CONTAGION Post-Release

Thanks for the heads up. Though, no offense, but I never once doubted Soderbergh. Amused that this is a dry account of an actual outbreak, as if maybe audiences and execs are expecting full-on chase sequences and family reconciliations and true love and whatever other bullshit that a lesser film would feature.

I noticed this is being released in IMAX? Is that how you saw it? Is there any reason for the bigger presentation?

Loved loved loved it.

I have to say it's riding a The Social Network frequency hard, damn near too hard. That said, if that means more spare, electronica-scored dramas driven by the intensity of events and character motivations rather than bullshit... that's fine with me. Soderbergh is also more than present, and while it almost seems he wanted to mix the Fincher toolbox with his own or something, he does so with as many unique flourishes and effective little moments of ingenious filmmaking that you'd expect from him.

Loved the ending. The film is all about capturing the widest scope of the pandemic possible (we see the highest of the high movers and shakers) while contrasting it with the small personal stories that give the film dozens of small moments of meaning, and a few big important payoffs. The ending managed to be kind of both, as by getting that look of the disease's origin it sticks to the omniscient POV that shows us all the important moments divorced from any specific character, and yet boils everything we've seen down to a few fortuitous bits of circumstance. Kind of sums up the approach of the whole film.

"Featuring a nearly perfect ensemble cast and a flawlessly engineered story, Contagion will assuredly be a classic among those that can stand the cold, paranoia-inducing scenario it so beautifully captures."

http://www.chud.com/66337/review-contagion/

Ended up gushing pretty hard. This kind of a film just does it for me. Like the Social Nework it hits a very cold, logical wavelength with me that ultimately rings into something emotionally satisfying.

Great review Renn...was looking forward to this the day it was annoucned but now: Cannot. Wait.

UK release is fucking 21st October!!

Awesome awesome awesome review. Cannot wait to get out and see this!

Question for those who've seen it: The trailer seemed spectacularly spoiler-heavy. Did that wealth of knowledge going in effect the experience of the film at all?

So IMAX or no IMAX?

Has anyone else recommended a double feature of Rise of the Planet of the Apes followed directly by this?

Very excellent movie. 

Not getting the Fincher vibe with this, though. If anything, this is(not unlike Traffic with drugs) what a Michael Mann ensemble piece about epidemic would look like. 

I sneezed and coughed quite a few times while watching, and because of the muted approach, it briefly made me kind of paranoid. Hopefully it did the same with the rest of the audience. 

Best flick I've seen this year so far. 

Just saw it at the Arclight Dome, what a gorgeous looking film...Soderbergh has mastered that RED camera.

The film is great, liked the restraint, the slow burn...it gets under your skin, performances are all top notch, the direction and script tight and efficient.  Soderbergh seemed to be channeling Fincher a bit, or at least his cold, sterile bits. 

I don't know where people are getting the cold and sterile vibe here.   There were some stylistic choices that added some eye candy and entertainment value to what could be a dark and grim story but that doesn't equate to detached.   If anything, the movie comes across as one of Soderberg's most heartfelt efforts.   There's small heartbreaking scenes scattered throughout that carry real emotional power.   One scene in particular really struck me and since it's Friday, I'll cloak it in invisotext....

My favorite moment

Really, really liked this a lot. The tone, the score, the look, Soderbergh's mastery at juggling multiple characters and telling a conventional story in an exciting, uncoventional way. It's sad that we have to spotlight films that don't dumb down their subject matter for teenagers, but this is smart, gripping adult entertainment that manages to convey a number of genuinely touching stories in a brief, subtle ways. Gwyneth Paltrow has, what, 10 minutes of screentime? And her character felt richer than the majority of this summer's blockbuster heroes and heroines. Damon kills it. He has the most powerful material to work with, but the scene of him staring at the pictures on his wife's camera, or reacting to the societal chaos? Terrific stuff. I find Soderbergh to be a tad inconsistent (although never boring), but this is one of his good ones.

That said, I think it stumbles in a couple areas. The Marion Cotillard character feels adrift in a story that's never really developed, or particularly interesting. Also, Jude Law is a great sleeze, but the amoral blogger felt like an unnecessarily lazy stereotype. I know, I know, as a journalist, I'm well aware bloggers aren't "real" journalists, but Hollywood's seething hatred for them in movies (State of Play also comes to mind) feels like an old person yelling at teenagers for liking the rock n roll. Not to mention the fact, I had severe trouble believing his rather goofy-looking blog would have that intense an influence over 12-million people. Whatever. I also thought Soderbergh fumbled a bit in the end, with Fishburne's handshake anecdote and the U2 on the soundtrack. I dunno, I have a hard time believing 14-year-old kids are cranking up Rattle & Hum these days. Felt more like an obligatory, obvious use of a band that people instantly identify with human tragedy and perseverence.   

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walker 

My favorite moment

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Matt Damon: "MY WIFE DIDN'T HAVE HERPES!!!!!"

 

One funny thing about that is that Matt Damon's performance actually looks pretty bad in the trailer that was cut.   In the trailer it goes from distraught Damon to hammy over acting Damon in the next beat....

"So I can go see my wife and talk to her?"

"Uh she's dead"

"WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S DEAD?!?!   WHAT HAPPENED?!?"

The scene plays much better in the actual movie.   To be honest, the trailer is doing this movie 0 favors.   Unless there's some awesome Holiday movies around the corner, I'm hard pressed to find a better movie this year.  
 

@Episode 29

Apparently a good deal of Marion Cotillard's storyline got cut.   It'll probably be in the deleted scenes but I think what was shown on screen told us enough about what happened offscreen for us to fill in the blanks.   Didn't bother me.

That's what I suspected. Thanks for the clarification.

What happened to the Kate Winslet character really was heartbreaking.

The theater I saw this in was pretty crowded, and the audience gasped at the Paltrow head scene. It was gruesome, but not in a gratuitous, horror flick type of way.

They killed a kid in the first ten minutes of the flick, which set the tone for the rest of the film, I think. I absolutely loved it, and it's probably the best film I've seen this year, so far.

I had a vague sense of Final Destination (original recipe) when I exited the theater though, I was scared to touch anything, to touch my face, and I gave the side eye to some dude who was coughing right next to me.

I was all sorts of sneezing and coughing during my showing. Just straight hoping for the best. 

Loved this movie. Starts off great as the virus spreads. Loved the music which I thought was perfect. Was a little slow toward the end but I absolutely loved how it went a complete 360 with that end shot. Finally a movie this year that really makes you think, and realize it's only a matter of time before something like this would become a reality.

Saying that my enjoyment was almost spoiled by the idiot teenagers behind me who were kicking backs of chairs and laughing at the death scenes and then at the end feeling the need to tell everyone that it was rubbish. This is why I don't go to the movies that often anymore. Oh, and what kind of parent brings their 5yr old to see this movie?!

Only discordant note for me, as others have said, was the Cotillard storyline. Otherwise this is Soderbergh showing Hollywood how it's done.

Not released here until December the 3rd? What on Earth Australia???

Anyone else catch Soderbergh as the voice of the guy on the phone with Paltrow in the first scene?

Saw this a few days ago. I really liked it, but couldn't love it -- fell short of Traffic for me, and of course didn't quite equal Soderbergh's other great work like Sex Lies & Videotape, which is barely a point of comparison anyway since the films are so aggressively different. But for those people who are critiquing the film for being cold, disconnected, and inaccessible... well, this is Soderbergh we're talking about. His stamp as an auteur is kind of the idea of social disconnect and emotional coolness -- the idea of questioning what value interpersonal interaction has, and all the issues of mistrust that arise when it isn't carried out properly or when something gets in the way of its regular function.

I think of how the Ocean's movies are basically an exercise in what we think of as superficially "cool," or how Out of Sight is about the protagonist's struggle when his emotions come into conflict with his easy life of social remoteness (which in the Soderbergh world is exactly what equates with coolness). Sex, Lies is the best example of course, in a similar way to how The Girlfriend Experience is completely about simulating emotion and the inherent lack of meaningfulness in interaction generally. Even stuff like Traffic or Brockovich work within this framework since they're all about the breakdown of social institutions. Contagion is very much about foregrounding those themes and making the prospect of social isolation, breakdown and even social phobia into the main thrust of the plot and the point of the movie. Works for me.

Loved it.   Everyone was great, but for me, the MVP was Jennifer Elhe (doing an uncanny impersonation of Laura Innes from E.R.).   Her scene with her father is my favorite in the whole movie.  I'm also amazed how much tension her scenes became immediately after injecting herself.  You were just waiting in agony for her to start coughing.  

After watching this, I'm reminded of an old Pratchett quote that goes like this: "It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people." I saw people being selfish, which is not a bad thing, because that's how people are most of the time. When Fishburne tells the doctor that he 'told a loved one and she told a loved one, and I'd do it again.' I wanted to cheer. That's humanity, that's people. And sure, he's supposed to be held to a higher standard and maybe he should be put on trial for leaking information, but it's such a wonderfully human thing to do it made me soar. Sure, the world around us is going to shit, but I can help the ones I love not because 'fuck the other guy' but because I love them in a different way than everyone else.

Also, I'm kinda glad that it was the anti-government radical who was the greedy fuck in the end. Do as I say, not as I do indeed. I might be stretching a bit but it seems like it's a subversion of years of film-making that says: big government = always evil, lone journalist = the voice of truth and light and reason and puppies and shit. With the exception of a very few (who are, unfortunately either presidential candidates or senators), most government employees are flawed people who try to best by their job while balancing family and living. They're neither fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, they're just doing their job. I like how the movie showed them as being as compassionate and well thought out as they could be and how sometimes, bureaucracy might be slow, but it will get the job done eventually.

Great movie. Creeped me out.

Love love loved it! Definitely one of the best of the year so far.

I had one complaint with this movie: I wanted at least another hour or two of it. Great flick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

I had one complaint with this movie: I wanted at least another hour or two of it. Great flick.

I would have enjoyed that too!

Finally saw this yesterday in IMAX.  It looked and sounded amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off it, despite the fact that I never once felt interested in what was happening or the least bit engaged with any of the characters. I've never connected with Soderbergh outside of Out of Sight.  I mean, I always see his film when they're released out of a sense of duty, but they never click with me and I NEVER feel like watching them again.  Other than OOS, I've never seen a Soderbergh joint twice.  I can't imagine sitting through Contagion again, but, as I said, I loved staring at it in IMAX.  I just don't connect with the mans work.  I enjoyed the performances immensely and thought it was well constructed from a narrative sandpoint.  I just didn't feel involved or intrigued.   

Great film. Easily in my Soderbergh top 5, with Out of Sight and Solaris(my favorite. A remake? Really?! Nooo!). I won't lie though, I wish I had seen a bit more chaos. Felt awful for Winslett's character. The "handing of the blanket" bit was fantastic(although I think it was a coat).

I dig electronic scores quite a bit but I'm always curious how they'll age. The score to this worked 2/3 of the time for me, and worked against the film the other third. Some of the music that sounded like 70's score didn't really work right for some of the scenes, I felt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexus-7 

I dig electronic scores quite a bit but I'm always curious how they'll age.

That's a very interesting point.  I've really been enjoying this style of score for several years now.  I definitely believe films of this era will be dated by these scores in the future, but they are usually so laid back and mellow, I doubt it will be intrusive or overtly noticeable.

A lot of the synth scores of the 80's are laughable now(not by me, usually, but by many younger audiences). I wonder if the same thing will happen to something like this, or Fight Club/Hanna/the Social Network.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexus-7 

A lot of the synth scores of the 80's are laughable now(not by me, usually, but by many younger audiences). I wonder if the same thing will happen to something like this, or Fight Club/Hanna/the Social Network.

I watched Manhunter last night for the millionth time and wrote it up on my blog (link in my sig in interested).  I noticed how similar in sound and feel its soundtrack and score is to that of Drive.  A lot of ambient synth chords and melodic swells punctuated by jagged noises here and there.   Cheesy, on the money songs as well!  I still love the Manhunter soundtrack (when is that ever going to be available again?), but I came of age during that era of film so perhaps I'm more forgiving of its pastel origins. 

Easily my favorite movie of the year so far.

Technically, it's flawless. It really is. But it's the structure and its approach to the subject that mostly impress me. Hollywood has broken me. I kept expecting for it to slip into some trope and break my damn heart but it just kept moving. I loved the Law plot especially. Usually in the movies the lone voice standing defiantly against the machinery of the state is made to be a hero, either saving the day or exposing the truth in the end. When in actuality such people turn out to be either kooks or crooks. I loved how 'movie realistically' it handled the subject. That it had a backdrop of months not seconds. And I especially love that Damon is now at the place where he plays the father of teenagers.