Solomon's script constantly moves in a subtle manner (not suddenly, of course), following various POVs and strands.

“No Sudden Move” feels like it could be almost done about halfway through and then it shifts again to become something else. Solomon’s script is a classic example of compounding mistakes and hidden motives-nefarious intent always releases skeletons from closets. As Curt and Ronald are forced to think on the fly, the names of Capelli and Watkins filter through their dialogue, representing the criminal powers that control their lives, always in the background, always threatening. Before long, there’s a body, there’s a betrayal, and there’s the potential for more carnage. They know he'll do it because they know he's sleeping with the boss' secretary. Of course, it’s no spoiler to say this doesn’t go well. Rounding out this trio is the wildcard Charley ( Kieran Culkin), who leads the criminals into the home of the milquetoast Matt ( David Harbour, doing his best film work to date), taking his wife ( Amy Seimetz) and kids (including Noah Jupe) hostage and ordering the low-level employee to retrieve an item from the safe in the office of his boss. They are criminals who need one job to escape with their lives. That Ronald and Curt are both on incredibly thin ice with two of the most powerful people in the Motor City is not accidental. He’s partnered with a guy named Ronald ( Benicio Del Toro), who happens to be having an affair with Vanessa ( Julia Fox), the wife of mob boss Frank Capelli ( Ray Liotta). Curt ( Don Cheadle) has just been released from prison and needs one good job to get out of town before some of the criminal power players that he’s crossed come after him, including a peculiar figure named Watkins ( Bill Duke). It starts with the recruitment of a trio of tough guys under the guidance of the mysterious Jones ( Brendan Fraser, wonderfully channeling Orson Welles in “ The Third Man”). To make this point, Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon set their story against the auto race in Detroit in 1954, bouncing a cast of criminals and auto executives off each other. Some will paddle, some will swim, some will drown, and some will push people underwater. “I did not create the river, I am merely paddling the raft,” says a mysterious character late in “No Sudden Move.” We are all in the river. For some reason, it feels like the director of modern classics like “ Out of Sight” and “ The Limey” is still underrated in some circles-take the fact that this film, which would look amazing on the big screen, will primarily be watched on tablets-but history will recognize him as one of the best of his generation, and “No Sudden Move” is just further proof.

Soderbergh has always been an incredibly economic filmmaker-there’s no fat on his best movies and no unnecessary cuts or diversions-and this is one of his tightest films, a steel drum of betrayals and twists. Once again, he is interrogating power structures-a theme of films like “ High Flying Bird,” “Traffic,” “ The Girlfriend Experience,” and so many other greats-embedding sharp social commentary in a story of men with ulterior motives, in which only the truly corrupt come out on top. Steven Soderbergh returns to HBO Max this week with a phenomenal genre exercise, an old-fashioned film with one of the sharpest ensembles he’s ever assembled (which is really saying something).

No sudden move in theaters