The 355 (2022)
Directed by Simon Kinberg
A group of top female agents from American, British, Chinese, Colombian, and German government agencies are drawn together to try and stop an organization from acquiring a deadly weapon to send the world into chaos.
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7 films that influenced The 355
What critics say influenced The 355
“The 355” – the title refers to a female spy during the American Revolution – could have been a fun spin on the “Fox Force Five” concept from “Pulp Fiction.”
The 355 is slightly less ridiculous, starting with implausibility and getting less credible as it goes, contriving reasons to throw our “Fox Force Five” together (see Pulp Fiction for details) any way it can.
It’s essentially a reimagined Fox Force Five, the TV pilot about a “foxy” team of female secret agents that Mia Wallace describes starring in in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
In addition, the enjoyable stunt work and action scenes have a roughness reminiscent of the Jason Bourne series and the film’s theme of multiculturalism emphasises the global threat flowing through the narrative – with the main cast being so great, it is just a shame that The 355 ‘s poorly conceived character and plot development seems to overwhelm everything.
Saying it’s “from the studio that brought you Jason Bourne” is one thing, but I was hoping it didn’t literally mean something equivalent to Jason Bourne , let alone The Bourne Legacy .
Every portion of Simon Kinberg’s turgid, clumsy spy flick The 355 sounds good on paper: Five of Hollywood’s most acclaimed actresses come together to portray global intelligence officers fleeing from their respective governments, in a film melding Oceans 8 and the Jason Bourne, James Bond, and Mission: Impossible franchises with the recent trend toward aggressively female-fronted action films.
There have been subtler, cleverer and just plain better efforts at bringing women to the forefront of so-called male genres (from “Widows” to “Spy”), but it’s hard not to go into something like “ The 355 ,” which has been written about as a female “Jason Bourne” meets “Mission: Impossible” for over four years, a little wary.
In trying to be its own “girl power” Jason Bourne , its screenplay sticks to a by-the-number formula.
Chastain’s concept, eventually penned by “Catwoman” and “Harriet the Spy” screenwriter Theresa Rebeck, was cooked up on the heels of plenty of other successful, interesting female-centric action outings, from “Atomic Blonde” and “Lucy” to “Wonder Woman” and “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
As is, I suppose, watching them take nearly equal amounts of punishment in response (see Charlize Theron in "Atomic Blonde" for the apex of this aspect), just to prove, resolutely, that they can take it every bit as well as dish it out.
It doesn’t carry the same weight on its shoulders as Wonder Woman , Atomic Blonde , or Ocean’s 8 .
It’s a wild thing to miss the competence of something like Atomic Blonde , which at least had a John Wick co-director behind the camera instead of the dude who brought us Dark Phoenix .
Stars Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o or Diane Kruger easily could have easily cranked out an Atomic Blonde style solo film, but the premise of a United Nations collaboration is far more intriguing.
While an-all female-fronted group action flick is a fine idea, in the wake of movies like Atomic Blonde , Wonder Woman and even the divisive Birds of Prey , The 355 feels old-fashioned and generic, like a TV pilot released on the big screen.
And the concept of unknown enemies wreaking havoc from behind the scenes is just as common in spy films, with movies like Skyfall and Enemy of the State addressing it in much more intriguing ways.
The 355 is watchable at best but, in keeping with the Bond analogy, this is more like a gender-flipped version of Octopussy than Skyfall.
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Cue the propulsive music score by Tom Kolkenborg, aka “Junkie XL,” as we watch chases, shootouts, stick-fighting, and explosions just like a “John Wick” or “Jack Reacher.”
Regrettably, director Simon Kinberg doesn’t prove to be much of a dab hand at staging compelling action scenes here, even though he’s written a bunch ( XXX: State of the Union ; Mr & Mrs Smith ; Sherlock Holmes ; X-Men: Last Stand/Apocalypse/Days of Future Past ) and did a good job with his under-appreciated 2019 directorial debut Dark Phoenix , which was pretty nifty.
Then again, such things probably should have been expected from writers whose past experiences with spy narratives include xXx: State Of The Union , McG’s This Means War, and Harriet The Spy .
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Directed by Cathy Yan
Themes
Ghostbusters (2016), Charlie’s Angels (2019) and Birds of Prey (2020) all mixed quips, actions, and feminist empowerment in varying degrees.