It’s an interesting mixture of gorgeous photography and lighting (soderbergh), a very chill score (david holmes who also worked with soderbergh to create great atmospheric score for oceans 11 and out of sight) and heavy duty action sequences led by Gina Carano as protagonist
She’s a newcomer and soderbergh is right to put her with veterans like mcgregor, michael douglas, banderas and bill Paxton and also in a couple good scenes with the talented michael fassbender and channing tatum
Soderbergh’s harsh gorgeous yellow is used early (interrogation/meeting room in like 3 scene) and often. Highlights include a gorgeous escalator at the airport, a white/yellow wine glass in foreground and a reflection (yellow of course) in the window of a night shoot where they are looking off into the distance at two men opening a building door (with a yellow light inside)—really special shots
Sort of reminds me of like an early godard experiment (maybe alphaville)—it’s a little sloppy- but very charming and even has a b-movie black and white sequence intertwined for nearly no reason at some point
Style as style—it’s a very slim story
Soderbergh even lights a parking lot beautifully
The narrative device of carano telling the story (in flashback) to Michael Angarano doesn’t work at all
See pic above- a gorgeous day for night blue night shootout sequence
The word “shit” both opens and ends the film—but the ending, despite the bookends, feels a little truncated.
Not in or near the top 10 of 2011 but in the archives
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