10 Recent Movies That Totally Tricked Audiences

1. The Laundromat Put Meryl Streep In "Brownface"

Apart from duping people into believing it'd actually be a good film, Steven Soderbergh's Panama Papers drama The Laundromat touted one very peculiar and controversial trick, by having Meryl Streep secretly play a supporting character in "brownface."

Streep plays two characters in the film - well, three if you count a brief fourth wall-breaking moment where she plays herself - one of them a white woman not unlike herself, and the other a Panamanian secretary.

Streep dons a fatsuit, prosthetics and has her skin mildly "browned-up" for the part, and though the effect itself is relatively convincing, between Streep's iffy, generically "exotic" accent and a final moment where she removes her get-up on-camera, the whole thing just feels a bit...racist?

Though some might applaud the trick on the merits of its pure effectiveness, ultimately you have to wonder why Soderbergh didn't just, you know, hire an actual Panamanian actress for the part.