The Laundromat (film) : An eye-opening film about corruption that almost hits the mark
This film is about loopholes in tax law in the United States and how certain individuals in the know are able to take advantage of them while us peons are stuck simply living day-to-day and getting raked over the coals by the government.
The film has an all-star cast and it is presented in a manor where the people in the film routinely break the 4th wall, eventually ending a lecture or two on the part of ever-preachy Meryl Streep.
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I have mixed feelings about this one: One one side I do love a good ol' expose about the evils that exist in the political-elite areas of this world but on the other side I am kind of sick of Hollywood types, who are almost certainly engaging in exactly this sort of thing, being all preachy to us about "why aren't you changing this?"
However, this film does point out some pretty shady dealings that happen in the USA financial world that isn't really surprising when you consider that the rich have always had certain privileges that the rest of us can't have and that is how it is always going to be, unfortunately.
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Although it focuses on multiple stories, most of them are at least in part tied in to Ellen Martin (Streep) and how she is pursuing a settlement in the wrongful death case with her husband. Her stubborn attitude takes her to multiple locations where the various underwriters are meant to hold offices offshore. When she arrives at those places she finds no office but just post offices. It is at this point that Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas pop up on screen to do a "talk to the audience" sequence and explain what shell companies are.
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These segments are informative but after a while Oldman's fake German accent actually starts to get on my nerves. He plays Jürgen Mossack, who was German born, so i suppose it was necessary.
The entire film is loosely based on actual events that took place during the "Panama Papers" scandal which is something that is still going on today. The two characters that Banderas and Oldman play in the film are real people and they actually sued Netflix for defamation of character (lost) and also filed and injunction to have the release of this film blocked (also lost that one.)
from the official Neflix
I found this movie entertaining and informative because like you would expect, the Panama Papers thing was successfully swept under the rug almost certainly because the truly powerful people that exist in the world are probably all a part of it. Maybe they can do Epstein next (They are probably too worried about getting suicided.)
My reaction to knowing this information is a bit bittersweet because while it is nice to know the dirty secrets of the financial underworld, it's not like i can do anything about it and since I don't make enough money to ever be part of this club, the knowledge of its existence is more depressing than anything else. I dunno, maybe a lot of people will watch it and demand action so that a politician that is bribed by the very people this movie describes can lie to us about how he / she is going to put a stop to it.
Overall I would say this movie was OK, but the way that the 4th wall is constantly breached actually becomes a bit tiresome after a while. If you want a truly entertaining film about the horrible nature of the financial "secret club" i think you should watch The Big Short instead.
My overall rating is...
I was blown away at the sort of things that you can 'write off' once I started working freelance with my wife. You get raped in this country if you are an 'employee'.
The way the tax system works is kind of insane. When you are really poor, you pretty much just get it all back at the end of the year. If you are doing okay up to middle class working as an employee you simply have to fork out a big chunk of change to the government every year.
If you are middle class up to just below what I'd consider wealthy, this is where you get bent over the most. I think that this is why politicians are always going on about the middle class. When I finally started making some good money in my career, I was blown away at how much money I had to pay in taxes.
I have to say, I am all about some kind of a fair tax where no one has an advantage. Like something simple, such as all purchases are taxed a certain percent. Why does it have to be so damn complicated? And why does the same money get taxes so many times? Why do we have 'property tax'? That seems really wrong to me. If you own something it should be yours, in my opinion. Of course maybe there's something I don't understand, who knows.
I think it is so damn complicated in order to benefit those that have the wherewithal and connections to make said exemptions happen. At one point in my professional life i had a salary of over 110K / year. I made less money at the end of that than i did at my prior position where i made 70K. There is definitely a system and i don't know what it is all about or how it works.
I do believe that our politicians are very aware of how it works and are paid to keep it the way it is though.... but that just comes from a profound lack of trust in basically any politician (we should have been politicians)
When I taught 1/4 time I brought home 1/2 of what I brought home when I was full time.
the most fair tax would be like a sales tax where every time a dollar changed hands a nickel would be sent to the government. No exemptions for anything. If someone pays you a buck to do your job 5 cents would go to the government. If you buy something a nickel would be sent to the gov. It would be simple but could be abused if not monitored carefully.
I made less money at the end of that than i did at my prior position where i made 70KExactly! There is a spot in there where you lose money by jumping into the next tax bracket. It's sort of in the 'upper middle class' area. You start to really lose a lot of money. The only way to break free is to manage to make your way to being a millionaire. And we know that's not always possible.
My wife did a rush project earlier this year where she made around $10k in one week (VERY unusual). This particular company pays her through a temp agency which automatically takes taxes out. They took more than 60% in taxes. All I know is, we better get some of that back at the end of the year. She worked a ridiculous number of hours to get the job done, and that is not a typical paycheck at all.
or how about the stories about how the winners of that Fortnite (night?) competition in NYC where the kid had half of the winnings immediately taken away. Taxes, good grief. Don't tell anyone but i pay almost no taxes other than sales tax over here. Of course I have a substantially lower salary but i wonder if it all kinda balances out in the end.
It seems like it would have been a much better movie if it had been a true documentary and they had used regular people instead of hollywood actors to get the point across. I mean like actual professionals in the businesses they are talking about. I might need to watch this though if they explain money laundering. I still don't understand how that works even after watching all the seasons of Ozark! Even if these Hollywood actors aren't actively participating in the schemes you are probably right that the people who handle their finances are. It is pretty rare for the average person to actually know what a financial adviser or broker is actually doing with their money.
Speaking of which... Ozarks kind of lost me midway through season 2 but that ending...... i'll be back for S3 for sure.
Hopefully they move forward with it. Netflix has been dropping a lot of good stuff lately and I see that Bateman is going to be in another show on HBO I think, so the schedules might conflict. I guess we will see.
the perfect prison is one where the inmates don't realize they are incarcerated. In the west we call this Capitalism with a central banking ponzi scheme.
The Perfect Prison... is that a film? It should be if it isn't.
I was told about loopholes many years ago and how only a few in the know are taking advantage of them. I would be a damn sight richer if I had known 20 or 30 years ago and not a just by the way comment I heard last year.
I love these kinds of corruption movies. :)
Feels like home. hehe
I watched it, and to be honest, I almost fell asleep. It was interesting, but still - it didn't make me really interested, so I felt like it was a waste of the awesome Meryl Streep who was so amazing in Big Little Lies season 2... she is simply too good for a movie like this one. As a creative documentary it might work, but as a movie in itself.... boring!