Taken as a whole, the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe feels like an oppressive, endlessly self-regenerating cultural monolith. Regarded individually, the films become more palatable, as they spin out into different, taste-dependent genres: the goofy bro-comedy of the last Thor film; the martial arts spectacle of the recently released Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; the odd meta-sitcom of TV’s WandaVision.
Black Widow is Marvel’s attempt at an all-out spy thriller, belatedly following the storytelling direction for which the character Natasha Romanoff was always intended, and that never really gelled with the Avengers derring-do. In her solo vehicle – out Monday on DVD and Blu-ray, having recently hit premium VOD services after an initially exclusive Disney+ run – Scarlett Johansson is in full female Bond mode: running, fighting, scowling with an icy sense of purpose, while negotiating a nonsense plot involving an evil Russian general (Ray Winstone) who controls the minds and bodies, Stepford-style, of a sexless harem of female assassins.
As a Marvel film, it’s an above-average romp, enlivened by Johansson’s spiky dynamic with on-screen sister/sidekick Florence Pugh. (Pugh, of course, already proved her spy mettle in Park Chan-wook’s chic, underrated 2018 BBC adaptation of John le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl, available on Amazon.) As an actual spy thriller, Black Widow barely passes muster, its plotting derailed every time it needs to incorporate the requisite superhero lore, and with the excellent Australian director Cate Shortland given no room for her darker, more psychological curiosities.
For a kickass female assassin without the Marvel trappings, Netflix just released Kate, starring a game Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a ruthless operative out to avenge her own imminent death – she has been poisoned with a soon-to-be-fatal polonium. It shamelessly cobbles together spare parts of Crank, John Wick and Kill Bill, barely allowing its heroine any moves of her own, but it’s watchable, Friday-night-with-a-takeaway fare.
Luckily, if it’s subtler female-driven espionage you’re after, Mubi released just the right alternative on to its streaming platform this week: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s elegantly suspenseful Wife of a Spy (2020). The title suggests a rather passive role for its protagonist: in second world war-era Kobe, wealthy aspiring actor Satoko (a terrific Yū Aoi) is indeed married to a man who, beneath his outward import-export job, appears to be gathering intel for the US on his various business trips. That may not be the whole picture, but as she pursues her suspicions, Satoko becomes something of a spy herself.
It’s a slow burn, but increasingly riveting as the once-cosseted Satoko gets cannier, savvier and more self-sufficient. For Kurosawa, a prolific, wildly genre-jumping auteur whose recent work has been more miss than hit, the sharp constraints of a neo-Hitchcockian period piece fit him surprisingly well, but it’s Aoi’s silk-and-steel performance that you can’t stop thinking of.
This week’s odd confluence of films on the subject did make me hungry for the gold standard of female spies in cinema. Greta Garbo’s spying isn’t anything spectacular in the less-than-authentic 1931 biopic Mata Hari (Apple TV), but she radiates such outrageous levels of star quality that you’re in awe anyway. Anne Parillaud’s eponymous sleeper agent in Nikita (1990; Apple TV again, and still Luc Besson’s best, sleekest film, for all its glaringly shiny 80s trappings) combines formidable athleticism and spiritual nihilism in a way that has yielded countless imitators – none more persuasive than Charlize Theron’s unflappable MI6 spy in the kinetic junk-food delight Atomic Blonde (2017; Google Play), among my favourite all-out action films of the past few years.
Tang Wei’s balance of silent resolve, emotional vulnerability and sensual expression in Ang Lee’s magnificent Lust, Caution (2007; Chili, for a mere 90p) pushes her to the top of the list. She doesn’t raise many laughs, though, which is where Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne’s perfectly tuned farcical double act in Spy (2015; Disney+) comes in. Black Widow may do the job, but you’d sooner build a cinematic universe around all or any of these.
Also new on streaming and DVD
The Reason I Jump
(Picturehouse)
Unfairly overlooked by Bafta and Oscar voters, British film-maker Jerry Rothwell’s remarkable documentary is the kind of rare film that can actually shift a viewer’s perception of the world. Resourcefully adapting Naoki Higashida’s bestselling first-person study of autism, it sensitively evokes the experience of a range of autistic people through highly sensory layering of sound and image.
Crisis
(Warner Bros)
Relegated to a low-profile digital release after leading man Armie Hammer became persona non grata, Nicholas Jarecki’s opioid-crisis thriller is the kind of multi-stranded, serious-minded issue film that was all the rage in the early 2000s. Following three separate characters – a narcotics cop, a working mother and an academic – affected in different ways, it’s conscientious and rather well-acted, but all feels a bit dutiful.
Dream Horse
(Warner Bros)
Back in the 90s, when the British film industry regularly churned out popular, upbeat comedies about working-class life, this pleasantly formulaic drama might have been a bigger deal. Inspired by the true story of the Grand National-winning thoroughbred raised by Welsh bartender Jan Vokes, it’s soft, heavily romanticised feelgood fare, given some welly by Toni Collette’s committed performance.
Venice Sala Web 2021
(Festival Scope)
If you’re after a taste of the just-concluded Venice film festival, a selection of 14 titles from the fest’s short film programme is now available to stream for free. Highlights include Sad Film, a powerful document of living in Myanmar under the military coup by pseudonymous (for his own safety) Burmese film-maker Vasili, and the elegant Irish animation Fall of the Ibis King.
