The Laundrymat (2019)

As a movie The Laundromat is a bit of a mess. It's attempt to the The Big Short but about the Panama Papers falls a bit flat. The film never manages to find the right balance between telling an entertaining story and getting it's economic/political lesson through. The run time is rushed, the story used to craft its education just isn't overly compelling. It feels like we are being lectured to, not told a story. An amazing cast is wasted by playing caricatures more than characters.

But as a pseudo-documentary it is actually quite eye opening. It will inspire you to rage which is what it should do. The Panama Papers came and went without the world doing anything about it and that is a remarkable tragedy. The film does a great job of breaking down the issues into digestible and understandable pieces making the issues relatable and helping understand just how the abuse and corruption continues.

As I watched, I was engaged but often taken out of what it was I was watching. I kept wondering how this would have worked if it had been framed as a documentary perhaps even with events dramatized by this cast instead of being presented as a fourth wall breaking drama. The film oscillates between seemingly random and unconnected anecdotes which don't often work well for the story telling part. And just as it gets into the part where we are really into it, it's over.

But here's the rub. I would strongly recommend people watch this to get their head around a thorny and difficult yet important issue. But I also can't say it's a "good movie."

The Laundromat
Starring: Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, Gary Oldman, Sharon Stone, David Schwimmer, Jeffrey Wright, Will Forte, James Cromwell
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Scott Z Burns