Atomic BlondeWhen information is a weapon, a good spy becomes a nuclear bomb. Atomic Blonde is an action movie and spy thriller set at the end of the Eighties in divided Germany, on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. But this Cold War fable is really about a beautiful and deadly operative named Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron), sent by MI6 to infiltrate and reclaim a sensitive list of NATO spies from a KGB assassin named Yuri Bakhtin (Jóhannes Jóhannesson) before they are exposed. Her superior, Eric Gray (Toby Jones), charges her to work with MI6's embedded agent, David Percival (James McAvoy), a seemingly wild and untrustworthy contact who Lorraine knows better than to trust when secrets are the choicest currency.
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Atomic Blonde was adapted from a graphic novel titled "The Coldest City", written by Antony Johnston. While the source material had a black-and-white aesthetic that shares more visually with the likes of The Third Man, Atomic Blonde draws inspiration from ultra-stylized action thrillers from the time in which it's set. The vivid color palette is reminiscent of the works of Michael Mann, like "Miami Vice" or Manhunter, and the intense automotive stunts and gunplay wouldn't be out of place in something by William Friedkin, like To Live and Die in L.A. The musical score for Atomic Blonde is front and center, with selections both period appropriate and geologically, too, including David Bowie's "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" and "99 Luftballons" by Kaleida; they are often used in various actions set pieces. The film also includes covers of classic songs by contemporary artists, like electronic band HEALTH performing that old Eighties club hit, "Blue Monday". Atomic Blonde is at its core a nostalgia-driven love letter to Cold War era spy thrillers, like the James Bond franchise. The plot is common fare for the genre: super spy goes into unfriendly territory to acquire a "McGuffin" (in this case, the "list"), and save the free world from its enemies. Atomic Blonde isn't trying to reinvent the wheel, but polish it to a mirror sheen. Lorraine is often decked out in cool fashion, and is stunning enough to look like she just strode off of a fashion runway. She maintains her cool in tense situations--she even conditions her body by taking ice baths, an entirely different kind of "cool". The sinister villain tracking down the list is a Russian spy named Aleksander Bremovych (Roland Møller), who exemplifies the kind of cold, malevolent embodiment of the "evil empire", like when he assaults a captive...but not before making him breakdance. Most of Atomic Blonde is told as a framed narrative, from Lorraine to Gray and a CIA advisor named Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman), who seems to antagonize Lorraine during their meeting, while the mysterious head of MI6 known only as "C" (James Faulkner) lurks behind a one-sided mirror. Although it's clear that Lorraine comes back from Berlin alive, the rest of her testimony is meted out to them as she remembers what happened that fateful week at the end of the decade...and what she chooses to share with these big shots who can never know the whole truth.
Although highly trained and efficient, Lorraine is all but a cipher--a blank slate with little to no personal details that are immediately apparent. She lives in a spacious yet frigid London apartment, and seems to exist only for the next mission. She briefly flashes back to a memory after she is informed of the death of an agent named James Gascoigne (Sam Hargrave), who Bakhtin kills in the prologue. In that memory, Lorraine recalls an intimate encounter with the late spy, but the details of their relationship remains up to the audience to fill in the blanks. Later, Lorraine crosses paths with a young French woman named Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella), who reconnoiters Lorraine and then takes more than a professional interest in the sexy spy. As their relationship develops, Lorraine withholds important information from her superiors in the debrief that Delphine shared with her. Why? The answer could be because of a romantic attachment, or merely a professional one. There is a sense that Lorraine sees much of herself in Delphine, and becomes increasingly aware that the young girl is in way over her head in this lethal game of cloak and dagger. There is ominous dialogue between the seemingly addled Percival and Lorraine that hints at a professional rivalry or even camaraderie in the field. Despite his eccentric behavior, Percival always seems to have a few irons in the fire, and is almost always capable of turning a situation to his benefit. Perhaps Lorraine begrudgingly admires his skills, and it's possible that under other circumstances, she might begin to think of him as the closest thing she has to a friend in Berlin. What helps Atomic Blonde resonate with its viewers--beyond the ultra-slick action and stylized violence--is a sense that Lorraine could be any one of us, if we let ourselves take on the persona of a cooler-than-thou antihero who simply radiates style and savvy in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. This kind of escapism is exactly why films like Atomic Blonde remain so magnetic and alluring.
Recommended for: Fans of a sharp and action-packed spy thriller, with lots of martial arts, guns, explosions, and a nostalgia-driven soundtrack to make cool cool again. Atomic Blonde is intended for older audiences, not just because of the sex, violence, drugs, and language throughout, but because its roots are those of the spy films of yesteryear, in keeping with the Cold War setting.
Although highly trained and efficient, Lorraine is all but a cipher--a blank slate with little to no personal details that are immediately apparent. She lives in a spacious yet frigid London apartment, and seems to exist only for the next mission. She briefly flashes back to a memory after she is informed of the death of an agent named James Gascoigne (Sam Hargrave), who Bakhtin kills in the prologue. In that memory, Lorraine recalls an intimate encounter with the late spy, but the details of their relationship remains up to the audience to fill in the blanks. Later, Lorraine crosses paths with a young French woman named Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella), who reconnoiters Lorraine and then takes more than a professional interest in the sexy spy. As their relationship develops, Lorraine withholds important information from her superiors in the debrief that Delphine shared with her. Why? The answer could be because of a romantic attachment, or merely a professional one. There is a sense that Lorraine sees much of herself in Delphine, and becomes increasingly aware that the young girl is in way over her head in this lethal game of cloak and dagger. There is ominous dialogue between the seemingly addled Percival and Lorraine that hints at a professional rivalry or even camaraderie in the field. Despite his eccentric behavior, Percival always seems to have a few irons in the fire, and is almost always capable of turning a situation to his benefit. Perhaps Lorraine begrudgingly admires his skills, and it's possible that under other circumstances, she might begin to think of him as the closest thing she has to a friend in Berlin. What helps Atomic Blonde resonate with its viewers--beyond the ultra-slick action and stylized violence--is a sense that Lorraine could be any one of us, if we let ourselves take on the persona of a cooler-than-thou antihero who simply radiates style and savvy in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. This kind of escapism is exactly why films like Atomic Blonde remain so magnetic and alluring.
Recommended for: Fans of a sharp and action-packed spy thriller, with lots of martial arts, guns, explosions, and a nostalgia-driven soundtrack to make cool cool again. Atomic Blonde is intended for older audiences, not just because of the sex, violence, drugs, and language throughout, but because its roots are those of the spy films of yesteryear, in keeping with the Cold War setting.