It would be unfair to hold director David Leitch’s sophomore film on it—just like it would to desperately want Bridge of Spies to be about the relationship between a human and an extraterrestrial living organism. An adaptation of Oni Press’s lesser-known comic book The Coldest City, the film is an unabashedly campy, hyper-stylized pastiche of both its source’s visual stylistic trademarks and the outrageously convoluted spy thrillers that aim to house in more plot twists than its narrative can handle.
Keeping this in mind, it isn’t difficult to have an absolute blast watching it. With a tone this consistent and a narrative self-aware enough to coast its target audience through its many exasperating moments, what’s not to love? Top that up with some beautiful cinematography by Jonathan Sela (Max Payne)—the vividly-lit, gorgeously graded shots capture both the pulsating insanity and the menace lurking within the darkness—and an incredible soundtrack, and you’re in for a wild ride.
Atomic Blonde boasts a wide array of exceptional actors who support the narrative—from the outstanding Sofia Boutella (The Mummy) and James McAvoy (Split) to top-tier talent in the form of John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane) and Toby Jones (Il Racconto del Raccontei; Eng: Tale of Tales), there’s a lot to admire and respect. The film itself, however, rests mostly on the singular strengths of both Leitch and Charlize Theron (Mad Max Fury Road). She is as atomic as the title might suggest, blazing through the screen with a deliciously delicate blend of cool and cunning that’s almost irreplaceable.
Her dedication shows in the film’s many breathless, brutal action set-pieces. She’s agile alright, but she’s not invincible, and its mad style apart, the very fact that a film as surreal as this is unafraid to give its protagonist some massive bruises. An incredible one-take action sequence that literally courses from a breathless building rampage to a car chase in almost ten minutes. One of this year’s biggest action sequences, it goes toe-to-toe with John Wick: Chapter 2’s gorgeously executed climactic shootout in an all-round mirror exhibit.
It is evidently imperfect if one were to pick its many nits, but Leitch, one can roughly deduce, probably knows and unashamedly revels in it. His execution is extremely relaxed, and he turns each character into the kind of hyper-real people you’d expect to bump into within the universe it’s set in. Bundle that with his biggest strength—the fantastic action choreography—and you have yourself a movie that’s worth a trip to the big screen.
Atomic Blonde isn’t as straightforward as many would expect Leitch’s Wick follow-up to be, but within its world, it’s aware of its twisted limitations. And the fact that it owns it, in itself, is what makes it such a blast.
