X
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 1 h 36 m
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 1 h 36 m
Summary When her idyllic vacation takes an unthinkable turn, Ellen Martin (Meryl Streep) begins investigating a fake insurance policy, only to find herself down a rabbit hole of questionable dealings that can be linked to a Panama City law firm and its vested interest in helping the world's wealthiest citizens amass even larger fortunes. The cha...
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
Written By: Jake Bernstein, Scott Z. Burns
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 1 h 36 m
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 1 h 36 m
The Laundromat
57
5.6
Where to Watch
Summary When her idyllic vacation takes an unthinkable turn, Ellen Martin (Meryl Streep) begins investigating a fake insurance policy, only to find herself down a rabbit hole of questionable dealings that can be linked to a Panama City law firm and its vested interest in helping the world's wealthiest citizens amass even larger fortunes. The cha...
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
Written By: Jake Bernstein, Scott Z. Burns
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
57
43% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
43% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
14% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
57
43% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
43% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
14% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
The Laundromat is an air-tight, tumultuous info-graph about our rotten to the core financial systems and, in particular, the 2016 Mossack and Fonseca leak, when millions of the Panamanian law firm’s files were anonymously leaked to the press.
The film’s prize asset ... is Meryl Streep.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 70 User Ratings
5.6
36% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
50% Mixed
35 Ratings
35 Ratings
14% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 70 User Ratings
5.6
36% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
50% Mixed
35 Ratings
35 Ratings
14% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
This film is about a complicated form of corruption degrading all our lives in varying degrees. Making that at all intelligible and even, to some extent, an enjoyable production, deserves the highest rating, in part for art, and the rest for raising consciences of those of us otherwise in the dark.
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Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brokovich, Magic Mike) reunites with writer/producer, Scott Z Burns (The Informant, The Report) in The Laundromat, starring three-time Oscar-winner, Meryl Streep, as Ellen Martin. Martin is enjoying a **** vacation with her husband when a tragic boating accident on Lake George happens. Martin is bereft yet manages to keep a positive outlook as she engages in meetings with her lawyer to discuss her financial options regarding her husband's life insurance and wrongful death settlement. Martin plans to use the settlement money for a down payment on a condominium overlooking the Las Vegas strip. Actress Sharon Stone makes a cameo as a pent-up, high strung, real estate agent who delivers a searing blow to Martin's plans. Bewildered and befuddled, Martin sets out to discover whom and what is behind these financial shenanigans she's encountering. All roads eventually lead to a Panama City law firm, Mossack Fonseca, and two lawyers, Jurgen Mossack, played by Oscar-winner Gary Oldman, and Ramon Fonseca, portrayed by Golden Globe nominee, Antonio Banderas.
The film is adapted from Secrecy World by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter
Jake Bernstein and is based on true events emanating from a 2016 journalistic whistleblower release of 11.5 million documents, known as the Panama Papers, containing pages of dubious and nefarious transactions designed to protect and enhance the wealth of the world's richest people. Hats off to Soderbergh and Burns in taking a very dark subject and turning it into comedy. Allowing Oldman and Banderas to portray Mossack and Fonseca in comedic characters enables the subject matter an easier digestion.
Oldman and Banderas provide an abundance of comic relief with voice-over narrations and appearing on-screen as the dapperly-dressed legal counselors. The duo attempt to justify their actions as they hilarious provide background information on how our financial system came to into existence and what all people have in common - money. Their explanations as to why they did what they did involve vignettes in China, Africa, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands and wind up ending in Panama as they ultimately reveal the various and sundry illicit and absurd actions such as bribery, murder, and tax evasions the super-wealthy engage themselves in to support the world's financial system and protect themselves from losing wealth. Streep delivers an exceptionally solid performance as Ellen Martin and manages to deliver the finest moment in the film without missing a beat.
The Laundromat follows a number of films dealing comedically with the dark matter of our current financial system. Adam McKay's 2015 Oscar-winner The Big Short (Best Adapted Screenplay) and Martin Scorsese's 2013 AFI Movie of the Year, The Wolf of Wall Street readily come to mind. Yet, Soderbergh captures a moment in time without most audience members realizing what is taking place on-screen. And, like Scorsese and McKay's work, The Laundromat artfully and skillfully provides an exquisite commentary on more than just the current state of our world's financial system. Hint: It's in the details. One of the year's most important films. Highly recommended.
Report
If a motley crew of movie stars is what it takes to shine more light on government malfeasance, then let Meryl carry that torch in a wig and a bucket hat. But as a pure movie-going experience, it’s all kind of a wash.
Soderbergh and his top-notch cast (Sharon Stone shows up, as do Jeffrey Wright and Matthias Schoenaerts) keep things lively, playing out parables of betrayal and deception with pulpy, TV-movie flair.
The Laundromat finds director Steven Soderbergh in a playful mood, but this time he’s a little too playful, and the result is a scattered and seemingly trivial movie about a serious subject — a lighthearted, jolly expose of international money laundering.
The Laundromat makes a pointed political statement, while spinning out a garbled mess of a movie. In the process, director Steven Soderbergh mostly squanders a cast toplined by Meryl Streep, in a Netflix film that plays like a darkly satiric connection of vignettes that lost something -- mostly, a coherent narrative -- in the rinse cycle.
The Laundromat flails about, with an excess of bad ideas that undercut the justifiable outrage over the events depicted.
Nicely and mischievously done. clever script as the revelation about the writer and director indicates.
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THE LAUNDROMAT
Unfocused plot execution makes it a mess!
Release October 18th, 2019 on Netflix Audience REACTIONS at its North American PREMIERE:
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Good performances from Gary Oldman & Antonio Banderas but really just an all over the place film. Feels like it’s trying to imitate The Big Short just a little too much. Defnntely some wasted casting in Meryl Streep, David Schwimner, Jeffrey Wright and James Cromwell. It was fine, just fine, it’s ok for a Netflix Original but no one really needs to go out of there way to see it. Nuff said
5/10 Jay x
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The premises for this film may well be good but Soderbergh lingers too long and ends up making a film that is too light, self-complacent and a little superficial. A film that reminds me of McKay's.
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Production Company
Anonymous Content,
Grey Matter Productions,
LS Productions,
Netflix,
Topic Studios
Release Date Sep 27, 2019
Duration 1 h 36 m
Rating R
Tagline Based on actual secrets
Awards
Venice Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards
• 1 Nomination
Costume Designers Guild Awards
• 1 Nomination
