Argylle: Matthew Vaughn dynamites spy cinema (review)

The director of Kingsman and Kick-Ass creates pure entertainment, sometimes clumsy but always sincere, between adventure comedy and spy film.

Very busy producing right and left (Tetris, Silent Night…), Matthew Vaughn had since 2015 entirely devoted his career as a director to films Kingsman, a saga of fluctuating quality – the sequel like the prequel never having achieved the effectiveness of the first part. The filmmaker now explores his obsession with the world of espionage with Argyle, a new project in the form of an adventure comedy with a strong “Vaughnian” touch. We follow Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), bestselling author of spy novels featuring secret agent Argylle (Henry Cavill). But when the writings of the lonely Elly get a little too close to the plans of a real secret organization, killers begin to follow her and the spy Aidan (Sam Rockwell) suddenly bursts into her life to save her skin. …

Fluo-pop and meta squared, Argyle is based on a multi-layered plot where “reality” and fiction intertwine, with Elly having hallucinations which regularly make her see the character from her books in Aidan’s place. Which gives rise to some frankly hair-raising staging and editing effects (you have to see Cavill’s demi-god face and that of hobo of Rockwell getting his shit together in fighting or dancing sequences). We’re having a lot of fun, the action pushes all the knobs into the red (sometimes to the point of being cartoonish) and the soundtrack is bound to make Beatles fans happy.

The Sam Rockwell show

Argyle is in any case the film of a guy certain of his abilitiesentertainerexcessive in every way – even in its duration, 2 hours 19 minutes – and full of supporting roles who always have something juicy to play (Dua Lipa, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson…) .

An entertainment, a real one, to make you forget that the outside world exists, even if for that you will have to accept the abuse of green screens (filming in the middle of covid forced Vaughn to shoot in the studio instead of walking around the four corners of the globe), endless twists and a script imposing on Bryce Dallas Howard a duality of which she is simply not capable. Not so serious: fortunately, Sam Rockwell gives a lot of himself to put on the show and fill in the few dips in the plot, even if it means eclipsing his playing partners.

Argyleby Matthew Vaughn, with Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill… Duration: 2 hours 19 minutes. In theaters January 31.

The Apple Original Movie Argyle released in theaters in partnership with Universal Pictures.