Movie · 2018 · Thriller, Mystery · 2h 20m · R · English
Curator score: 1.7/10 (404.9K ratings)
Seduce. Deceive. Repeat.
Overview
Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Dominika emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, she meets a CIA agent who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.7/10
IMDb: 6.6/10
Letterboxd: 2.92/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 45%
Metacritic: 53
TMDB: 6.5/10
Director
Francis Lawrence
Production
Chernin Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, TSG Entertainment
Cast
Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Jeremy Irons, Ciarán Hinds, Joely Richardson, Mary-Louise Parker, Bill Camp, Douglas Hodge, Thekla Reuten, Sakina Jaffrey, Sergei Polunin, Kristof Konrad, Nicole O'Neill, Sergej Onopko, Dávid Miller, Sasha Frolova, Hugh Quarshie, Sebastian Hülk
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, chilly spy thriller with strong atmosphere and a committed lead performance, but it’s also weighed down by repetitive brutality, sexual violence, and a blunt approach to its politics and psychology. If you’re in the mood for a glossy, mean, Cold War-adjacent espionage story, it can work; if you want elegance, emotional depth, or a cleaner treatment of its subject matter, it likely won’t.
Best for
Viewers who like bleak, adult spy thrillers
Fans of slow-burn intrigue and moral ambiguity
People interested in glossy studio filmmaking with a nasty edge
Audiences open to exploitation-adjacent genre cinema
Skip if
You’re sensitive to sexual violence or torture imagery
You want a smart, tightly plotted spy film
You dislike melodramatic or heavy-handed political subtext
You prefer warmth, wit, or character nuance in thrillers
Overview
Red Sparrow is a cold, glossy espionage thriller that wants to feel dangerous at every turn. It has the look of a major studio production and the mood of a grim exploitation film, with seduction, betrayal, and surveillance all treated as weapons in a brutal geopolitical game. The atmosphere is often the best thing about it: icy, controlled, and unpleasant in a way that clearly aims to be provocative.
Worth noting
The problem is that the film’s idea of danger is too often just repetition of abuse, humiliation, and coercion. That makes the story feel less like a sophisticated spy puzzle than a punishing endurance test, even when the performances and production design are doing real work. There are moments where the movie seems aware of its own sleaze, but not always in a way that deepens the characters or the stakes.
Bottom line
Still, for viewers who can tolerate its harsher impulses, there’s a certain pulp competence here. It’s a slick, mean piece of genre filmmaking that occasionally rises above its flaws through mood, craft, and a willingness to be ugly. The result is divisive, but not inert.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Sally Jane Black · 1579 likes
cw: rape
One of the first things to happen is an act of intentional violence that destroys her dreams. Not long after, she is raped. Her rescuer (because she almost never operates fully of her own agency, but always propelled by men) saves her after the film has taken the time to linger on this act of despicable violence. Later, another man tries to sexually assault her, and she fights back. Her punishment is that the school she is in… more
davidehrlich (3.5★) · 1240 likes
I was legit shocked at how good RED SPARROW is (where the shit has *this* Francis Lawrence been hiding?) a delectably slow, incredibly violent, and seedy as hell spy movie for the current Cold War. the sexual power dynamics are Verhoeven-esque. audiences are gonna haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate it.
in any event, I couldn’t possibly be more here for the “F- Cinemascore” portion of Jennifer Lawrence’s career.
Laurence Barber (1★) · 974 likes
hey siri show me a straight teenage boy's jerkoff fantasy that's been directed like an over-budget Starz rip-off of The Americans where literally nothing that happens is important but they've made sure you get to see plenty of sideboob while its star is being tortured
Hannah Strong (1.5★) · 762 likes
Some thoughts:
- One awful rape scene is bad enough, two is a fucking insult- It's torture porn packaged as a spy film- Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling and Ciaran Hinds should all apologise for their TERRIBLE Russian accents- America is SO afraid of Russia- Has Justin Haythe ever heard a woman speak?- Matthias Schoenaerts deserves better
I'm giving this 1 star for Matthias Schoenaerts and .5 for Trish Somerville's costume design and the rest of it can get in the fucking sea
Charlie (1★) · 727 likes
every male director ever: how do i give my female character tragic depth and sex appeal in a way that takes little to no effort? I’ve got it! RAPE.