Sunday, June 2, 2013

Side Effects

I dreamed of pharmaceuticals last night -- Wellbutrin, Gabapentin -- after streaming Steven Soderbergh and Scott Z. Burns' latest project, Side Effects. If you think you've seen it all in a crime drama, definitely check out Side Effects; it will be worth your time and expense. It's an amazing bit of writing. To structure a compelling story about depression and the unholy alliance between psychiatry and pharmacology set against the backdrop of a soulless financialized capitalism that's killing us all, and then to shift from what you think is a human-interest drama to a criminal whodunnit -- bravo! -- that's good.

Of course you need some stellar performances to pull the whole thing off, and you get them from Jude Law and Rooney Mara. I enjoyed the opening shots of the hive-like apartment buildings of Manhattan and the closing shots of the hive-like correctional buildings on Rikers Island.

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