No Sudden Move
HBO Max | Release Date: July 1, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistJason BaileyJun 18, 2021
The complexity of the plotting overwhelms the picture a bit, which gets a little fuzzy in the middle – but it eventually forcefully snaps into focus, mostly by finding its spine in the simple notion that this is a movie about people under pressure. Read full review
90
Vanity FairCassie da CostaJul 8, 2021
With Soderbergh and his collaborators, you can never complain that great thespian skills were left to wander, or that you were bored. I’m not sure that I ever really knew what was going on in No Sudden Move—something about redlining, pollution, and the American auto industry—but I was never taken out of the moment. Each beat pulsed with both anticipation and absurdity. If that’s not movie magic, then, well, it depends on what you think movie magic is. Read full review
90
PolygonJoshua RiveraJul 2, 2021
It starts as a crime caper, makes a pit stop among the sitdowns and power-jockeying of gangster films, and somehow manages to tie its many disparate threads together in a period drama about the destruction of an American city. It’s all the more dazzling that it does all this while being slickly entertaining and assured Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 1, 2021
It’s another Soderbergh film whose allure is sure to endure. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 30, 2021
The result is a ride that feels smooth and bumpy in all the right places. You are pulled along by the seductive glide of Soderbergh’s filmmaking, by the jazzy riffs of David Holmes’ score and the suavity of the camerawork, only to be jolted into high alertness by the nasty, bloody surprises in Solomon’s script. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 6, 2021
No Sudden Move represents [Soderbergh's] best post-“retirement” effort and this is a real treasure for those with an affinity for ensemble crime movies. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 5, 2021
A damned clever neo-noir with a top-drawer cast, genuine suspense, dark humor and a plot that keeps you guessing for a very long time, this Steven Soderbergh thriller has everything a good heist picture needs to get over. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversJul 2, 2021
Set in 1954 Detroit, Soderbergh’s terrific, twisty, film-noir throwback keeps a lot of racial, political and sexual tension simmering under the surface, providing a field day for actors who interact with clockwork precision and off-the-wall laughs. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJul 1, 2021
No Sudden Move is like watching a musician return to the themes and ideas explored throughout a career but with the renewed insight that comes after decades of success. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 29, 2021
No Sudden Move could also refer to the snail’s pace of social change. But race is just a subtext — albeit an enriching one — in a piece of entertainment that feels like watching, say, Ocean’s 11, but with a social conscience. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 29, 2021
It’s yet another instantly immersive, richly layered and beautifully shot chapter in one of the most impressive directing careers of our time. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 29, 2021
No Sudden Move is a terrific movie — an unflashy near-masterpiece of professionalism on both sides of the camera. Read full review
83
The Film StageVikram MurthiJul 8, 2021
After 29 narrative features, Soderbergh has developed a proficient sense of staging that feels simultaneously relaxed and invigorating. Much of the ineffable fun of watching No Sudden Move comes from being in the hands of someone who knows how to achieve what they want without trying unduly hard to impress. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJun 29, 2021
Movies routinely place characters in desperate, life-or-death situations, but rarely do we see them behave in a genuinely desperate way. No Sudden Move, a period crime drama written by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, corrects this oversight in a way that’s at once hilarious and distressing. Read full review
83
ConsequenceJesse HassengerJun 18, 2021
Though the movie ultimately minds its business about a lot of the personal affairs it brings up, it imbues its characters with a bounty of implied off-screen life. No Sudden Move is somehow both a stylized genre exercise and part of a larger, less rigidly controlled tapestry that reveals itself as it goes. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsJul 7, 2021
It’s a thrill ride from a director who, recently prone to intriguing, one-off experiments, knows we didn’t exactly need reminding that he’s still got it, but reminds us anyway — flaunting what he has because, well, he can. Read full review
80
The GuardianCharles BramescoJul 2, 2021
The overstuffed, better-keep-up narrative suits the film’s purposes, occupying audience attentions to leave them unprepared for the nimble writing’s assorted baits and switches. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 1, 2021
No Sudden Move riffs on stereotypes of the 1950s, even as it suggests we haven’t come as far as we might think. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensJul 1, 2021
The whole thing vanishes pretty quickly from memory once it’s over. But for that hour and a half of fluid, kinetic filmmaking, you are putty in the hands of Steven Soderbergh, a reliably pleasurable place to be. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonJun 19, 2021
The plotting gets confusing, but what’s crystal-clear is the filmmaker’s skill at concocting a grippingly pessimistic worldview that permeates his den of thieves. No Sudden Move makes an impact, even when it doesn’t always make sense. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 18, 2021
As each new wrinkle comes to light, Soderbergh keeps the action wound tight, zigging and zagging like a well-oiled machine. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJul 6, 2021
With One Sudden Move, Steven Soderbergh mixes an old-school 1950s noir with a modern sense of social self-consciousness. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJun 29, 2021
Even as everyone’s plans unravel, the film does not. The script, by Ed Solomon, is sharp, as is Soderbergh’s direction. Read full review
70
Screen RantDebopriyaa DuttaJul 10, 2021
No Sudden Move is a tautly-paced noir thriller prepped with a never-ending carousel of twists and betrayals that culminate in a satisfying denouement. Read full review
70
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaJul 6, 2021
It’s easy to enjoy the film’s light, airy charms, but once it’s over, you’re left feeling a little empty. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJul 6, 2021
Although Soderbergh complicates his cinematic dish with too many flavors, No Sudden Move still offers plenty of bites to savor. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryJul 2, 2021
No Sudden Move fares better with the quirky, unpredictable nature of the characters, the impeccable period touches -- from the overall look to the music -- and disarmingly witty bits of dialogue. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 25, 2021
It’s when Soderbergh tries to say too much that he loses the thread a bit. That’s a shame, because he and the cast are so good at saying a lot with a little. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnJun 18, 2021
Even as the movie devolves into an ineffectual shaggy-dog story shoehorned into a baffling and abrupt real-life backdrop, it remains a slick and enjoyable pastiche about messy outlaws adrift in a world designed to screw them over. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJul 8, 2021
Cheadle is wonderful—weary and gravelly as an underestimated ex-con playing everyone’s assumptions about him to his advantage. Read full review
63
The Associated PressMark KennedyJun 29, 2021
With so many murky motives, there’s little to care about, no way to anticipate the next con and no sense of real peril. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 14, 2021
No Sudden Move may be a fairly minor entry in his filmography, but it’s well-crafted and thrilling in a way that feels oddly reassuring. Read full review
60
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerJul 1, 2021
Regardless of whether or not Soderbergh once again made iPhone filmmaking look more visually elegant than most modern Hollywood blockbusters, No Sudden Move suffers from low stakes and a disconnect from the world of our characters. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 1, 2021
The schematic for No Sudden Move remains perfectly intact, and the thing itself works pretty much according to the specifications. A consumer-rating agency would give it high marks for safety and efficiency, but it never leaves the showroom. Read full review
60
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJun 18, 2021
If a movie’s going to take us to “Chinatown,” it needs to come up with a new and different path to get there. Instead, the film revels in its genre trappings, only to grab at gravitas in the last ten minutes with the sudden introduction of historical iniquities into the story. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 18, 2021
No Sudden Move, for all its pleasures, doesn’t quite make the old seem new again. Read full review
50
UproxxVince ManciniJul 13, 2021
As always, it’s impossible not to be impressed with Soderbergh’s ability to stage and shoot a scene, a talent he has historically put to use in some of my favorite stories (The Knick, for instance). But when he uses that talent to just sort of breeze through a rough draft story before flitting off to the next project, it’s a kind of disrespect to the subject. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJul 1, 2021
It’s a miniseries’ worth of action that’s crammed into the procrustean bounds of a near-two-hour feature, without the compensating dimensions of symbol and implication. Read full review
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