Movie Salad

Writing by Federico M. Bones Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Side Effects’: A cobweb of intrigue and conspiracy that will make you wonder Be careful what you wish for… Steven Soderbergh, that chameleon of a director, is quite a unique man. Last year his film ‘Magic Mike’ was released (premiered a couple of months ago here) and, on seeing its trailer, I ended up confused. Wasn’t he the man behind the ‘Ocean’s’ saga? Weren’t those films more ‘crime’ or ‘thriller’ than ‘silly comedy of sexy male strippers doin’ their thing on screen’? Wait a second, wasn’t he behind ‘Erin Brockovich’ too? And wasn’t this one a ‘drama’ about a single mother? Yes, and it’s the same Steven Soderbergh doing all of them. Isn’t it great to be able to make films whose depths range from puddle to ocean trough? Now, ‘Magic Mike’ was not at all engaging to me. Not, at least, if I had to pay a considerable amount of money to see it at my usual cinema. When I saw the poster of ‘Side Effects’ on the mentioned c...

by Federico M. Bones This production  – is it a film? Is it a series? – had always been waiting there, but I kept putting it off. I’ve never been really drawn to Dickens, since it’s known that his works deal with the awful treatment children received during his time. His depictions being so powerful, I couldn’t bear reading his books. Whenever I started one, it shocked me so strongly I had to put it away after, at most, three chapters. And as I’m a book-first-movie-second advocate, I didn’t want to watch productions of Dickens’ books. Now, it’s a well-known fact that boring stretches of time procrastinating on one’s computer can have unimaginable outcomes. What happened? After some hours without much to do, the possibility to watch this film came up once more and, without much consideration, and after a ‘why not?’ I clicked a video with the full thing on YouTube. Little did I imagine how delighted I would be. I’m afraid I’m prone to liking anything where a bunch of actors...