That’s all without saying a single thing about its fabulous soundtrack. When you’re not shaking your head at Theron’s glass-crunching gymnastics, you’re probably soaking up Leitch’s emerald-lensed atmospheres, Luhrmann-esque setpieces, and sensual lighting that could give Nicolas Winding Refn a seizure or two. Sadly, these tedious attributes keep Atomic Blonde from actually being as exceptional as it looks and sounds, but these sins are easier to forgive, and even overlook, when you’re staring at everything else that’s happening onscreen. Story-wise, it’s not very compelling despite the history at hand, and it doesn’t help that screenwriter Kurt Johnstad tries to make everyone sound 1999 Cool and that the whole narrative is framed within a start-and-stop debriefing, which is always a red herring for twists, and turns, and would-be endings. For the assist, she’s paired with Berlin station chief David Percival ( James McAvoy), who chugs Jack Daniels, shares a hairstyle with Sinead O’Connor, and keeps Hustler in his library. Broughton’s mission is to locate a priceless dossier - think the NOC list from 1996’s Mission: Impossible - before it falls into the wrong hands and every spy around the world is compromised. It’s 1989 and the Berlin Wall is about to come down, a frantic backdrop that fuels much of the film’s politically-charged action. To be fair, Theron’s long been shepherding this project as a producer in other words, she actually signed up for the chaos, and you have to appreciate that level of commitment.īut c’mon, what a role: Based on Antony Johnston’s graphic novel The Coldest City, Theron plays Agent Lorraine Broughton, the go-to spy of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service, who enjoys ice cube baths, neo-futuristic bedrooms straight out of Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall, and killing her enemies in the most savage ways possible. Did you know she broke her teeth for this one? Well, she did, and that fact is not at all surprising when you see how much Leitch puts her through the wringer. Granted, she already had the title after stealing the spotlight from the titular hero of Mad Max: Fury Road as the one-armed Furiosa, but her cutthroat heroics in Atomic Blonde - at one point, she uses a rope that’s tied to a bad guy’s neck and swings out a window to a balcony below like Indiana Jones - is a further testament to the rigorous intensity she brings to every performance, both onscreen and behind the scenes. The other? That Theron is going down as this decade’s most iconic female action star. It’s without a doubt The Scene in the film, and one of two takeaways that every genre fan will recall when its forthcoming neon-glazed poster pops up in future Netflix queues. Is it the depth? The number of angles? The tumbling? The way someone’s always going to have the upper hand? Who knows, but there’s a scene about 85% of the way through David Leitch’s Atomic Blonde that will one day be lumped into a video montage that some over-excited YouTube user will dub, “GREAT ACTION STAIRWAY COMPILATION!1!”, and it’s going to end with the Oscar-winning actress ripping through a baker’s dozen of Russian dudes like they’re a roll of pizza dough. What is it with stairways and action films? They’ve worked for Brian De Palma, they’ve worked for Jason Bourne, they’ve worked for Daredevil, and now they’ve worked for Charlize Theron. The following review was originally published as part of our coverage of the 2017 South by Southwest Film Festival.
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