Steven Soderbergh makes so many movies in so many different genres that it sometimes becomes hard to keep track if you’re not a completionist when it comes to the multi-talented filmmaker’s work. As a result, the Academy Award winner has knocked out several excellent features that quickly faded from memory through no fault of their own, with Side Effects among that number.
Released in February of 2013, the star-studded psychological thriller did a tidy turn at the box office after bringing in almost $67 million on a $30 million budget, while respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 81 and 70 percent from critics and audiences points toward a seriously above-average genre flick, even if those numbers still aren’t enough to rank as top-tier Soderbergh.
Rather unexpectedly, though, Side Effects has emerged from the cultural wilderness with a bang, and in the largest market for the biggest streaming service, no less. Per FlixPatrol, the intense examination of what can and will go wrong in the world of experimental medication has become one of the 10 top-viewed features on Netflix in the United States so far this week.
In typical Soderbergh fashion, Side Effects is stuffed full of talent, with the ensemble featuring Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jude Law, Mammie Gummer, and more. Mara toplines as the wife of Tatum’s former broker, who was jailed for four years on insider trading charges.
Following his release, she sinks into a deep depression that Law’s psychiatrist may have the answers to help remedy, but it’s not long before death and despair follow instead.