Intro
The Informant! (2009)
This is a movie I appreciated more than liked. It's a weird movie. It's a weird movie with a purpose though. It's not being weird for weird's sake, it's being weird to delve you into the main character's mental state. Like I completely understand what Steven Soderbergh is going for in this movie and conceptually it works. The buildup of Mark Whitacre going from seemingly innocuous to losing his mind is well done.
And yet. I found it difficult to like this movie. This is a character study on a character with a mental disease and as such, it's singularly focused on that one character. I think some better characterization on the wife would have went a long way, as she's just a doting wife who doesn't really seem to function as a character. It's based on a real person and in fact was based on a book, a book which I don't imagine focuses on the wife all that often. So the wife was real and maybe they tread lightly there since they didn't want to completely make up a new character there.
Matt Damon is excellent in The Informant! and is responsible for much of the movie's tone. Speaking of tone, I think the score also largely sets the tone. In some cases, I think the score was too wacky. From reviews, I've been able to gather it's a throwback score, but it's still really "knock you over the head this is wacky" which got old at times. Sometimes, it worked, sometimes you wish the movie would tone it down.
Anyway, I think I may like this more on second watch, since a large part of the movie, you're just in the dark about what the director is trying to do. For now, I have to grade it on having watched it once though.
2.5/4 stars
Side Effects (2013)
The best way I can describe Side Effects is that it reminds me of a bad thriller movie, except everyone involved in making it is very good at their jobs. The plot in this is just as convoluted and as ludicrous as those bad thriller movies, it's just so well made that it kind of fools you into maintaining the illusion necessary to buy into the plot.
I had seen Side Effects before shortly after it became available on Redbox back in 2013. In fact, it was the very first Soderbergh movie I watched the same year that came out. I watched one more of his movies in the same year (Logan Lucky), but otherwise I've never seen any of his movies even remotely close to when they were released, a fact that will remain true until I watch two of his 2019 movies in this marathon.
Back on target, part of the reason this movie is able to work as well as it is is an A+ cast. Rooney Mara plays a depressed wife to a man played by Channing Tatum, who is getting out of prison for the first time in four years. She seeks treatment from a psychiatrist played by Jude Law. Catherine Zeta-Jones also appears in this movie in an important part.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this more the first time I watched it, which makes sense. I think the convoluted plot is just a little harder to buy the second time around, plus you know what's going to happen, so the tension isn't as high. Although six years ago was a long enough time ago that I didn't remember the specifics, so I was still invested in the story. Kind of a tricky grade for me, so I'll just give you my current grade and what I'm guessing my 2013 grade would have been.
2013 grade: 3 stars
Current: 2.5 stars
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