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Discussion on Richard Brody's review of "Atomic Blonde," at the New Yorker Movie Facebook Club

The New Yorker shared a link.
16 hrs
Richard Brody wrote this about "Atomic Blonde": It is a movie that has it both ways; it shows how the sausage of freedom is made, with gory battles behind the façades of public life—but it turns that gory combat into a new façade, another illusion that hides still others that are far more complex, troubling, and unresolved.
Have you seen it yet? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below. Let's keep the discussion about this film on this thread.

Empty East-Versus-West Espionage in “Atomic Blonde”
The new movie, starring Charlize Theron, uses the last days of the Berlin Wall as the backdrop for an utterly insubstantial and unengaging spy action-drama.
NEWYORKER.COM

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Patrick McEvoy-Halston If the movie appeals to people who themselves find bliss in not-knowing, it's quite the criticism of everyone who liked it. Mind you, a mass of brilliant minds -- all ivy-league educated, mind you -- worked Hillary's campaign, doing their Miss Sloane thing, and in the end they looked they graphed their own action movie, "war room" narrative onto a landscape... that turned out NOT of their own making--whoops! we probably should have wanted to look!... like REALLY wanted to look! So there's plenty of flattering company to be had in this disposed state of blissful ignorance. But it's been successful for awhile -- isn't that what globalization is about? Starbucks, McDonalds, here, there, and everywhere, with the fact of not really knowing the "natives," having maybe all that much interest in them, an asset at the time?  

There's lots of ideas, here. Background changes types into people. Conflict in the East MAY NOT be about fundamentally decent people forced to do terrible things to fight evil. Fun as perhaps always fundamentally suspect... or at least an absolute beggar before the ecstatically anguished. Background meetings to plan things are often of more interest than depiction of the results. Placing "Stalker" within a film means it won't matter one toot how much style and transgression you applied to your heroine, the only thought specifically on your toil will be limited to her aftermath bruises...



Moira Brigitte Rauch Patrick you did put some thought into this 

Patrick McEvoy-Halston I wouldn't want to be trivial...

Moira Brigitte Rauch There is always room for a smart guy in this blog. 

Patrick McEvoy-Halston Very nice. Thank you. There really is so much going on in almost every Brody post, it's nice to have the New Yorker encourage our parsing things... stop. there was a lot there. let's go back one more time before we go on.

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