I guess Steven Soderbergh’s retirement was contingent on Netflix not being a thing. The Laundromat finds the director engaged with the movie process again, telling a country spanning tale about the Panama Papers. The Laundromat isn’t among Soderbergh’s greats, but it sees him creatively expressing himself again. Which means The Laundromat is still hella fun to watch.
Would you believe the Panama Papers story started with an ill fated cruise? Ellen Martin (Meryl Streep), a woman who had awful things happen to her on that cruise, wants to sue the liner for the damages she has to endure. Which brings us to the Captain (Robert Patrick) and his business partner (David Schwimmer) discussing where their insurance comes from. From there, Soderbergh peels back more and more onions to reveal how deep this rabbit hole goes, with the resplendent Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas navigating us through the story, drink in hand.
There’s no way to miss the reason why Soderbergh wants to make this film. The director clearly has a bone to pick with offshore shell companies and rich people hiding their money at the expense of normal people who have rotten luck or are working really hard to get by. This world is really complex, and Soderbergh at least wants to go into a bit of the mechanics to help people understand what happened. He does this by giving us 3 stories: the boat sinking, life in the Caribbean, and the life of a rich family, and uses Banderas and Oldman to stitch the stories together. In The Laundromat’s world, everything can be bought and paid for, with the ultimate goal to be the most wealth possible for every rich person, to the point that simple humanity is shed to make as much money as possible. Soderbergh contrasts this with Streep’s character, as well as the Captain and his partner, a group of normal people wanting to get justice for their humanity being stripped away. There’s no way to come out of this film realizing how bleak the situation is, to the point where the movie ends on an actual call to the audience to fight to stop these malpractices.
I just wish Soderbergh gave The Laudromat the When They See Us treatment. His idea for the story is fun, but in order to keep the movie light and breezy, we barely get a surface level study of this underworld masquerading as Caribbean Paradise or Wilmington Delaware. A miniseries format would have let Soderbergh do deeper dives into his 3 stories, and more importantly, given us a richer, deeper understanding of the world of hiding rich people’s money. More importantly, we get almost no explanation of who leaked the Panama Papers, why they did it, and the repercussions outside of a few end credit lines. A wider tapestry would give Soderbergh even more of that talented creative license he possesses to produce something as sprawling and smart as Traffic or Contagion. Maybe consider a follow up Netflix? Maybe Soderbergh can get Streep to run it back.
Like always, Steven Soderbergh finds a way to do as much as he can with the timeframe and budget he is given. The Laundromat will make people interested in this subject matter, and hopefully excite them to advocate the way the end of the movie wants them to. Netflix, keep giving this guy money, at some point he’ll make something truly stupendous for you.