Jennifer Lawrence is an Oscar-winning star with an impressive track record, earning critical praise and big returns at the box office for every movie she has appeared in since her breakthrough role in the 2010 film Winter’s Bone.
Sadly, that streak appears to now be coming to an end. After her polarizing turn in last year’s Mother!, the actress’ latest movie Red Sparrow is getting trounced by critics.
In a link to her review posted on Twitter, Village Voice critic April Wolfe described the movie by stating: ‘In short, Jennifer Lawrence goes to wh**e school and learns to get naked and pick locks.’
She later amended that tweet by explaining: ‘I should have put quotes around “wh**e school,” because those are the movie’s words, not mine.’
Not fans: The new Jennifer Lawrence film Red Sparrow is being panned by critics
In summary: Village Voice critic April Wolfe described the movie by stating: ‘In short, Jennifer Lawrence goes to wh**e school and learns to get naked and pick locks’ (above)
Male gaze: ‘A throwback to old Hollywood in its belief that gratuitous rape and violence are the best way to create a heroine with backbone,’ says Sara Stewart in NY Post
Wolfe’s actual review meanwhile says that the film ‘seems to be about the desperate quest to get one sexy woman very naked.’
The best part of the review, however, is Wolfe’s criticism of a scene in which Lawrence’s character dyes her hair.
‘[T]here’s little to recommend Red Sparrow – a throwback to old Hollywood in its belief that gratuitous rape and violence are the best way to create a heroine with backbone.
-Sara Stewart, New York Post
‘For the men who have never had at-home-hair-dye disasters, here are some tips: You can’t successfully bleach your hair blonde with store-bought box dye; long and/or thick hair requires multiple boxes; you cannot, under any circumstances, go swimming in a chlorinated pool after you bleach,’ writes Wolfe.
‘This may seem like a piddling quibble, but if you want women to trust that you have made an earnest effort to dissect a woman’s psyche, don’t just assume you know the details.’
She offered further explanation and an example of the problem with this scene on Twitter soon after posting her review.
‘Cool, can’t wait to write a script where a dude character casually shaves his balls w/ a straight razor. That’s what dudes do, right?’ wrote Wolfe.
‘[T]here’s little to recommend Red Sparrow – a throwback to old Hollywood in its belief that gratuitous rape and violence are the best way to create a heroine with backbone,’ writes Sara Stewart in her review for the New York Post.
She sums up her feelings on the film by saying it ‘resembles countless bad sexploitation flicks.’
‘Red Sparrow sometimes seems to target the sort of Jennifer Lawrence fan who feels the recent Mother! didn’t pay sufficient attention to the star’s lightly clothed curves.
-John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter
Stewart and many other critics did manage to find one bright spot in the film, praising an ‘amusing turn’ from Tony and Emmy-winning actress Mary Louise Parker, who appears in a brief cameo.
‘Unsure this 150-minute movie serves any purpose at all other than to male gaze the s*** out of Jennifer Lawrence,’ critic Laurence Barber wrote on Twitter after a screening of the movie.
‘A turgid, desperate-to-be-edgy bore that gives you nothing to grab onto other than the brief blessing of Mary-Louise Parker’s drunk-acting.’
Parker is not one of the billed actors in the film however despite this fact, nor is screen legend Charlotte Rampling as the head of the Sparrows or Joely Richardson as Lawrence’s mother.
The trailer does however make a point of listing all of Lawrence’s male co-stars – Joel Edgarton, Jeremy Irons and Matthias Schoenaerts.
Movie magic: Wolfe also took issue with a scene where Lawrence colors her thick black locks completely blonde with a single box of store-bought hair dye (Lawrence and Joel Edgerton above)
The Hollywood Reporter agreed, with John DeFore’s review stating: ‘Mary-Louise Parker, as the American traitor, brings a welcome (and intoxicated) screw-em-all attitude to her short sequence.’
Red Sparrow is the sort of film that thinks it’s empowering its female character by making her supremely confident in her sexual power, when in fact the story just wants to keep finding excuses for Jennifer Lawrence to take off her clothes.
-Tim Grierson, Screen International
That review kicks off be saying ‘Red Sparrow sometimes seems to target the sort of Jennifer Lawrence fan who feels the recent Mother! didn’t pay sufficient attention to the star’s lightly clothed curves.’
That sentiment was echoed by Tim Grierson in his review for Screen International, in which he write: ‘Adapted by screenwriter Justin Haythe, Red Sparrow is the sort of film that thinks it’s empowering its female character by making her supremely confident in her sexual power, when in fact the story just wants to keep finding excuses for Jennifer Lawrence to take off her clothes and reduce men to quivering pools in her presence.’
Underwhelmed: ‘A turgid, desperate-to-be-edgy bore that gives you nothing … other than the brief blessing of Mary-Louise Parker’s drunk-acting,’ said Laurence Baerber (top)
Katie Walsh also took to Twitter after seeing the film but before posting her write up, saying: ‘I can report Red Sparrow is one thousand hours long.’
In her review for Tribune News Agency filed after that tweet she explained why viewing the picture was such a chore.
‘The film is beautiful to look at, but it’s empty and meaningless. The sensational images add up to a whole lot of provocation, but there isn’t a shred of substance to be found,’ writes Walsh.
For the men who have never had at-home-hair-dye disasters, here are some tips: You can’t successfully bleach your hair blonde with store-bought box dye; long and/or thick hair requires multiple boxes; you cannot, under any circumstances, go swimming in a chlorinated pool after you bleach.
‘Matthew’s book offers promises of authenticity, but what comes through in Justin Laythe’s script and the casting choices – there are no recognizably Russian actors on screen and bad accents abound – is just a hollow caricature of Russia, wrapped up in a plot that’s both overly convoluted and dull.’
There are also a number of favorable reviews, with Metacritic showing that eight of the 21 write ups that had been posted by Wednesday morning were positive.
Every single one of those reviews was written by a man.
In one of the more glowing recaps of the picture, Stephen Witty writes that Lawrence defeats her male foes by ‘using her sexiness as a weapon’ while lauding her performance and the film in the New York Daily News.
He later writes about the many risks Lawrence takes in the film, specifically citing the ‘amount of skin she reveals, before closing out his review by saying that ‘people who crave a movie about a secret agent with her own sexual agency – and a mission to give male predators exactly what they deserve – are going to want front-row seats. And a sequel.’
Critics aside, Red Sparrow is expected to open well behind Black Panther at the box office, despite the fact that the Marvel picture will be entering its third week of release.