Red Sparrow

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)

The American take on the Russian state apparatus is compelling, delivered with respect, and most fans of gritty spy movies will find it to their liking. The secret services in Russia are portrayed as a power-hungry, hard and uncompromising hierarchy of alpha males and females, both decision-makers and enforcers; like a creeping silent force, insidious and yet mesmerizing. This is exactly what the agent, played by Jennifer Lawrence, tries to portray very ably. Another one of her bolder roles in a minimalist and quite raw film with a solid plot, a great modern "cold war" atmosphere and a couple of scenes of explicit violence. Only the hint of romance is a bit too much, but if you take it all as part of the plan, you can turn a blind eye to it. Matthias Schoenaerts is superb as always and Charlotte Rampling is to die for as a demonic teacher. (03/03/2018)

A spy thriller with a pleasantly old-school edit, in which it's not about action, but rather suspense, and who, whom, why and how it ends up transferring. I liked it, and both Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton in particular were great. But I especially have to highlight the James Newton Howard soundtrack - he was heavily inspired by Tchaikovsky and if his overture was played in a classical Russian music concert, probably few would think that it doesn't belong there. (03/24/2019)

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)