THE LAUNDROMAT

Originally posted January 28, 2022

I watched The Laundromat (2019) a couple of weeks ago but found I needed to mull it over before trying to comment. At the film's core, it exposes how the wealthiest people in the world are able to stay that way by filtering money through offshore bank accounts and shell companies. It is based on true events and characters that were exposed in 2016 when the "Panama Papers" were published. The way these privileged people are able to avoid paying taxes and how they prey on the vulnerable and unsuspecting is obscene. And it continues to this day.

Given the subject matter, it's odd that the film teeters between drama and comedy. It's uneven in its pacing and yet somehow still enticing. Make no mistake, director Steven Soderbergh takes the subject matter and drops it on you like an anvil. Hard. Simultaneously the film somehow doesn't take itself too seriously, weaving Antonio Bendaras and Gary Olman into its three ongoing storylines as the central villains, Ramon Fonseca and Jurgen Mossack. Meryl Streep is wonderful as always, playing Ellen Martin, a fictional character drawn into the web of offshore shenanigans after her husband is killed in a freak accident and she attempts to follow up on the insurance policies that should be taking care of her.

I know that many didn't care for this film, but after much thought and consideration, I found it highly original and entertaining... and eye-opening. Horrifically eye-opening... which may be why its director chose to use humor to make it more palatable. Did he succeed? That's up to the viewer!