FILM
ARGYLLE
IT’S LIKE JAMES BOND — ONLY MORE META (AND THERE’S A CAT)
Agent Aidan (Sam Rockwell) and author Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard).
★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 139 MINS
DIRECTOR Matthew Vaughn
CAST Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Bryan Cranston
PLOT Author Elly Conway (Howard) writes spy books about Agent Argylle (Cavill). When it emerges there’s truth to her fiction, real-life agent Aidan (Rockwell) steps in.
MATTHEW VAUGHN HAS never played by the rules. Whether it’s his penchant for independence, eschewing the traditional studio system, or his gleeful genre subversions (superhero tales in Kick-Ass, fantasy adventures in Stardust, spy movies in Kingsman), he prefers doing things his own way. With Argylle, he basically subverts himself —it might be another film in the espionage arena, but here he tempers his tendency for ultra-violence and gross-out gags for a rug-pull-heavy romp boasting surprising sweetness; a Vaughn movie without the bits that make your mum wince.