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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Contagion (Film)

by Erin Free | October 17, 2011 14:33 | Edited October 17, 2011 14:35

An intelligent, emotionally driven ensemble film that we have come to expect from Soderbergh.

Steven Soderbergh is a truly intelligent filmmaker, and we don't say that just because he wears glasses, nor because he makes bold and striking films, often of a supremely twisted bent. No, Steven Soderbergh is an intelligent director because he always puts emotion front and centre, even when he's at his most outlandish. Though many of his works are experimental, they are never dry, nor come off as mere intellectual exercises. In every film - from the groundbreaking indie beats of sex, lies and videotape to the high-gloss sheen of Ocean's Eleven - you connect with the characters and fret over the often dire situations in which they find themselves. So it is with Contagion, the director's precision-perfect stab at the virus-outbreak-world-goes-nuts movie.

 

While other filmmakers would hone in on the hysteria (note Wolfgang Petersen's particularly awful genre low point, Outbreak), Soderbergh stitches up a fascinating mosaic of diverse characters, and runs through how they are affected by a new, deadly virus that is quickly and horrifyingly killing off large slabs of the world's population. There are the scientists trying to stop it (Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, Marion Cotillard), the everyday people trying to process their grief (Matt Damon), and those using the crisis for their own ambiguous ends (Jude Law).

 

As Cliff Martinez' brilliant ambient score grinds away, and Soderbergh keeps the mood tight and controlled, Scott Z. Burns' excellent script avoids backstory and creates its characters in the here and now. We learn about them through how they react to a truly heartbreaking situation, and the result is a fascinating film that continually reveals new depths of feeling and sadness. When the world spirals out of control, you really care about the people caught in the middle of its horrors, and that's what makes Contagion so truly memorable.