Soderbergh knows the genre terrain, soaking up the urban atmosphere through his typically crisp camerawork and editing….
Steven Soderbergh is one of the great pros working in movies today. The man quietly goes about his business, churning out films at a volume rarely seen amongst major releases, with an artistry even rarer still. The same cannot be said about all the characters in his 2021 release No Sudden Move, a neo-noir heist picture set in 1954 Detroit, where a group of small-time crooks come together to steal a mysterious document for an even more mysterious employer. It’s an irresistibly cool thriller with a smart screenplay by Ed Solomon, offering surprises around every corner.
Indeed, with this film (shot during fall 2020, in the early stages of the Covid pandemic) Soderbergh posted another entry into the growing subset of his work in the crime genre, adding to early films like The Limey (1999), and bigger budget efforts such as Out of Sight (1998) and the Ocean’s Eleven series (2001-2007). Even films as varied as Traffic (2000) and The Informant! (2009) pull the curtain back on the criminal world from the streetcorners of Mexico’s drug operations, to the white-collar corridors of American bureaucrats both public and private, in seats of government or corporations. No Sudden Move manages to merge these disparate elements together in a period piece throwback to classic noir cinema, while also operating as an expose of malpractice within the American auto industry and its history of environmental pollution. In this respect it’s of a tradition with films like Chinatown (1974) or the recent Motherless Brooklyn (2019), noir crime dramas with fictional storylines built on top of real-life urban history.
But to get to the business of No Sudden Move. Our main players are Curt Goynes (played by Don Cheadle), recently out of prison, and Ronald Russo (Benicio Del Toro) another hoodlum who like Goynes has recently had some bad experiences in the criminal job market. They are hired by a mystery man named Doug, played by a resurgent Brendan Fraser as a kindred spirit to classic noir heavies like Sydnee Greenstreet’s “fat man” of The Maltese Falcon (1941). They’re joined by Charlie (“now there’s a third guy?” asks Ronald), played by Kieran Culkin of HBO’s Succession fame. Their task is to obtain a document from Matt (David Harbour), a corporate office worker whose wife and kids the gang will “babysit” to ensure compliance. Needless to say, not everything goes to plan, and before we know it our heroes are caught up in a wider web of the local criminal underworld bringing them into conflict with tough customers played by Bill Gunn and the late, great Ray Liotta, amongst others. A lawman (Jon Hamm) who smells a larger plot at work is also on the trail.
All these chess pieces are moved with great skill by Soderbergh, who tells the tale in a seemingly fractured manner but manages to pull the game off smoothly. Attention needs to be paid and names need to be remembered, as information is laid out bit by bit revealing the motives of our various players. Curt has an agenda, and reluctantly teams up with the sour tempered Ronald who seems rather prejudiced at first (“it’s not your fault” he tells the African-American Curt, “you were born that way”.) He’s not so much sloppy as less ambitious. His motives are money and a woman (Julia Fox), the latter being the wife of an unpopular criminal associate.
Soderbergh’s sympathies seem to be with the underdog in his movies, regardless what side of the law. In Traffic it’s the honest cops and officials in a futile drug war, in the Ocean’s Eleven movies it’s the thieves going after the casino bosses, in Che (2008), the revolutionary against the armies of governments and empires. In No Sudden Move it’s Curt and Ronald, caught up in the schemes of “legitimate” and “illegitimate” organizations, summarized late in the film in a delicious monologue delivered by a corporate suit.
The soundtrack is marvelous. Frequent Soderbergh composer David Holmes brings a rich palette, at times evoking the screeching notes of Chinatown, the cool jazz of a mid-century French noir, or even the operatic pitch of Ennio Morricone’s Spaghetti westerns. The urban atmosphere of 1950s Detroit also harkens back to some of the gritty, B-budget crime films of the era like Kansas City Confidential (1952) or Murder By Contract (1958). Soderbergh knows the genre terrain, and No Sudden Move finds a tone somewhere between the dark noir of The Asphalt Jungle (1950), and the playful slickness of Ocean’s Eleven (both the 1960 original and Soderbergh’s own remake).
No Sudden Move’s cast is first-rate. Cheadle does reliably strong work, gradually revealing Curt’s complicated motives. Ronald is another portrait in Del Toro’s gallery of charismatic eccentrics. The actor is something else, in a career that is about as varied as one will find in modern cinema. If he can be likened to a star of the past it may be Anthony Quinn, with his larger-than-life presence and range. He can play big or small, bringing both weight and quirkiness to every character he takes on. Harbour’s character has more domestic issues than the immediate one, including an affair with an office secretary that’s getting rocky at a very inconvenient time. Liotta effortlessly plays another sleazy hood, both powerful and desperate. He was one of the few big-time actors willing to get his ass kicked on-screen this often. Fraser and Hamm do wonderful character work, while Julia Fox makes a modern-day femme fatale. Mr. Bill Gunn puts the icing on the cake as a mob boss, and an old Soderbergh pal has a fun cameo.
Anees Aref is a writer on film, history, and politics based in the Los Angeles area who has published abroad as well as in the United States. His work has appeared in Film International and Noir City Magazine.
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