Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#1 Post by Never Cursed » Sat Mar 10, 2018 8:24 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence) I had heard that there were walkouts when this premiered because of its harshness, and went in ready to look down condescendingly at the delicate souls who couldn't handle some gritty violence and sex in their spy thrillers, because really: how rough could a vehicle for Jennifer Lawrence from the director of the Hunger Games franchise be? So imagine my surprise when I walked out thinking, "That was too harsh." Not because the violence, sex, and sexual violence is breaking any Noe-esque barriers, but because Lawrence (the director) leans into the brutality but fails to invest enough in the characters and their ultimately cliched and/or superficial motivations to make the sadism feel impactfully shocking rather than calculatedly lurid. If you’re making a spy thriller in which the cast can’t be bothered to speak actual Russian, you can’t also insist that you’re bravely investigating the darkest underbelly of international espionage. Lawrence and Edgerton are fine given the limitations they’re working within, but some of the supporting cast is wasted - particularly Jeremy Irons - aside from Charlotte Rampling’s “Matron”, who should have had another 15-20 minutes of screen time.
I just saw this, and I am amazed at how bad much of this, especially towards the start of the film, was. Completely tasteless and uninterested in exploring the somewhat compelling premise, this is another "twisty" spy thriller that, in the vein of movies like Atomic Blonde, is primarily concerned with making the violence and sexuality presented here as lurid and appealing to pervs as possible. Some of the stuff later on, as Lawrence's character plays American and Russian spies off of each other, is somewhat engaging, but much of the first hour is nonsensically awful for a couple reasons. The first is a plot-related one:
SpoilerShow
Lawrence's character starts spying after her uncle, coincidentally the deputy head of the SVR, recruits her to get close to a Russian politician. Because this movie is the way it is, the politician ends up raping her, but is murdered mid-coitus by a state hitman. Lawrence is then informed that, because she was a witness to the assassination, she has to serve the state (ie go to spy school and become a full blown spy) or be executed. The thing is, though, the uncle knew that the politician was both a perv and was to be killed, but he only comes up with the "sending her to spy school" idea after the assassination. In other words, the uncle knew that Lawrence would be assaulted and her life would be threatened by his sending her to the politician, but didn't think of a way to save her life until after the assassination took place. Why would he do this except as a convenient way of introducing Lawrence to the sexual aspect of spying (which the movie cares about aesthetically), and as a convenient way of making her life hang in the balance... so that the movie can be more dramatic? Why would he do this to someone he personally cares about with no prior experience in espionage except as a way of giving the conflict in the movie a personal dimension?
Furthermore, the whole "spy school" aspect of the film, and by extension, the concept of a "Sparrow," is executed horribly. A Sparrow is, in the movie's fiction, a Russian operative trained at a special state school to get information out of marks by seducing them. Thus, much of the training of the Sparrows is sexual in nature, with an emphasis on ascertaining what it is that specific marks are into and why. This could be an interesting idea, akin almost to detective work, but the movie has no interest in using it as anything more than an excuse to sexualize Jennifer Lawrence's work. We never see a male Sparrow, because the movie doesn't care about that. We never see any of the deductive aspects of being a Sparrow (beyond Lawrence figuring out that Joel Edgerton likes blonde girls and subsequently dying her hair) because the movie doesn't care about that. In the context of what's in the movie, it's just an excuse to have Lawrence get raped twice, to make her strip for one of her rapists (and, conveniently, the camera), to make her romantically kiss her uncle, and to hump Edgerton for fifteen seconds after a stilted conversation.

This same focus on female-performed sex acts extends to the spy school sequences, where female candidates are made to watch BDSM porn, stripped, and forced to perform sex acts on male soldiers and a gay man (in one of the movie's awful jokes) on camera to be reviewed by the Russian intelligence brass, while none of the male candidates, with the exception of the one that rapes Lawrence, are shown doing anything more sexual than stripping. All of this adds up to create a good 20-30 minute chunk of the movie that feels like disgusting fanfiction for the raincoat crowd, with the kicker being that none of the "lessons" taught at the school even mattered - Lawrence ends up seducing Edgerton in an identical way to any number of other Mata Hari stories. I'm not squeamish, nor do I have any sort of aversion to or bias against movies with explicit sexual content, but this movie uses sex in one of the scummiest ways I've seen in a long time, in a way I thought had died with the grindhouse theater. Not all of the movie is atrocious in this way, but it plunges so far past the point of no return so quickly that none of the rest could redeem it.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: The Films of 2018

#2 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Mar 10, 2018 8:38 pm

Ribs wrote:And Red Sparrow was summed up best in the Atlantic's review: Like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy if done by Verhoeven.
I imagine Verhoeven wouldn't have made something quite so bland and tedious, and I say this as no particular Verhoeven fan. My wife and I both found Red Sparrow alternatively boring and unpleasant. Boring because, well, people's motivations are either simplistic shorthand (uncle just wants to fuck his niece; agent just cares too much about his informants) or, in the case of the Sparrow herself, opaque. For the longest time it's impossible to guess what Sparrow is up to, so the plot can only meander between loosely connected scenes with no apparent aim. My wife and I were both shocked to realize the swimming pool scene, ie. the point we both decided independently that we'd checked out, was only about an hour into the film. It felt like two. There's no energy or life to the movie--no momentum, no excitement, no thrills. It plods on, going who knows where. And once it's apparent where things are going to end, all you can think is: all that length and complication for that?* This is compounded by the fact that, like many 90's thrillers (Verhoeven's Basic Instinct included), the evidence is so equivocal and ambiguous that it's arbitrary whatever the reveal ends up being. Sparrow's motivations are persistently unknowable, so there's nothing to guess at or invest in, and no outcome to desire.

Then there is the unpleasant violence, especially the sexual violence. We see little about how people are trained to be spies, but quite a lot of the endless sexual humiliations they suffer. And because it's always presented in a context of punishment, submission, and voyeurism, the depictions become fetishistic rather than neutral or outraged. With so few scenes of tension or excitement in the movie, you're left with a double after-effect of genuine unpleasantness:

A. a placid movie that jumps suddenly right into people being flayed alive is less disturbing or gripping than a movie that's prepared you for it, and instead just becomes alienating.

B. all the torture and rape scenes become, in the absence of any other thrills, the de facto entertainment.

The movie is an anachronism: it's a cold war movie set in the present day. Whatever the realities of modern spying, I can't imagine this movie captures them. No one so much as uses a cell phone, and at one point secrets are traded on floppy disks. Given that so much of the movie is set in the less modern-looking parts of central Europe, it's easy to forget for long periods that this isn't a historical movie. Just weird choices all around. I vastly preferred the candy-coloured goofiness and energy of Atomic Blonde, whose own approach to excessive violence seems careful and thought out in comparison.
SpoilerShow
* It's just a long, convoluted, interminable rape-revenge thriller, and little more.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#3 Post by Brian C » Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:05 pm

I agree completely with Mungo and Sausage, and I'll add that it seems surpassingly strange to read that Jennifer Lawrence has talked the movie up as empowering for women (or at least for her). Imagine some male producer coming up to her and saying, "Hey, J-Law, I have a way for you to 'reclaim' yourself after those nude pics of you got hacked. We'll do a movie together where you're constantly raped and beaten and you can do some nude scenes!" My guess is that she'd want to give him a swift knee to the crotch. And yet here we are. Her character refers to being sent to "whore school" one time and I guess that's supposed to carry many gallons of empowerment water.

As an aside, has anyone ever managed a credible Russian accent on film? There are a lot of Russian speakers here in Chicago, so while I don't speak 3 words of it, I have some idea of what it sounds like. And even more to the point, I know what Russian-accented English sounds like. And English-speaking actors unfailingly sound vaguely SNL-ish when they try it.

User avatar
Big Ben
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:54 pm
Location: Great Falls, Montana

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#4 Post by Big Ben » Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:11 pm

Brian C wrote:As an aside, has anyone ever managed a credible Russian accent on film? There are a lot of Russian speakers here in Chicago, so while I don't speak 3 words of it, I have some idea of what it sounds like. And even more to the point, I know what Russian-accented English sounds like. And English-speaking actors unfailingly sound vaguely SNL-ish when they try it.
Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises. He was so convincing he terrified a woman in a London bar because he was still in character and still had his mob tattoos on when he visited. She became visibly upset at his presence.

User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#5 Post by Never Cursed » Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:21 pm

Brian C wrote:As an aside, has anyone ever managed a credible Russian accent on film? There are a lot of Russian speakers here in Chicago, so while I don't speak 3 words of it, I have some idea of what it sounds like. And even more to the point, I know what Russian-accented English sounds like. And English-speaking actors unfailingly sound vaguely SNL-ish when they try it.
The whole "actors speaking accented English in a foreign country" thing is one of my pet peeves. With regards to this movie in particular, it doesn't help at all that Charlotte Rampling and Jeremy Irons keep lapsing into their British accents when speaking.

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
Contact:

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#6 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:34 pm

My joke for this has been that I feel bad for whoever has to handle David O. Russell's screener copy after he's finished watching it. Only thing regrettable about it is that it does make me pine for the time when the term "VHS rental" would have been relevant enough to make it more funny.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#7 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:00 pm

Brian C wrote:... and I'll add that it seems surpassingly strange to read that Jennifer Lawrence has talked the movie up as empowering for women (or at least for her).
I guess it's empowering in the same sense that something like I Spit on Your Grave is empowering: the endless scenes of sexual violence are 'justified' with scenes of the woman getting her own back, usually in another sexual situation (eg. the classroom scene with Sparrow's attempted rapist, which, while technically a power reversal, is no less leering than all the other humiliation scenes set in that room and using those camera set-ups. And even then, if she gains some power over her would-be rapist, she still plainly has no power within the system that is ordering this particular sexual humiliation, so, yeah, Pyrrhic victory?).

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#8 Post by Brian C » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:13 pm

Mr Sausage wrote:I guess it's empowering in the same sense that something like I Spit on Your Grave is empowering: the endless scenes of sexual violence are 'justified' with scenes of the woman getting her own back, usually in another sexual situation (eg. the classroom scene with Sparrow's attempted rapist, which, while technically a power reversal, is no less leering than all the other humiliation scenes set in that room and using those camera set-ups. And even then, if she gains some power over her would-be rapist, she still plainly has no power within the system that is ordering this particular sexual humiliation, so, yeah, Pyrrhic victory?).
Yeah. Oh, and there's also the scene where she tells her boss he has a small dick. EMPOWERING.

I'm a fan of (Jennifer) Lawrence but everything about this movie is deeply embarrassing for her, I feel. It's a poor performance in a bad movie with the kind of juvenile sexual politics that couldn't be more wrong for the moment.

User avatar
DarkImbecile
Ask me about my visible cat breasts
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: The Films of 2018

#9 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:19 pm

Mr Sausage wrote:And because it's always presented in a context of punishment, submission, and voyeurism, the depictions become fetishistic rather than neutral or outraged.
SpoilerShow
No joke: that shot during the long torture sequence about three-quarters of the way through when Lawrence is naked, drenched in freezing water, and strapped into a stress position with black leather and silver buckles was basically tailor made for sharing on BDSM forums.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#10 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:24 pm

Brian C wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:I guess it's empowering in the same sense that something like I Spit on Your Grave is empowering: the endless scenes of sexual violence are 'justified' with scenes of the woman getting her own back, usually in another sexual situation (eg. the classroom scene with Sparrow's attempted rapist, which, while technically a power reversal, is no less leering than all the other humiliation scenes set in that room and using those camera set-ups. And even then, if she gains some power over her would-be rapist, she still plainly has no power within the system that is ordering this particular sexual humiliation, so, yeah, Pyrrhic victory?).
Yeah. Oh, and there's also the scene where she tells her boss he has a small dick. EMPOWERING.

I'm a fan of (Jennifer) Lawrence but everything about this movie is deeply embarrassing for her, I feel. It's a poor performance in a bad movie with the kind of juvenile sexual politics that couldn't be more wrong for the moment.
I think I liked her performance more than you, but generally I get the feeling that Lawrence is not the kind of actor who can elevate a bad movie on her own initiative. She's capable of excellent performances, but she needs the guidance of a good director to get there. I'm not surprised she continues to work with David O'Russell: he may be a maniac, but he knows how to draw riveting performances from her. Without that kind of guidance, Lawrence tends to match the blandness around her.

mother! was a more harrowing and honest look at powerlessness and rage. Its craziness is considerably less embarrassing for Lawrence than Red Sparrow's prestige-pic seriousness.

User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#11 Post by Never Cursed » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:34 pm

Mr Sausage wrote:I guess it's empowering in the same sense that something like I Spit on Your Grave is empowering: the endless scenes of sexual violence are 'justified' with scenes of the woman getting her own back, usually in another sexual situation
I would argue that the women in this movie don't even get that much. The girl with the bowl haircut in Jennifer Lawrence's class calls a gay guy a "degenerate," is forced to fellate him until she cries and gags, and then... is never seen again. Lawrence herself gets raped by a politician, the politician dies, and then... she proceeds to work for the same government that the politician belonged to, almost without complaint, until she meets another mark to be thrown at sexually. Yeah, she avenges the rape eventually by
SpoilerShow
setting up her uncle to be killed,

but that's such a roundabout way of getting revenge that it doesn't even feel like the two acts are connected.

On the flipside, the one romantic partner (Joel Edgerton) who Lawrence sleeps with for any reason other than force has his kindness rewarded by
SpoilerShow
being brutally tortured (in part by Lawrence) until she has a change of heart and kills the sadistic torturer, but only after she's personally run a blade over Edgerton's groin.

What was she getting revenge for there?

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#12 Post by domino harvey » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:35 pm

Sounds like the Razzies should have saved their Lawrence shade for this

User avatar
Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#13 Post by Ribs » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:45 pm

I'm... very surprised by the reaction here? The buzz on this was so negative for months but the handful of critics I really follow were all buzzing that they found it great and incredibly surprising from such an overall mediocre filmmaker. I didn't really want to see it at all, but the praise felt strong enough, and I was rewarded with what I thought was genuinely one of the better intricately plotted spy films in recent memory. I'd say it's actually better than the aforementioned Tinker, Tailor... in fact. I know, bubbles and everything, but the fact that everyone else here is trending so negative is legitimately surprising to me.

But also I like basically any movie.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#14 Post by Brian C » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:58 pm

Mungo wrote:On the flipside, the one romantic partner (Joel Edgerton) who Lawrence sleeps with for any reason other than force has his kindness rewarded by
SpoilerShow
being brutally tortured (in part by Lawrence) until she has a change of heart and kills the sadistic torturer, but only after she's personally run a blade over Edgerton's groin.

What was she getting revenge for there?
I got the sense that
SpoilerShow
she was only "playing along" with the torture of Edgerton's character until she had a chance to save him, not that she was genuinely into it until a "change of heart."

User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#15 Post by Never Cursed » Sat Mar 10, 2018 11:04 pm

Brian C wrote:I got the sense that
SpoilerShow
she was only "playing along" with the torture of Edgerton's character until she had a chance to save him, not that she was genuinely into it until a "change of heart."
SpoilerShow
She could have done it without tearing the skin off of his crotch, though. I would say she's playing along, but she hurts him more than the torturer does! Why?

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: The Films of 2018

#16 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Mar 10, 2018 11:06 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:And because it's always presented in a context of punishment, submission, and voyeurism, the depictions become fetishistic rather than neutral or outraged.
SpoilerShow
No joke: that shot during the long torture sequence about three-quarters of the way through when Lawrence is naked, drenched in freezing water, and strapped into a stress position with black leather and silver buckles was basically tailor made for sharing on BDSM forums.
I mean, seriously: spy school is nothing but scenes of severe, buttoned-up, ruler-holding matrons forcing pretty European women to debase themselves while they watch impassively. It's all right out of Eurotrash sexploitation flicks from the 70's. All that's lacking is the gauze filter. I don't know how the filmmakers could be this oblivious.
Mungo wrote:The girl with the bowl haircut in Jennifer Lawrence's class calls a gay guy a "degenerate," is forced to fellate him until she cries and gags, and then... is never seen again.
What's fucked up about that scene is how it's scripted as punishment for the girl's homophobia. What was the point of muddying our sympathies so thoroughly? She's a bigot, they're rapists. Great. Everyone's awful. What am I to do with that?

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#17 Post by Brian C » Sat Mar 10, 2018 11:46 pm

Mungo wrote:
Brian C wrote:I got the sense that
SpoilerShow
she was only "playing along" with the torture of Edgerton's character until she had a chance to save him, not that she was genuinely into it until a "change of heart."
SpoilerShow
She could have done it without tearing the skin off of his crotch, though. I would say she's playing along, but she hurts him more than the torturer does! Why?
Shrug. Gotta sell it, I guess!

I mean, I think it's clear enough that she doesn't care THAT much for the Edgerton character. But still, her reversal in that scene seemed pre-ordained. Whether that's because I'm reading motivations into her character, or just obvious plot mechanics, or a mixture of both ... I guess I won't argue to strenuously one way or the other.

Anyway, in addition to the scenes that have already been called out, let's not forget
SpoilerShow
the lovingly art-directed mutilated corpse of her roommate in the bathtub. That seemed especially egregious to me, because the plot explanation for why that happened is so muddy I'm not even sure I can explain why she was killed. As far as I can tell, it happened just because the filmmakers refused to let a female character (other than Rampling's) get through the film without something awful happening to her.

User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Re: The Films of 2018

#18 Post by Never Cursed » Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:02 am

Mr Sausage wrote:I mean, seriously: spy school is nothing but scenes of severe, buttoned-up, ruler-holding matrons forcing pretty European women to debase themselves while they watch impassively. It's all right out of Eurotrash sexploitation flicks from the 70's. All that's lacking is the gauze filter. I don't know how the filmmakers could be this oblivious.
Don't forget that it's all secretly filmed so that the higher-ups can watch all the sexual encounters (for purely educational purposes, I would imagine). Don't forget also that Lawrence's uncle, who wants to have sex with her, is watching both when she strips and when she has sex with the soldier.

On an unrelated note, apparently this was originally supposed to be another Rooney Mara/David Fincher collab.

Cde.
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:56 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#19 Post by Cde. » Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:16 am

Ribs wrote:I'm... very surprised by the reaction here? The buzz on this was so negative for months but the handful of critics I really follow were all buzzing that they found it great and incredibly surprising from such an overall mediocre filmmaker. I didn't really want to see it at all, but the praise felt strong enough, and I was rewarded with what I thought was genuinely one of the better intricately plotted spy films in recent memory. I'd say it's actually better than the aforementioned Tinker, Tailor... in fact. I know, bubbles and everything, but the fact that everyone else here is trending so negative is legitimately surprising to me.

But also I like basically any movie.
Yeah, I liked it too. It's a balancing act over a chasm of trashiness, but I thought it had a nicely traditionalist visual sense, and a refreshing sense of grandeur in general. I'm really stupid when it comes to twisty films, so I appreciated how well telegraphed the plot here was, without being overly dumbed down.

Not surprised at all to hear it was planned as a Fincher project. It's very in line with his taste, but I think Lawrence shockingly did better than Fincher would have. I preferred this to the in many ways similar Girl With a Dragon Tattoo.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#20 Post by tenia » Sun Mar 11, 2018 5:39 am

The more I read about this movie, the more exceptionnal it looks.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#21 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Mar 11, 2018 6:24 am

tenia wrote:The more I read about this movie, the more exceptionnal it looks.
It's not. It's a bland, undistinguished movie. The most exciting part about it is marveling over its boneheadedness afterwards.

User avatar
Satori
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 10:32 am

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#22 Post by Satori » Sun Mar 11, 2018 7:07 am

This film isn’t particularly good, but I enjoyed the last half of it or so. The narrative twists are engaging and Mary-Louise Parker’s small role was great (I would watch a whole movie about that character).

I agree with these critiques of its sexual politics, though. I’d largely attribute these problems to the director’s desire to make an “edgy bleak movie,” perhaps to distinguish it from the Hunger Games films he and Lawrence made together. I’d argue this is a symptom of a much larger problem: abusing and murdering female characters has been the go-to plot point for any filmmaker wanting to make “gritty” crime or espionage cinema since the 1970s. I honestly find TV shows like Criminal Minds to be more offensive than this film.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#23 Post by tenia » Sun Mar 11, 2018 1:21 pm

Mr Sausage wrote:The most exciting part about it is marveling over its boneheadedness afterwards.
My post was sarcastic and that's what I was refering to. It seems to be an extremely stupid movie, and since it has an emphasis on women's spies being trained through rape in using their bodies as seemingly sole skill, it seems on top of that to be released at the best possible time.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#24 Post by domino harvey » Fri Sep 13, 2019 3:59 am

This is without a doubt one of the grossest films I've ever sat through, and it's worse than all those z-grade slashers and grindhouse ephemera because this movie has delusions of taste and the gloss of a huge budget, big stars, and plenty of competent component parts. Never Cursed, Sausage, Brian C, and DarkImbecile have already done a great job elucidating the many ways in which this movie is gross (right down to DI calling attention to the scene with JLaw's strapped into the water torture with her cleav' helpfully jutting out from either side of the strategically placed nipple-masking restraining harness, one of numerous leering shots in a sea of many, sure, but one that immediately struck me as not even trying to pretend anymore that it's not a moving GIF image of a suggested video on a dark avenue of PornHub), I'm just here to voice my agreement. The next time someone tries to claim internet thinkpieces matter, ask them why Cool Rape Fest here wasn't the impetus for more of them-- the internet really spent months last year droning on about subtitles in Isle of Dogs instead?? (NOTE: I am not actually interested in internet thinkpieces for this or any film)

User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

#25 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:57 am

I just think it came down to the standard both films were held to. Red Sparrow was pretty much a nothingburger from a director no one particularly cares about, who only got to do this because he directed a bunch of Hunger Games sequels. People actually pay attention to Wes Anderson's work and hold it in high regard. That said, this sounds awful regardless of who made it

Post Reply