September 10: Contagion (2011 -- Steven Soderbergh)

★★★★

This is an enjoyable film, like I often find Soderbergh’s.  It is fast-paced, beautiful, lyrically edited and somewhat complex.  In structure, it reminds me of Traffic more than many of his later films have.   Like Traffic, Contagion has several stories woven around a central concern: In Traffic, it’s drugs; here, it’s the outbreak of a super influenza.   Contagion follows several stories of people touched by the epidemic, some of the stories intersecting each other briefly -- like Mitch’s and Dr. Mears’ --  while others don’t meet at all.  The main concern of the film is stopping the epidemic, and the film moves this issue forward while each of the component stories finds its own conflicts and resolutions.  I always enjoy this form of storytelling, which calls to mind Altman and PT Anderson.

I like the technical elements here, too.  The editing is so fluid that I gave myself to it and found it has such a strong rhythm that it is close to visual music.  And there is more than fluid editing because cuts frequently come at moments that draw parallels between the various stories.  One cut I remember comes after a crane shot has followed a car down a hillside curve, and as the camera completes a sweeping move, there is a cut; The cut becomes part of the rhythm of the camera movement, completing that movement.  Because of the film's many sound bridges, the editing that draws parallels between stories and cutting as part of the cinematography, I found many beautiful moment to respond to in the film.

It’s also good to see a film that recognizes the role that the internet has taken in lives today.  From Jory making narrative comments on IM to the awful character of Alan Krumwiede, an unscrupulous, paranoid, self-serving blogger, the net has its place.  And the film shows both the up side and down side of it. 

There are definitely moments here that creak a bit with too much Hollywood contrivance, and there is one big logical (or story) flaw about testing a vaccine, but Contagion is a fun, capable and even touching film.  Films like this one are why I make it a point to catch Soderbergh’s work.

Atlanta's Own