama Logan Lucky. Set in an economically depressed part of West Virginia the film sees recently sacked construction worker and former high
Read moreThere’s something about the rarefied heights of superstardom in America that produces eccentricity bordering on craziness. From Elvis shooting the TV to Michael Jackson living in an amusement park with lamas, it seems that the power and fame bestowed upon stars irreparably warps their sense of reality. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the person of outrageously flamboyant piano
Read moreAmerica’s all-consuming obsession with psychiatric treatment and feel-good pharmaceuticals is the back drop for Steven Soderbergh’s intriguing, atmospheric but convoluted thriller, Side Effects. In this film Rooney Mara plays Emily a young woman who, after her husband’s (Channing Tatum) release from prison, begins to exhibit strange and even suicidal behaviour. When a psychiatrist Dr Jonathon Banks (Jude Law) prescribes Emily
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