Jim Jarmusch picks out the “ultimate feminist action movie”
In the ever-predictable world of American cinema, Jim Jarmusch stands tall as a figure of the unconventional, a director who has refused to bow down to the expectations of Hollywood, preferring to march to the beat of his own drum and deliver narratives of his own choosing, leading to a well-admired position from within the film industry.
From Stranger to Paradise to Paterson via Coffee and Cigarettes, Jarmusch has always believed in his own vision as a storyteller and has issued countless remarkable tales over the years. His films seem to defy categorisation, always bobbing and weaving from the punches of critics, and he’s become a cinema legend in his own right.
While Jarmusch has provided so many cinema fans’ favourite movie moments throughout his career, the director himself is also something of a film fanatic, as is often the case with directors. During a feature with Rotten Tomatoes, he once named his five favourite movies of all time and, in the process, expressed his respect for the “feminist action movie” Atomic Blonde.
“I’ve seen it three times,” Jarmusch began. “It’s directed by David Leitch, of John Wick fame. But this is my idea of the ultimate feminist action movie. Wonder Woman, I’m sorry, just didn’t do it for me, but Charlize Theron is definitely my idea of a female superhero somehow. She balances femininity, vulnerability, and total badass strength”.
It’s Theron, of all the film’s assets, that seems to have impressed Jarmusch the most out of everything and he continued to express his admiration for the actor, “So she is truly great in this film. And I would say, she usually is very strong. I love the way that Charlize Theron is rarely, if ever, like overplaying anything.”
Atomic Blonde arrived in 2017 and is the feature directorial debut from David Leitch with a screenplay by Kurt Johnstad. Based on the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde focuses on a spy who must locate a series of double agents who are being smuggled into West Germany on the eve of the Berlin Wall’s demise.
Jarmusch went on to state his love for Leitch’s movie, saying, “The film is ingenious; it takes place in Berlin, just 24 hours before the wall falls. It’s full of betrayal, violence, intrigue, and the idea of life and death become completely irrelevant when the wall comes down. It’s a really brilliant plot.”
He signed off on the matter, “And also James McAvoy, John Goodman, and Toby Jones deliver really engagingly creepy, supporting performances. The action sequences are all amazing, the visual effects, and hats off to Charlize Theron. I really love Atomic Blonde.”
