Category Archives: Drug Side Effects

Steven Soderbergh has money issues. From the bank robbers of Out of Sight to the drug dealers of Traffic to the sex workers of The Girlfriend Experience and Magic Mike, the costs vs. benefits of American success has always been at the core of the 50-year-old directors work. He scored his two biggest hits, in 2000 and 2001, by reinvigorating classic Hollywood tropes about money: Erin Brockovich, in the strident anticorporate vein of Silkwood, starred Julia Roberts as an environmental crusader in a push-up bra and netted $250 million. Oceans Eleven did even better, launching a $1.1billion trilogy. The candy-colored remake of a 1960 Sinatra film rediscovered a lost formula: the heist flick with a cavalcade of stars. There hasnt been a film as successful in either genre since. Soderberghs newest, Side Effects, opening on Feb.7, stars Channing Tatum as Martin, a hotshot Wall Street trader whos just done time for insider trading. Rooney Mara plays his wife, Emily, a depressive whose condition escalates after his return. As Martin scrambles to launch a scheme with a financial whiz he met in prison, Emily is prescribed a mood-inhibiting antidepressant that seems to produce terrible Side Effectscrying jags, sleepwalking, suicidal thoughts, and … Continue reading →

Posted: Feb. 8, 2013 | 2:12 a.m. Possible side effects of watching "Side Effects" include increased brain activity, confusion, occasional irritability and warm, fuzzy feelings about Jude Law. "Side Effects" is not intended for use by children or people suffering from short attention spans. If you experience an erection lasting longer than four hours, keep it to yourself, weirdo. Interestingly, for a movie based on the hidden dangers of pharmaceuticals, it turns out the less you know about "Side Effects" - director Steven Soderbergh's big-screen swan song - the better. Emily Taylor (a haunted-looking Rooney Mara) had every luxury money could buy - until her husband, Martin (Channing Tatum), went to prison for insider trading and her perfect world was pulled out from under her. After four years of hardship, his release should have put a little color in her cheeks. Instead, she slips back into the sort of overwhelming hopelessness that first accompanied his arrest. Following a botched attempt to harm herself, Emily comes under the care of Jonathan Banks (Law), a sympathetic psychiatrist who begins treating her with antidepressants that make her nauseous and kill her sex drive. But when a friend recommends the new drug Ablixa, which … Continue reading →

The quietly bloody opening of Steven Soderberghs psychiatric-meds melodrama Side Effects leaves a horror-movie chill. Then the picture unfolds so upsettingly that the last thing I expected was to be laughing my head off by the end. The title refers specifically to the malign side effects of prescription antidepressants. A psychiatrist (Jude Law) takes on a suicidal patient (Rooney Mara), whose husband (Channing Tatum) has just finished a four-year sentence for insider trading. The shrink puts her on a fictional pill called Ablixa. The critique of Big Pharma is implicit throughout: Hes also being paid $50,000 to enlist guinea pigs for yet another new drug. We see one patient jump at the chance -- never mind the risks -- as soon as she finds out its free. The terrific cast includes Vinessa Shaw as Laws wife, Ann Dowd as Tatums mother and Catherine Zeta-Jones with her hair yanked back in a bun and a bearing hard enough to break teeth. Thomas Newmans initially delicate score draws you in without directing your feelings at every minute. The demonically clever script, by Scott Z. Burns, dances dangerously close to the edge of oh-come-on -- and in retrospect there are a couple of … Continue reading →

In Steven Soderbergh's medical thriller Side Effects, Emily (Rooney Mara) goes through an emotional crisis and then a psychopharmacological one after her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) is released from prison. Side Effects Rated R for violence, profanity, drug use With: Channing Tatum, Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones It's the drug's fault, man. That's the defense offered by the perpetrator brought to trial in Side Effects, a stylish, vaguely Hitchcockian dud. But what excuse does this fatally silly movie have? The film, reportedly the final big-screen effort for prolific director Steven Soderbergh, begins in a New York apartment where something bad has happened. Blood on the floor, smeared and tracked by footprints, suggests murder, suicide or extreme clumsiness. It's not the last option, of course. But then the story hits rewind, postponing the moment when we learn who was hurt, and how. Three months earlier, Emily (Rooney Mara) is waiting for her husband's release from prison. Martin (Channing Tatum) isn't the violent type; he went away for insider trading. Yes, the beefy actor who usually plays dancers, thugs or thuggish dancers is now impersonating a Wall Street broker. It's dubious casting, but not nearly so implausible as the script. Emily … Continue reading →

If Side Effects, an immensely pleasurable thriller revolving around psychotropic drugs, really is Steven Soderbergh's final big-screen film, as the director claims it will be, then he has peaked in the Valley of the Dolls. Scripted by Scott Z. Burns, who also wrote the screenplay for Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), Side Effects shares, at least at first, the earlier movie's icy fury over the corruption of the medical profession. Psychiatrists dispense SSRIs and SNRIs like Pez candies and are wooed by Big Pharma reps over lunch at Le Cirque. Yet when this initially pointed critique of our quick-fix, highly medicated era becomes, in its final third, a twisty genre exercise filled with double-crosses, blouses ripped in the heat of passion and hidden microphones it doesn't lessen the movie's punch. Side Effects is not, in the words of one uncharitable viewer I overheard after a press screening, "a Lifetime movie." This plot-packed last act further highlights our venal age and is performed by actors who, as in the best of Soderbergh's films, revel in playing characters that, even in their villainy and hypocrisy, are never cartoonish. Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum will not cause drowsiness. Side Effects Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Written … Continue reading →

Open Road Films Bitter pill: Rooney Mara in Side Effects If Side Effects, an immensely pleasurable thriller centering around psychotropic drugs, really is Steven Soderbergh's final big-screen film, as the director claims it will be, then he has peaked in the Valley of the Dolls. Side Effects Directed by Steven Soderbergh Open Road Films Opens February 8 Scripted by Scott Z. Burns, who also wrote the screenplay for Soderbergh's Contagion(2011), Side Effects shares, at least at first, the earlier movie's icy fury over the corruption of the medical profession. Psychiatrists dispense SSRIs and SNRIs like Pez candies and are wooed by Big Pharma reps over lunch at Le Cirque. Yet when this initially pointed critique of our quick-fix, highly medicated era becomes, in its final third, a twisty genre exercisefilled with double-crosses, blouses ripped in the heat of passion, and hidden microphonesit doesn't lessen the movie's punch. Side Effects is not, in the words of one uncharitable viewer I overheard after a press screening, "a Lifetime movie." This plot-packed last act further highlights our venal age and is performed by actors who, as in the best of Soderbergh's films, revel in playing characters that, even in their villainy and hypocrisy, … Continue reading →

"I'm not that gifted at the craft of screenwriting that I can just crank out a thing. I have to really care about it." That may be a somewhat surprising statement from a professional screenwriter like Scott Z. Burns, but it was made late into ComingSoon.net's interview when we recently met up with him at Tribeca's Greenwich Hotel, much like we did in July of 2011. Back then we were there to talk about the viral outbreak thriller Contagion, his second movie with director Steven Soderbergh which proved to be a huge hit. This time, we were there to talk about their follow-up Side Effects, a psychological thriller starring Rooney Mara as a woman suffering depression who is prescribed a drug by Jude Law's psychiatrist which instead starts a landslide of problems for both of them. Burns' statement is even more interesting when you realize that his latest collaboration with Soderbergh was something Burns had been developing to direct himself for nearly 12 years. By now, he probably had gotten used to telling the story of how Soderbergh convinced him to allow him to take over the directing reins--we heard Soderbergh's version ourselves last year--but for those who haven't heard … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh delves into the world of prescription drugs in his new film "Side Effects," a psychological thriller that opens on Friday. Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum play a couple whose lives unravel when she begins taking a new anti-anxiety medication prescribed by her psychiatrist, played by Jude Law. Soderbergh, 50, spoke with Reuters about his own experiences with prescription drugs, shooting in New York and what he plans to do on his self-imposed hiatus from film-making. Q: "Side Effects" shows characters either taking medication or prescribing them. Have you ever needed to take medication for your mood, for example? A: "Luckily, my equilibrium is fairly consistent, so I've never been in a position of wanting or needing something to stabilize my mood. The Inderal beta blocker, what they call the "speaking drug," is miraculous. I use that. A buddy of mine turned me on to it because I said, "I really hate getting up in front of people." He says, "You've got to try Inderal." It keeps you calm and keeps you from getting anxious. That's my only pill experience." Q: No pain-killing drugs that have landed so many in rehab? A: "I … Continue reading →

If "Side Effects" is indeed Steven Soderbergh's final film, as he's said it will be after toying with the notion of retirement for a couple of years now, then intriguingly it feels like he's coming full circle in some ways to the film that put him on the map: the trailblazing, 1989 indie "sex, lies and videotape." Both are lurid genre exercises, laid bare. Both focus on the intertwined lives of four central figures, including a scene in which one of the men interviews one of the women on video, hoping to unearth a hidden truth. Both movies are about danger, secrets and manipulation, filled with characters who aren't what they initially seem, all of which Soderbergh depicts with his typically cool detachment. Twists and double crosses occur and schemes are revealed as layer upon layer of Scott Z. Burns' clever script gets peeled away; it's actually going to be difficult to discuss "Side Effects" without giving too much away. Yet Soderbergh approaches such dramatic events with the same chilly tone that has marked so much of his work, even as the developments grow more than a little implausible. Just as matter-of-fact is the way the characters rattle off the … Continue reading →

WebMD News from HealthDay By Carina Storrs HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- For men with prostate cancer who are trying to decide between surgery or radiation therapy, new research shows that declines in sexual, urinary and bowel function do differ with each treatment in the short-term, but those declines tend to even out in the long run. The study included more than 1,600 men treated for early stage prostate cancer. Researchers asked them about their urinary, sexual and bowel health following either surgery to remove the prostate or radiation therapy. Although the rates of health decline in these areas differed at two and five years after treatment, men reported similar declines regardless of their treatment after 15 years. While men who underwent surgery experienced higher rates of urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction two and five years later, men who received radiation therapy had higher rates of bowel urgency, or feeling like they had to pass stool but not being able to do so. The study was published in the Jan. 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "Our hope was that measuring patient-reported outcomes at a 15-year time point would provide patients and their physicians … Continue reading →