The Laundromat (2019)

A widow investigates an insurance fraud, chasing leads to a pair of Panama City law partners exploiting the world's financial system.

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writers:

Jake Bernstein (book), Scott Z. Burns (screenplay)

Stars:

Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, AJ Meijer

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gary Oldman	...	Jürgen Mossack
Antonio Banderas	...	Ramón Fonseca
AJ Meijer	...	Hominid #1
Arsenio Castellanos	...	Hominid #2
Lucy Morningstar	...	Hominid #3
Meryl Streep	...	Ellen Martin
James Cromwell	...	Joe Martin
Jeff Michalski	...	Norm Sidley
Jane Morris	...	Barb Sidley
Robert Patrick	...	Captain Paris
Chris McLaughlin	...	First Mate
Jay Paulson	...	Pastor Conners
Melissa Rauch	...	Melanie
Juliet Donenfeld	...	Thalia
Brock Brenner	...	Kaylen

Storyline

When her idyllic vacation takes an unthinkable turn, Ellen Martin (Meryl Streep) begins investigating a fake insurance policy, only to find herself down a rabbit hole of questionable dealings that can be linked to a Panama City law firm and its vested interest in helping the world's wealthiest citizens amass larger fortunes. Founding partners Jürgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Antonio Banderas) are experts in the seductive ways shell companies and offshore accounts help the rich and powerful prosper. They are about to show us that Ellen's predicament only hints at the tax evasion, bribery and other illicit absurdities that the super wealthy indulge in to support the world's corrupt financial system. Zipping through a kaleidoscope of detours in China, Mexico, Africa (via Los Angeles) and the Caribbean en route to 2016's Panama Papers publication - where journalists leaked the secret, encrypted documents of Mossack Fonseca's high-profile patrons - THE LAUNDROMAT's ensemble ...

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Plot Keywords:

mossack fonseca scandal | panama papers scandal | greed | flamboyant villain | evil banker | 

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Taglines:

Based on actual secrets

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, some sexual content and disturbing images

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

Russian English Mandarin Spanish

Release Date:

27 September 2019 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Laundromat

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anonymous Content, Grey Matter Productions, Netflix

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78:1/2.35:1 (China segment)

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the fourth time that Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott Z. Burns have worked together. They previously collaborated on The Informant! (2009), Contagion (2011) and Side Effects (2013)

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Quotes

[first lines]
Ramón Fonseca: First of all, there are some things you should know before we begin. For instance, we are real people, just like you. Secondly, we did not write a word of this. To be perfectly frank, we would have preferred all of this remain a secret. But we had no choice in the matter. We just woke up one day and everything changed. There were stories about us everywhere: TV, newspapers, and the internet.
Ramón Fonseca: And now it is our turn to tell a few stories. Think of them as fairy tales that actually ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in CTV News at Six Toronto: Episode dated 9 September 2019 (2019)

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Soundtracks

Judas
Written by Martin Blunt, Jon Brookes (as Jonathan Brookes), Tim Burgess (as Timothy Burgess), Mark Collins and Tony Rogers (as Anthony Rogers)
Performed by The Charlatans (as The Charlatans UK)
Courtesy of Island Records Ltd.
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

How to scam the world when you're rich.

If you are like me absolutely not interested in financial companies, rich people and their dodgy ways of making money, but you still want to know about the Panama Papers scandal than The Laundromat is worth a watch. They try to explain it in a funny way, but even then I'm still not getting all the scams. And that's just because I'm an antisocial person that wants to live as far away as possible from people like that. The movie is worth a watch because of the very good cast. Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Meryl Streep for the bigger roles, Matthias Schoenaerts, Sharon Stone, David Schwimmer and others for the smaller parts. It's well filmed and brought, and even if it's very far away from my way of life, and that I still don't understand half of the possible scams, it's entertaining. The world needs more whistle blowers, but what it needs more are competent judges putting all those leaches in prison for a long time, but that's just utopic as the world isn't fair and never will be.