Go Big or Stay Home
I read the Atlantic Monthly and spurn TV, dailies, and weeklies largely because, unlike most, I am not into getting the latest - being on top of the current fad. True to form, I mostly watch movies a month late on a big screen in a huge theater. Specifically, the Bob Hope Theater at MCAS Miramar. Except for the occasional sneak preview, movies on base show up roughly a month after release, but at a better price ($3 for adults at Bob Hope). I take the kids and have money left over for Chipotle. I won’t lie, I like that they play the national anthem before the show. I also like the huge size; I estimate capacity north of 1500. This way you can share your movie experience with a significant audience and still have great seats. |
David Sims’ Job is Probably Safe
I just saw Red Sparrow at Bob Hope. I liked the movie so much I left thinking I should write a review. Maybe I could even taunt Chris Orr about keeping his job? It didn’t take me long to realize that since the movie has been out for over a month, the Atlantic review is probably 6 week old. Let’s call it 5 weeks, since David Sims review of Red Sparrow came out March 2nd (Warning: his review gives away too much plot for my taste). |
But being late isn’t the crazy part, he and I must’ve watched different movies! He quickly compares it to Atomic Blonde, the recent Charlize Theron Russian spy thriller - ‘cause, well he almost has to; however, his conclusion is the exact reverse of mine !?! Somehow he found Red Sparrow more brutal than Atomic Blonde. Thinking on how could this happen, I stumbled into a hypothesis, perhaps David was not alive during the cold war. Based on his LinkedIn profile, he got his BA (English Lit) in England, 2007. Some quick math, he was probably about 6 when the wall came down. Hmmm.
Red Sparrow Rocks
A few months back, I took my oldest daughter (14) to see Atomic Blonde. I was looking to give her more “tough girl” role models to keep building her grit factor. I was thinking of Private Vasquez, from John Cameron’s Aliens (1986). The 12s clip of her doing pull ups while hanging with her fellow Marines’ banter (click the pic) was seared into my brain while I was a Junior at the Naval Academy. It was a crazy, formative time for me. Top Gun and Platoon came out that same year, and no one had a clue the wall would fall five years later!
Certainly not every 14 yo daughter is ready for Atomic Blonde or Red Sparrow. I enrolled my daughter into wrestling when she was just 7. After watching Karate Kid (80s version) she spent a week karate kicking all over the house; since I was already planning to enroll her older brother (at 10) it was an easy decision. She stayed with wrestling for 4 years, until she broke her arm on the school monkey bars at age 11. Not just a tomboy, she missed her first wrestling tournament for high tea, but she does like action movies. She recently decided to spend a week with her cousin Jack (similar age) upon learning he had yet to see any X-Men movies - I hear she corrected his faux pas. Even so, Atomic Blonde was tough on her. In fact, it was so realistically brutal with its fight scenes, I’m not sure I was totally ready for what we saw. Men fighting Charlize Theron’s character would get up again and again after being put down brutally with various improvised weapons. The protagonist took plenty of damage herself - enough so that you quickly understood her proclivity for ice water baths. It was certainly not the edgy, female-lead James Bond flick I was expecting. My daughter, for her part, came out with big eyes. Gritty female role model, check. Unexpected loss of innocence, hopefully not too much. Certainly the realistic brutality overshadowed any sexual worries. |
I understand why Sims characterizes Red Sparrow as brutal, but it is also nearly diametrically opposed to Atomic Blonde. On the surface, they are the same movie. Both are tough, female-protagonist, Russian spy movies. I mean how much wiggle room does that give you? Quite a lot, actually. Theron plays a tough American spy who goes toe to toe with KGB agents in clear, close up, realistic fights and comes out on top over and over again. In her case, the brutality is American vs. Soviet, hand-to hand combat, on roughly equal terms. Perhaps the brutality that Sims objects to in Red Sparrow, is because it is institutional - within the Russian system. Lawrence plays a Russian ballerina, who gets trapped into spying for the motherland. This is not her her father’s CCCP, but it’s hard to say where things would be different. It is not an imaginative leap the movie makes in assuming that legendary KGB philosophy (or Battle of Stalingrad for that matter) is retained in current Russian Federation spy organizations. The “Red Sparrow” training camp is brilliantly technical, while thoroughly dehumanizing, with a clear focus on deception. “Whore School” comments are meant to gloss over this fundamental reality. Over the course of the movie we are exposed to several classical, realistic forms of torture. The bulk of the brutality, found within the Russian system, Russian to Russian, is emotional not physical. For me, this contributed to the experience being more cerebral. I found the Russian-ness of the atmosphere compelling: ballet, classical soundtrack, clothing and mannerisms. So the concept of an unspoken chess match fits right in. It becomes clear that Lawrence, newly trained in deception, is playing chess. The interesting questions throughout the movie are who is she playing with, and how deep does the deception go?
Perhaps my biggest problem with Sims’ review, is that plot issues he waves off as settled or problematic, actually tie into the confounding nature of the protagonist’s motives. When isn’t she being deceptive? I will grant Sims that Atomic Blonde also has a spy vs spy chess match; however, I found it to be more of your traditional spy movie type chess. To Sims’ credit, he also finds the plot less realistic. It really isn’t fair to characterize the Atomic Blonde ending as full-on Scooby-Doo, but I found it to be far less connected and well-developed than the ending for Red Sparrow. I highly recommend both movies. Both deliver outstanding performances by female protagonists that give effective, realistic, and quite different takes on grit. Atomic Blonde is beautiful in its depiction of physical brutality; while Red Sparrow is emotionally brutal, with a deep cerebral game deftly woven into its midst. But if you’re gonna choose only one, see Red Sparrow. |
Late Update - Kyle Smith Agrees with Sims
Hmm, Kyle Smith, previously at NY Post, is celebrating his first year working at National Review. No left wing pansy, he also happens to be my age - he even served in the army during the first Gulf War. Ah, but his Red Sparrow review reads a lot like Simm's. Perhaps like law school, or State School #4 ("Red Sparrow" school) journalism school transforms how you think? Certainly, Smith's reaction throws cold water on my hypothesis.
Let's investigate with a bit more detail. Smith agrees with me that it is a good spy story "...otherwise a cracking good spy yarn." His complaint, the first part of that sentence reads "The gratuitous and exploitive nature of the nudity is a shame because the movie is...." So his problem isn't the emotional brutality, he feels that Lawrence is being publicly exploited - a la the Me Too movement. He even brings up Weinstein.
Let's investigate with a bit more detail. Smith agrees with me that it is a good spy story "...otherwise a cracking good spy yarn." His complaint, the first part of that sentence reads "The gratuitous and exploitive nature of the nudity is a shame because the movie is...." So his problem isn't the emotional brutality, he feels that Lawrence is being publicly exploited - a la the Me Too movement. He even brings up Weinstein.
This is so, not how I saw the movie. When I think gratuitous nudity, 80s movies like "Hot Dog" or "Porky's" come to mind. Adolescent boys who watch to catch the nude scenes are going to be sorely disappointed. Not because Lawrence doesn't bare plenty, she does, but because there is nothing gratuitous about a women (1) fighting off rape, (2) taking the rapist's power away, or (3) brutal water torture. All of it builds depth into her character whose quiet competence consistently finds a middle way surprising and/or disappointing all sides. This point from Smith, "That Lawrence has agreed to be so degraded on film ,,, is disturbing, not 'empowering,' as she keeps claiming in interviews," leads me to believe Lawrence would agree with me. A female protagonist that survives through 1, 2, and 3 is demonstrating her power - Weinstein would be pissed to have lived the role of the emasculated rapist. Do you think Smith felt that Leonardo DiCaprio was being degraded in his role for the movie Revenant? |