Contagion
Year: 2011
Grade: B+
Country: USA
Director: Soderbergh
Reviewsimilar to outbreak, but better from what i remember (though it has been 16 years since i saw that). builds the tension well and doesn’t get preachy or too outlandish. i did nitpick some of the specifics. i don’t think that a vaccine would be developed so quickly, for example. mostly, though, they get it right. chaos ensues, the outbreak spreads quickly, etc.
i’m a pretty liberal guy, but i think they overestimate the ability of the government to get on top of an outbreak. there are some good policies in place, but i just don’t trust that they would have identified everything as quickly as they did in the film. there’s always a lot of misinformation and unwillingness to act (as evidenced by one of the local politicians who didn’t want to stir up fear). bottom line is this: if this kind of thing ever happens it’s going to be a couple weeks at least before you can expect any kind of substantive help from anyone. if you think this kind of thing could happen then you should be prepared with non-perishable food and water. probably wouldn’t hurt to have protection, gas, and a generator as well.
as someone who has watched a lot of apocalypse-type films, and loves the genre, i’m always thinking about this kind of thing. i found this one to be pretty accurate in terms of what to expect from individuals and social systems.
soderbergh consistently entertains and always gets his audience to ask questions. there’s only one film of his that i’ve seen that i didn’t like (full frontal) and for a guy who makes films that are so different, that’s a pretty damn good record. he’s also the kind of guy who probably has one film that can please just about anyone. for some it might be sex, lies and videotape for others it could be ocean’s eleven or traffic or che or erin brockovich or out of sight or contagion. there’s enough diversity in his stuff that he’s probably pleased everyone who likes moves with one of his films by now.
Watched in theater