Double crosses abound in Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller No Sudden Move. Here’s all you need to know about the story – two Detroit hoods, Curt (Don Cheadle) and Ronald (Benicio Del Toro) are hired for a one-time job. They are being substantially overpaid for the job, which means that they might be getting set up…
The plot contains more betrayals than movie stars, and No Sudden Move is star-studded – Cheadle, Del Toro, Matt Damon, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Bill Duke, David Harbour and a very, very fleshy Brendan Fraser. Amy Seimetz, the noted indie director of Sun Don’t Shine and She Dies Tomorrow. is in here, too.
Soderbergh relishes genre movies, and here he delivers a satisfying thriller. There have been comments about the plot being challenging to follow, but I didn’t have a problem keeping the twists coherent. One of the persistent themes in film noir and neo-noir is the riskiness of overreaching – and No Sudden Move is instructive about settling for one’s share.
No Sudden Move is streaming on HBO Max.