Pick of the week
The Amateur
Rami Malek lends his disquieting intensity to this surprisingly enjoyable spy thriller. He plays a mild-mannered CIA cryptographer sent on a bloodthirsty revenge quest after his wife is killed in a terrorist attack. What’s fascinating about this film is that, had the lead been any other actor, it would have devolved into generic pulp. But Malek, in the hands of director James Hawes, really leans into the character’s psychopathy. He has a dead-eyed stare throughout, the sort you’d usually expect to find on a film’s antagonist. Sure, this is a globe-trotting Bourne-style romp, but you’re never allowed to forget the ethical iffiness of, say, blowing someone up inside a swimming pool.
Out now, Disney+
