In the new spy-comedy Argylle, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell use Bryce’s character’s series of spy novels to save the world.
I LOVED THIS
A lot of professional critics have been saying that this isn’t the best work of Matthew Vance (The King’s Man franchise), but I have to argue that this is exactly what I thought this movie would be when I first saw the trailer. First of all, it was hilarious. I have laughed that much in a theater in a long time and everyone else in my theater was laughing too. The dialogue was quick and smart and the actions are what you would expect from a Vance film. In no way is this movie going to win any awards or anything, but in this case you know what you’re getting yourself into when you watch the trailer for Argylle. Second of all, the twists were amazing and so much fun to watch and hold my breath while little reveals were made throughout the almost two and a half hour run time. All in all, I think this movie is the perfect example of its specific genre: a spy-campy fest.
Meta Commentary vs. Campy
A lot of people argued that this movie is a meta-spy movie. But I would argue that it is more of a camp movie. Let me explain with a little vocabulary lesson on the difference between meta and camp.
Meta (or meta commentary) is when a movie or a television shows makes reference to the plot or the actions that makes it clear to the audience that it is a work of fiction. For example, in the television series Community the character Abed Nadir is constantly making references to how his and lives of his study group friends are like that of what would happen to characters in movies or television shows. While Argylle had a lot of meta qualities to it (like the fact that Rockwell’s character makes reference to spy movies and even the character of Argylle from Howard’s character’s books and his attractiveness) that is where the buck stops.
Campy-ness are when movies or television shows are in on the joke that they are outrageous or are overtly exaggerating their genre. The Scary Movie franchise is what comes to mind for me. I think this is where Argylle falls. For example, there are some fight scenes in the movie where Rockwell and Howard are ‘dance’ fighting and Howard literally holds Rockwell in a dance style à la Dirty Dancing (but better) while they kill some thugs (spoiler alert, sorry). And after that there is a scene where Howard skates around on oil killing different thugs in a very quick fight scene while she figure skates and kills them in dramatic fashion. All of the action, all of the dialogue, all of the plot twists are the making of a campy-spy movie; including an amazing fashion show mid-way through the movie.
Overall: go see this movie. Like I said it’s not going to win any awards or anything, but you based on the trailer you don’t expect it to. I had a great time, the audience I was with had a great time, and by the looks of it I think the cast and crew had a great time making the movie. So I hope you see Argylle in a theater near you and I hope you have as much fun as I had!
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