The first film adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel. The result is ... mixed. Some will enjoy the familiarly obfuscating noir-style dialogue and convoluted twists and turns of the crime caper narrative. Others will find its old school indulgence in stylish sexism and character-driven plot tiresome around the two hour mark (if not before). An impressive ensemble cast and a well made film, PTA's latest is entertaining enough.
find out more...The Weiss family are an archetypical Hollywood dynasty - Dr Stafford Weiss is a psychotherapist whose self-help books have made him a fortune. His wife Cristina is the overbearing mom-ager of their thirteen year old son, Benjie, a prodigious child star fresh out of drug rehab, and their estranged daughter Agatha has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital. Agatha is now back in Hollywood making friends with a wannabe actor named Jerome, and has landed a new job as PA to one of Staf find out more...
A superior psychological thriller from soon-to-be-retired Steven Soderbergh, centring on the interation between troubled young wife of an insider trader newly-released from jail and her doctor who prescribes her medication to alleviate her depressive state. The bare-bones of the twisting plot are pure pulp, but the story is surgically invested with very human actions and their hazardous consequences at its core, both in personal terms and in a wider global context. (JB)
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