Opens with a glossy murder sequence that seems to be the jumping-off point for a glossy techno-thriller, as our killer is revealed to be an assassin who operates by taking over the minds of working stiffs who are in a position to be close enough to various VIPs to carry out quick hits. The unlucky prole chews on a bullet as their possessor blinks out of the equation and returns to her own body. And then the film veers into…

Soderbergh is as Soderbergh does, and his putative farewell performance at the helm of a studio feature film is the usual tasteful Soderbergh fare, finely directed, with a slightly jazzy achronology to it and its almost pastel color schemes smelling lightly of perfume. For all that, the Manhattan doctor-and-patient tale that unspools here feels overly familiar, but Side Effects makes a case for its existence early on by slyly painting itself as a satire on pharmacological culture. Emily (Rooney Mara),…