Movie Review: SIDE EFFECTS

SIDE EFFECTS
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vinessa Shaw, Mamie Gummer

Steven Soderbergh has tackled such diverse subjects as airborne viruses, male stripping, casino heists, and drug trafficking. In his latest, Side Effects, he and frequent screenwriter Scott Z. Burns tackle the world of pharmaceutical companies. Emily (Mara) is thrilled that her husband Martin (Tatum) has been released from jail. Martin was taken away on their glorious wedding day for insider trading. At first life seems to be getting back to normal, but Emily's past bout with depression and anxiety seems to creep back into her life.

A work party with Martin's colleagues is more than Emily can handle. Martin realizes Emily has taken a turn for the worst. She decides to take things into her own hands by driving into the wall of a parking garage. She survives and is put into the hands of Dr. Banks (Law), a psychiatrist with his own issues in life. Banks puts her on a variety of anti-depressants and anxiety pills but none of them seem to work for her. He consults with her former shrink Dr. Victoria Siebert (Zeta-Jones) about her past and learns about a miscarriage that she has failed to mention to him. Dr. Siebert suggests a new experimental drug called Ablixa. Emily hears good things form a friend (Gummer) about it and decides to test it. Meanwhile, Dr. Banks is being paid $50,000 to be part of a study on the side effects of Ablixa. Emily believes the drug is really working for her, but Martin sees her going further down the rabbit hole.

Emily's paranoia and Dr. Bank's continual fight for her, despite the affect it has on his career and marriage, keep the focus and tension building. The movie takes some interesting turns making sure the audience is never too far ahead in the story. As soon as you think you what the film is about or where it is headed you get spun in a different direction. Many people are drawing comparisons to Hitchcock’s great thrillers. Soderbergh is not merely copying out of the Master of Suspense’s book, but using those techniques to keep the viewer guessing. A good score is vital to any thriller. Thomas Newman’s score subtly plays underneath the action leaving its presence known but without ever forcing the audience into an unwanted reaction or emotion.

Soderbergh typically uses many of the same actors from movie to movie, which I appreciate in his body of work. Law, Zeta-Jones, and Tatum are all veterans to his style of working. Rooney Mara has proven yet again that she is a force to be reckoned with. One would think that after playing Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo she would want a break from such heavy material. Her performance as Emily Taylor is no walk in the park. She slowly peels back the many layers of her character to keep us glued in to what her ultimate motive may be.

Soderbergh has mentioned his plans to retire and that this is his last feature film to be released in theaters. With that comes the retirement of Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard. He uses those pseudonyms whenever he is the cinematographer or editor on his own movies. His Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra” will premiere on HBO in March. I have always been a fan of his work and appreciate his diverse and experimental approach to the films he makes. Some are big box office successes like Ocean’s 11 and Erin Brockovich while others are pure indie trials like Bubble or The Girlfriend Experience. I seem to be the only one I know to have liked Magic Mike. Side Effects is his best movie in years, and it is not to be missed if you like taught thrillers that keep you guessing.

RATING: **** 1/2 (4.5 out of 5 stars)

Movie Review: MAGIC MIKE

MAGIC MIKE
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Nash, Olivia Munn

Channing Tatum uses his brief real life history as a male stripper as the idea behind his latest collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh. Mike Lane(Tatum) makes the majority of his income as a stripper in a male revue called Xquisite. During the daytime he works construction in the Tampa area and dabbles in homemade furniture. He meets Adam (Pettyfer) one morning on a new construction site. Adam seems fairly shy and introverted, but he and Mike bond throughout the day. Mike runs into Adam later at a club as he is promoting audience members for the Xquisite show. Adam is persuaded to head over to the revue by Mike and two young girls out celebrating a twenty-first birthday. Adam's eyes are wide open as he experiences a male revue for the first time. He watches as "Magic Mike" and the rest of the crew including: Tarzan (Nash), Big Dick Ritchie (Manganiello), Ken (Bomer), and Tito (Rodriquez) put on a choreographed show. He gets thrust onstage himself to have dollars bills thrown at him by the giddy drunken ladies. The easy money is all too alluring for Adam and he decides to join the show after an offer from Mike and club owner Dallas (McConaughey). Being the newbie that he is, he is given the moniker "The Kid" as his stage name.

Even though the money is pouring in, life is not always a jolly good time for our young dancers. Adam's sister Brooke (Horn) finds out about his new endeavor when she discovers the G-strings laying around and catches Adam shaving his legs with her razor. She struggles with the thought of him being a stripper but tries to put trust in Mike to keep him on the straight and narrow. Mike's flirting towards her doesn't help matters. Mike would ideally like to leave the stripping behind to start up his customized furniture business. He runs into problems with the bank as he doesn't have good credit as he primarily deals in cash tips. Adam begins to delve deep into the night life. He is making good money and hooking up with beautiful women. Sounds great except he is becoming cocky and falling deeper into drugs and alcohol.

Soderbergh is dealing with lighter material here than we have been used to seeing him do lately, but it still retains that Soderbergh feel. Using the pseudonym Peter Andrews, he is also the cinematographer on his own movies. He seems to use a lot of wide shots and natural lighting to set up the scenes. He sets the camera up and just lets it capture the scene as it unfolds. Characters come in and out of the frame without a lot of choppy editing to cover it up. I wish the studio would have promoted his name more during the marketing blitz. Who am I kidding. People are coming out for Channing Tatum and other hunks stripping, not because it is the latest Soderbergh offering.

The screenplay by Reid Carolin is pretty basic. You have the simple premise of a young naive nineteen-year old being enamored by the money and women that comes with being a stripper only to have him crash and burn when drugs and alcohol come into play. It has a simple morality story to it. Magic Mike isn't as campy as Showgirls and it isn't as gritty as Boogie Nights. It falls somwhere in the middle. The movie does not fully invest into the struggle Mike has with started his business nor do we really learn about some of the other characters like Big Dick Ritchie, Ken, and the other strippers. Am I asking for too much in the way of character and plot development? Maybe. Tatum co-produced the movie with Carolin. Along with Soderbergh, they have a great cast that perfectly fits these characters. McConaughey is impressive and gives one of the stronger performances in the movie showing more sides to Dallas than one might expect. At the end of the day, the fun of the movie is that it is about male strippers. Those scenes make the movie work. The fun choreography and behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be a stripper is interesting. I can only assume it is fairly accurate due to Tatum's past. The legions of women and gay men buying tickets are not going for gritty plot twists and stylistic film making. They are going for the rock hard abs of Joe Manganiello and chiseled Channing Tatum body. There was applause before the movie and during the movie.

RATING: ***1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars)

First Look: MAGIC MIKE

First Look: MAGIC MIKE
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Olivia Munn, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, Adam Rodriguez, Matt Bomer

The Oscar winning director of Traffic, Contagion, the Ocean's Triology, and Erin Brockovich teams up with Channing Tatum again in a story loosely based on Tatum's pre-Hollywood life as a male stripper.  Tatum plays the lead character as he teaches a young newbie (Pettyfer) the ins-and-outs of the job all while struggling to have a normal life.  Matthew McConaughey portrays the club's owner.  TV stars Matt Bomer ("White Collar"), Adam Rodriguez ("CSI: Miami"), and Joe Manganiello ("True Blood") co-star as fellow workers at the club.

The trailer and poster were just released this past week.  I must admit, the feel of the movie is not at all what I thought it was going to be about.  I guess I assumed it would have this gritty, rough, drug-filled tone to it.  By the looks of the trailer, it seems lighter, funnier, and more romantic than I had imagined.  I also think they should have showed more skin in the trailer.  Maybe that's just me though.

What are your thoughts?  Are you excited to see it?  Does it look like a dud like Striptease, a cult classic like Showgirls, another Soderbergh hit like Ocean's 11, or will it just get lost in a summer of huge blockbusters ?