Atomic Blonde

Stunt coordinator David Leitch makes his directorial debut with Atomic Blonde, a graphic novel series adaptation set in Berlin during the waning days of the Cold War. Charlize Theron stars as Lorraine Broughton, a British spy dispatched to Germany to investigate the death of a colleague, and to secure a list of undercover agents before it falls into the wrong hands. Lorraine is greeted at the airport by unnamed assassins, and the bloody mayhem gushes on from there, with most of the action scenes set to 1980s Europop. The script by 300 scribe Kurt Johnstad is decidedly unclever, and Leitch works way too hard to invest a familiar story with new life. It’s mostly wasted energy, merely an exercise in vapid style, but Theron makes for an extremely compelling kung fu cipher, and there is one extended action scene set in an apartment building that almost justifies the entire endeavor. D.B.