Discovered a movie that I thought was rather good the other day. Not for everyone, and not a great work of art; but very well crafted and enjoyable, imho.

'Red Sparrow' (2018) is a psychosexual spy thriller about a Soviet school that trained young men and women in techniques of seduction to establish relationships with foreign men (and women) with money or power, for obtaining information and possibly blackmail material. It ostensibly takes place in the current, non-Soviet era, but the school itself is thought to have operated during the height of the cold war. Its current status, if any, is unknown.

Naturally, the Soviets hate the film. They apparently flooded social media with bots attacking it to undermine its reputation, with some apparent success. Who knows? But 2018 was when the bromance between Trump and Putin was topical, and the film was not received well in official Washington either.

The film has a few shocking scenes with some violence, killing, torture, and worst of all, some limited sex, nudity, and bad language.

So what's to like, you ask? This is a complex and intricate plot with elements that come into play with the regularity of a metronome, and paced similarly. There is scarcely a wasted action or insinuation, and in the end it fits together like a Swiss watch. It's not deep, but it is brilliant.