The Laundromat (2019)

Remember the Panama Papers? Those leaked documents that detailed how various people and companies created off-shore shell companies in order to avoid paying billions if not trillions in taxes around the world? No?

I’m not surprised. It was a huge story that seemed to become a flash in the pan and many people forgot about it after the coverage dried up because, very likely, the corporations that run the news media tried to bury it. But these folks didn’t forget.

The film’s title refers to the whole operation as generally being a money laundering scheme. Featuring an ensemble cast of Hollywood who’s who as well as who’s that, this Steven Soderbergh film invariably draws comparisons to Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” both in subject matter and style. The narrators, played ...

I didn't enjoy this at all, yet I still weirdly reflect on it to be better than it had any right to be.

That's thanks to the cast of <em>'The Laundromat'</em>. Meryl Streep (Ellen), Gary Oldman (Mossack) and Antonio Banderas (Fonseca) are the main reasons I'm not rating this lower. They stop it becoming an annoying watch. You also have Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer and Nonso Anozie involved too - as well as even Sharon Stone and James Cromwell.

I just didn't like the way they chose to portray everything, I appreciate what they went for but it simply didn't work for me. It's definitely one of those things, though, that will depend on the viewer - I'm sure many will find it good.

The comedy is extremely lacking, in accordance to my tastes anyway. Also, even though I praised Oldman...

This had the potential to be an eye-opening opportunity to bring to the fore all the devious antics and off-shore activities carried out by people from all nations - but recently publicised by the Mossack-Fonseca revelations. Instead, it delivered a largely pedestrian investi-journo kind of piece that traded heavily on the names of it's three stars and very little on any meaningful substance. The two-handers between Messrs. Oldman and Banderas are witty and focused, but captured against the banality of the rest of the film merely serve to illustrate why sheep have a shepherd. Meryl Streep is, I think, going for the Dame Judi Dench "how little screen-time can I get away with whilst still getting top billing award". What an open goal; what a miss....!...