Someone hand Meryl Streep the Oscar already, as she steals the screen in the trailer for Netflix’s new dark comedy about the Panama papers.
‘Based on some real shit’ – the exposure of rogue offshore finance industries known as The Panama Papers – the first trailer of Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat starring Meryl Streep looks incredible.
Streep plays the lead role of widow Ellen, whose dream vacation takes a wrong turn and sees her chasing shady Panama city law partners, Jürgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Antonio Banderas).
When Ellen realises she has been conned out of a large amount of money by Mossack and Fonseca’s con she investigates the fake insurance policy and becomes determined to take down the partners.
As she goes further down the rabbit hole Ellen discovers her case is not an isolated incident but one of millions of files linking an offshore tax scheme that benefits the world’s richest and most powerful political leaders.
‘Bribery, corruption, money laundering. Millions and millions and millions of dollars,’ Ellen tells a woman about the scam while grocery shopping. ‘Somebody has to sound the alarm.’
Streep, Oldman and Banderas are joined by a cast that includes Jeffrey Wright, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Cromwell, Robert Patrick, David Schwimmer and Sharon Stone.
Director Soderbergh and writer Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, Contagion) based The Laundromat on Jake Bernstein’s 2017 book, Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite, which explored how Panamanian company Mossack Fonseca aided the super-rich in concealing wealth and evading taxes.
Netflix hopes the crime caper will be an Oscar contender.
With Banderas and Oldman sporting garish suits and colourful accents alongside what looks to be another stunning performance from Streep we think they are in with a shot.
Other forthcoming films from the streaming giant include Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Craig Brewer’s Dolemite Is My Name, David Michod’s The King and Fernando Meirelles’ The Two Popes.
Similar to Roma, The Laundromat will be released in select cinemas from Friday 27 September before it premieres on Netflix on Sunday 18 October.
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