Red Sparrow

A top-rate psychological spy thriller. Although it doesn’t go very deep in its portrayal of the relationship between the two lead characters and escalates rather inconspicuously, it’s very unpredictable in the way it continuously taps on motifs that are smartly exploited without disrupting the coherence of its world and its deliberate detachment and mistrust. The runtime is not a problem, Lawrence ingeniously and effectively overlays condensed events with cross-cuts (the opening sequence is one of the year’s best) or overlapping multiple timelines (characters discuss a plan while the viewer is already watching its execution). Also, the film is a patch for the still absent psychologisation through sexual tension, which is sometimes treated rudely and violently (the conditions in the training facility can not be believed), but also sensitively and systematically when it comes to the development of the protagonist (and dramatizes the relationship between the main couple). Although I was a little disappointed by the twist regarding the identity of the western mole, which stinks of fairytale, the climax was nonetheless good and surprising. Another thing worth praise is the sophisticated audiovisual aspect, it might be par for the course, but there haven’t been many better looking movies in the cinema this year. 80% (02/03/2019)

In anticipation of a new Hanna or Atomic Blonde, I was richly bored for a good third of the film before I realized that the expectations might have been the problem. And yet it was as if the film had anticipated as much, and when the protagonist moves to a secret training center where, instead of spy training she's treated to a stage from The 120 Days of Sodom, she complains about it the exact same way we do. The quicker you tune in to the channel of such a slightly different (yet in some ways almost classic, canon-adherent), reflective spy film, the more forgiving you become of the film. It's not easy when Joel Edgerton simply doesn't have much acting range and Jennifer Lawrence (again) looks the whole time like someone told an inappropriate joke in front of her. However, a few fairly unique scenes, occasional explosions of unexpected violence in an otherwise pretty polished area in front of the camera, and one brutal symphony involving several sharp objects and a potato peeler at least ensure that you might not forget the film entirely. 3-4, but we have to take care of pure genre flicks, so I’m rounding up. (06/01/2018)

Red Sparrow relate the tale of how a young ballerina, Jennifer Lawrence, became the best Russian spy overnight, of course after undergoing a training program for juvenile recruits at an ethically controversial Russian institute called “The Sex Games”. The movie is totally failed attempt at an atmospheric and refined cold-war thriller with a romantic storyline. A wannabe clever espionage drama where the chemistry between the Russian agent and her American counterpart is too feeble to serve as the movie’s sole foundation. It offers nothing else in its long runtime – neither thriller-like suspense nor action. With her baby face, Lawrence is the casting fuck-up of the year. Matthias Schoenaerts is the only one who gives a believable acting performance; he even looks like Putin! The music “inspired” by Goldsmith’s Basic Instinct is supposed to evoke a seductive sexual tone. The similarly conceived Atomic Blonde, which doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not, is the clear winner here. (03/04/2018)

Dominika, a former ballerina, has been trained in a spy school and has become a professional seductress. Now she is tasked with getting close to an American agent and discovering who in Russian intelligence is passing him information. But her mission is complicated by her superiors and perhaps her true feelings. Red Sparrow is a rather intimate spy thriller, and a bit too long. It tries to be sexy and provocative, most of the time it’s uncomfortably aloof, cold, and unnecessarily plodding. And not very entertaining. (07/26/2018)

Too bad that so many of Jennifer Lawrence’s nude selfies "leaked" online, otherwise the film could have been saved by her nude scenes, but this way I was just bored. In the role of Dominika, she once again proved that her poker face can compare with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ben Affleck and, after his cosmetic enhancements, Mickey Rourke. The film was full of clichés, my “favorite” one being how you can easily tell that Russians are the bad guys. The chief of military must wear leather boots, and anyone who would otherwise be in doubt, is suddenly clear. If espionage went the way it was shown in the film, the world would be much more fun. My takeaway from more than two hours of boredom - ballerinas are not what they seem to be. (09/08/2018)