DCT Podcast: Episode 6 – The Laundromat

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Da Couch Tomato Podcast, Episode 6, discussing Netflix's The Laundromat, underutilising the stellar cast, and the unusual approach used by director Steven Soderbergh.

Background music used is "Rodney Yates" by David Holmes, who also composed The Laundromat's musical score.

Hosts: Sting Lacson and Rachel

Magic Mike

"It's not really a feel-good movie but you really feel good after watching it," a friend overheard someone saying on our way out of the theater. I'd have to agree. For the following reasons:

1. Channing Tatum

I actually wonder how it is to see him dance in the flesh—literally—in front of me. And he has credible actual experience to fulfill the fantasy. So if you went to see this movie to feel Mike's beat, "Honey, dance for me and feel free to lead."

Don't mind the ooohh's and the aaahh's, it simply cannot be helped.

Contagion

This is another one of those films which I watched without having any idea about it whatsoever. Any preliminary impressions I might have had came from the title alone.

This film was also produced by Image Nation, which is a company based in Abu Dhabi. So I believe we can expect Arab wealth to find its way into Hollywood in the near future.

So anyway, my first thought was, "Contagion? Sounds like some sort of virus. Maybe it's a zombie movie or something." Because that's typically how zombie movies start. There's some sort of killer virus in the beginning, then it begins to mutate and spread, then brat-tat-tat-tat, you get machine gun fire, then blood and gore, and before you know it, it's a full-blown zombie apocalypse.

But not this film.

Yes, this one's about a virus, and a killer virus at that. Except this one centers on the human drama. Well, not just centers, but more of focuses entirely on the human drama. What happens when a killer virus strikes? How does humanity react? And this chronicles humanity's reaction on all levels. The plot absolutely does not take a zombie apocalypse direction.

What makes this film work as a drama is the extremely talented ensemble. This is like a Dream Team for the acting department. Here are the starters (in alphabetical order), who all have Acadamy Award trophies which they can use to bash your head in.

Marion Cotillard

She is so beautiful, she looks great
in any hairstyle.

Matt Damon

(who by the way does not have an acting Oscar)

"I don't care."

Gwyneth Paltrow

"Asdajijcapemajapinc"

and

Kate Winslet

"Hmm?"

Next we have two reserves, who have no Oscar trophies, but who have been nominated at some point in their lives.

Laurence Fishburne

Morpheus can whoop your ass
while drinking coffee.

and

Jude Law

"I was nominted twice."

By the time the film ended, which was when everyone had the cure injected up their nasal cavity, I thought "Well, this is a pretty decent film. It's quite good, actually." And then the end credits flash.

Okay. That explains everything.

And on a final note: Jennifer Ehle has a very pretty face.

"I know, right?"

Contagion. USA/UAE. 2011.


Rating: Seven point nine out of ten.




*some info from IMDb

Che: Part Two (Guerrilla)

Never tell an asthmatic to stop smoking.

For those of you who are familiar with Che Guevara's life beyond his t-shirt appearances, this movie takes place after Cuba. Specifically, in Bolivia.

Like the first film, director Steven Soderbergh starts out again with a long map sequence, but this time of the entire South American continent. You'll get to see the different South American countries relative to each other. So those of you who think that Ecuador is within walking distance from Uruguay, think again. That's the same thing as people thinking Los Angeles is close to New York because they're both in the USA. Mostly, it's island people who think that way. That's because we have no sense of continentality (spell-check says that wasn't a word).

Che: Part 1 (The Argentine)

For those who don't know who Che Guevara is, where have you been living the past few years?

Sadly, most youngsters now know Che as that guy on the t-shirts, but he is definitely more, more than that. And for that, we thank Steven Soderbergh, who decided it was time for the most popular revolutionary of our time to grace the big screen.

There are only two points I would like to touch on: Benicio del Toro's awesome performance, and Steven Soderbergh's very unique filmmaking style.

First, on Benicio. Now, the real Che Guevara was a little bit shorter than Benicio, but it doesn't really matter, as Che's charisma made his presence so huge as to make everyone around him feel smaller, and a bigger actor would definitely need the height advantage to portray the larger-than-life Che Guevara. But Benicio's performance is so good, so mesmerizing, that the moment he appears onscreen, all you will see is Che Guevara, not Benicio del Toro. The mustache and beard, the hair, the uniform, even the asthma attacks (I'm asthmatic myself), all these were nailed by Benicio. There are some however, who claim that Benicio's Spanish in the movie was not done with an Argentine accent, but if Benicio del Toro is the thespian that I think he is, I believe he may have tried to do the Argentine accent, but possibly didn't get it exact. Anyway, I'm not a native Spanish speaker, so I don't know anything about Spanish accents.

Second, on Steven Soderbergh. This guy is an Oscar-winning director for Traffic, a film which also won for Benicio Del Toro a Best Supporting Actor Oscar (now isn't that sweet). Soderbergh is one of the few directors that I would watch without even knowing what his movie's about. That's how much I trust in this guy's talent.

Originally, Che was screened in Cannes as a four-and-a-half-hour film, but was split into two parts for its American theatrical release. The first part, which is this film, The Argentine, chronicles the struggles of Che Guevara in the Cuban Revolution alongside the brothers Castro, and is told in an almost documentary-like fashion. And the thing that I love about Soderbergh is that he uses effective realism, deciding to shoot the entire film in Spanish. You can just imagine how any revolutionary flames may be snuffed out if this were portrayed by actors speaking with American accents in the jungles of Cuba. Soderbergh captured the real thing, the real revolution, while placing it all in context with the Cuban peasants armed with shotguns and rifles. The cinematography, the camera movement, even the music---you would not even notice them. You would feel like you were really inside the revolution, with Che Guevara as your commandante.

Other noteworthy performances are from Demián Bichir, who gave a splendid performance as Fidel Castro, and Rodrigo Santoro as Fidel's brother Raul. Ooh, Rodrigo Santoro...


Rating: Eight out of ten.



You may also want to read the review for Che: Part 2.