Rewatch: Atomic Blonde

2017, David Leitch (Bullet Train) -- Netflix

Weird, I didn't write about this one. And even though I generally "rewatch" things so I don't have to write about it (i know i know, self imposed baggage & rules about writing something that is supposed to be fun, and not to be avoided) I feel I have to. One, because it was inspired by another rewatch -- Extraction, because the entirely expected sequel comes out this week, and it has an absolutely spectacular chase-fight scene shot to look like a single take but built with from transitions, all handled by the director himself (Sam Hargrave) with a camera strapped to his chest. In watching a little YouTube about these/this scene(s), I learned he also did it once before in Atomic Blonde which I did remember, despite not writing about it, being a spectacular fight. And Two, because I felt the need to include it in the tag "women with guns" after writing about The Mother. 

Of note, I have been gravitating to the extreme end of violence in my rewatches of late. As long as there are guns blazing, I am calmed, as my mind off-screen has been anything but.

Atomic Blonde is a spy thriller set at the end of the Cold War in Berlin, mostly East. British agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron, The Old Guard) is relating to a pair of superiors (Toby Jones, The Detectorists), one an American (John Goodman, Treme), about an op gone wrong in Berlin. She bears the barely healed marks of the failure literally on her face. An agent she knew, but denies, was killed before he could get the classic "operative list" MacGuffin out of East Berlin. She is sent there to connect with the station chief David Percival (James McAvoy, Wanted), who has gone mostly native, buried deep in the black market. From the moment she arrives, she is under siege, having to navigate the twists and turns and double-backs between Russia and the Allies, as Berlin builds to a powder keg, which we in the 21st century know ends with the fall of the Wall.

The movie shifts from convoluted spy games, to sexy 80s-music-pumped intrigue to bone crunching violence. Percival is obviously playing his own game, but she still has to work with him, as he is the connection to the defector (Eddie Marsan, Wrath of Man) who supposedly has the MacGuffin list memorized. Lorraine is playing her own game, the way she wants to play it, but weighed down by the exhausting fights & betrayals. 

I want to like this movie more than I do. I probably didn't write about it the first time because I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. Still not really sure. But it is beautifully designed & shot, Theron is phenomenal and in the long run, I am there for the Hargrave fight scenes. The scene in question is up and down stairs, through doors and walls, using guns, knives and the environment as a weapon; Broughton is tall but lighter than the men she is fighting and they allow that to play through. And you can see why she immerses herself in baths full of ice cubes, barely hiding the bruises and cuts under makeup.