Destroyer

Warning: I’m going to sort-of spoil “Destroyer” (2018) for you. Nicole Kidman uglies herself up to play a burnt-out detective with one last shot to close the case that’s haunted her for 17 years. It felt like “Rush: The Later Years” or a dark take on “Saving Grace.” We keep going back and forth between her ill-fated days undercover and her current attempt to find resolution. I was kind of getting into it, although there’s too much I’ve-been-a-bad-mommy subplot. But the film buries a lie in the back-and-forth to create a plot twist, and I don’t like being lied to.

The 355

Spy movies. They’re all different, yet all the same, because that’s how most of the audience wants it. “The 355” (2022) goes out on a limb simply by having all the main spies be women. Subtract the eye candy, however, and there remains a boilerplate, globetrotting espionage flick. Bad guys steal a superweapon. But who exactly are the bad guys? Our protagonists form a rainbow coalition to save themselves – and also the world (of course). Jessica Chastain does Jessica Chastain things. Nobody runs out of bullets – or hits anything – except when they absolutely need to. Eye candy is comfort food.