Reviews for this film from our members:
- Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]
- Excerpt: è un riuscitissimo thriller sullo sfondo della Manatthan ricca e borghese degli squali della finanza e dei pagatissimi psichiatri: il magnifico congegno narrativo ideato da Burns non sarebbe spiaciuto ad Alfred Hitchcock.
- Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: Steven Soderbergh’s work was always more about the journey than the destination anyway. And in that way, I suppose Side Effects is an absolutely appropriate closing act.
- Chris Barsanti @ Film Journal International
- Excerpt: Steven Soderbergh’s (supposed) swan song as a feature film director is less a Contagion-like topical thriller about the dangers of pharmaceuticals than it is a crisp but low-voltage neo-noir where drugs are only part of the story.
- Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Bold and aggressive and completely sure of itself.
- Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: Another mesmerizing thriller from Steven Soderbergh set in the world of Big Pharma and the widespread use of antidepressant drugs.
- Daniel Carlson @ Pajiba
- Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
- Excerpt: Like “Haywire,” “Side Effects” is Soderbergh’s attempt to make a formula film by not sticking to the formula.
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: One can see that Soderbergh and Burns were trying to make a statement about Big Pharma and the American Healthcare system within the structure of a thriller genre, but their insistence on building upon one ‘shocking’ revelation after the next becomes ludicrous quickly
- Edwin Davies @ A Mighty Fine Blog
- Excerpt: For the most part, the film serves as the Soderbergh’s tribute to his own eclecticism. Much as Soderbergh delighted in his chameleonic ability to shift between genres from project to project, in Side Effects he accomplishes the same trick in a film already in progress.
- Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: Perhaps the most surprising part is the film’s assertion that Soderbergh—retiring out of a certain sense of boredom (only temporarily one hopes)—is still at the top of his game.
- Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Steven Soderbergh hace películas como churros, y por la ley de la probabilidad, de vez en cuando le queda alguna buena. “Efectos secundarios” es una de ellas.
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: [T]here’s a devious sort of joy to watch people this clever and with nothing to lose turn on each other.
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Sleek and stylish, it’s silly and far-fetched, dissolving into a cinematic depressant.
- [New – 12/13/13] | Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: So, if you don’t mind a film going down one alley and then turning down another alley, only to pull your chain, then “Side Effects” will have a disorienting but satisfying effect. Manipulation never tasted so delicious.
- Danny King @ The King Bulletin
- Excerpt: It’s a credit to the nutty, crackpot ambition of ‘Side Effects’ that it somehow covers a whole handful of regular Soderbergh bases, cramming together a narrative that involves sickness, financial distress, psychological penetration, and blood-and-lust-stained greed.
- Benjamin Kramer @ The Voracious Filmgoer
- Josh Larsen @ LarsenOnFilm.com
- Excerpt: As the twists piled on, I found them increasingly strained and eventually alienating.
- Glenn Lovell @ CinemaDope.com
- Excerpt: Fiendishly clever … Three terrific films in one … Soderbergh’s most assured work since “Traffic.”
- Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Plot twists? Or lurches between genres?
- Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Brent McKnight @ Pop Matters
- Ryan McNeil @ The Matinee
- Excerpt: Steven Soderbergh’s alleged swan song takes us to a gloomy place, and spins a twisted tale around the walk away from depression.
- Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
- Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- John Nesbit @ Old School Reviews
- Excerpt: An intriguing premise turns out to be a psychological thriller that uses pharmaceuticals as the MacGuffin.
- R. Kurt Osenlund @ South Philly Review
- Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: This is a real blast, the kind of ride that can invoke the style of Hitchcock without suffering by comparison.
- Jamie S. Rich @ DVD Talk
- Excerpt: Burns’ script is a very traditional wronged-man-style murder mystery in the way the story is set up, exposed, and debunked. Yet, Soderbergh–who also shot and edited the film under his usual pseudonyms–carves out the movie with a clinical precision, using the same kind of bare approach that made Contagion so different from the disaster movies that came prior.
- Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: The movie revels in its twists and turns, and in the convoluted world of movie thriller logic most of them more or less work. Ask your doctor if Side Effects is right for you.
- Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Soderbergh plays us like a violin, and the music is fine-tuned.
- Marcio Sallem @ Em Cartaz [Portuguese]
- Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: Steven Soderbergh’s last feature before his retirement from the movies (he’ll still do theater and TV) is a milestone psychological thriller comparable to Hitchcock’s best work.
- Frank Swietek @ One Guy’s Opinion
- Excerpt: A clever thriller with so many twists that you’ll probably stop counting.
- Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinema.com [French]
- Andrew Wyatt @ Gateway Cinephiles
- Excerpt: What makes Side Effects intriguing is not the fine contours of its double and triple cross-packed plot, but the ways in which Soderbergh and Burns upend expectations regarding how such thrillers are typically presented.
