I was going to pan "No Sudden Move," not for its contrived con or heist plotting--this being the umpteenth or whatever caper flick by Steven Soderbergh, but for its contrived stylistic choices. Upon reflection, however, and while I still think it doesn't look very good, I appreciate the felicitous symmetry of narrative and style here. Besides Soderbergh seeing other heist flicks such as, say, "Widows" (2018), "Triple Frontier" (2019), "Da 5 Bloods" (2020), and, perhaps, thinking he, too, should make his heists historically and socially conscious--what with the 1954 setting here and addressing issues of race, urban renewal and car monopolies polluting--it's a modern eye looking back at a period piece. It's distinctly shot with a modern eye, too, as Soderbergh has taken to using a phone camera. The extreme wide-angle lenses, as well, don't just resemble a mislocated Chicago Bean, or Cloud Gate, obscuring the period details of the picture, or offering the paradox of a narrative full of conniving crooks, doubles crosses and switcheroos while photographically there are few angles being played; it's the convex nature of automobile rearview mirrors, thus echoing the story set in America's car capital, or at least what used to be such. I'm not sure what the title, "No Sudden Move," has to do with it, but at least all of the above may be argued to have a purpose.
It also works for how these con/heist plots usually work, where information is withheld as we look forward and only begin to make sense in the end, if even then, as we look back and consider that objects may've appeared differently than where they actually were. Sure, the cast is stellar as usual, some of the talk-heavy set pieces are quite enjoyable in themselves, and there's some fun merely in watching all the pieces being moved--and transparently so for our entertainment, but oddly enough I especially admire how well the things I otherwise find garish--the phone camera fish-eye lenses and trying to make one of the most frivolous genres into social-problem dramas--work cohesively well in this case.
It also works for how these con/heist plots usually work, where information is withheld as we look forward and only begin to make sense in the end, if even then, as we look back and consider that objects may've appeared differently than where they actually were. Sure, the cast is stellar as usual, some of the talk-heavy set pieces are quite enjoyable in themselves, and there's some fun merely in watching all the pieces being moved--and transparently so for our entertainment, but oddly enough I especially admire how well the things I otherwise find garish--the phone camera fish-eye lenses and trying to make one of the most frivolous genres into social-problem dramas--work cohesively well in this case.