Review of The Laundromat (2019) by Bhbarry — 24 Oct 2019

“The Laundromat” stars Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas and a host of other “A List” actors in cameo roles that I’m sure all of them wish they had never filled.

This movie, written by Scott Burns and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is simply not a good film and ranks among Ms. Streep’s lowest endeavors, almost equaling her disasterous participation in Mamma Mia (except here at least she doesn’t sing).

In an unnecessary and very patronizing narrative, Messrs. Oldman and Banderas talk and walk us through the film as they explain to the audience the basics of economics and the skill of creating and maintaining off shore corporate entities. Mr. Oldman in particular, portraying a German born lawyer with a bad hairpiece, is an annoying distraction as he wanders in and out of the accent he has so much difficulty in trying to maintain. Both Mr. Oldman's make-up person and dialect coach should have been replaced since neither did their job well. This, coupled with so many other flaws, adds to the viewer’s general discomfort. To make matter worse, there are many inconsistencies and plot problems in the film all supporting the fact that it simply does not work. I give the film a rating of 4.0 and suggest that the writer and director “clean up” their act (pun intended).

Since the film is concurrently being exhibited both on Netflix and theatrically, I suggest streaming it in order to save lots of time and expense.