20th Century FoxThere's nothing better than being pleasantly surprised by a movie (especially if you're someone who sees, say, basically every movie released) and that's exactly what happened with this week's Spy.
The secret agent spoof stars Melissa McCarthy (with the likes of Rose Byrne, Jude Law and Jason Statham playing second fiddle) and sees her teaming up with frequent collaborator Paul Feig as writer/director. It also happens to be McCarthy's strongest movie yet. Admittedly, I didn't have the highest hopes for the flick, in part because of the disasters of action-comedy combos past (Knight and Day and The Bounty Hunter come to mind...shudder). I'm also still a little scarred from the disappointment that was Tammy.
But Spy was no disaster—in fact, it should be the ruler by which all future Melissa McCarthy movies are measured. Better yet, make that all female-centric movies.
The main cause of Spy's hilarity comes from the fact that it manages to make fun of not only the CIA, but the entire genre of spy movies. The plot follows Susan Cooper (McCarthy), a desk-bound CIA analyst who decides to go undercover to take over for her mentor on a high-profile bomb case. It borrows from all sorts of tired secret-agent-man tropes while putting an amazingly sarcastic spin on them.
Take Jason Statham's overly bragadocious undercover agent, who's taken to describing his accomplishments to outlandish degree: "I once drove a car off a freeway, on top of a train, while I was on fire." Or Jude Law's obnoxiously handsome Agent Fine, who can send women into a tizzy with a flash of a smile and assumes that all single women own multiple cats.
But Spy also takes aim at a new source of scorn: The CIA. In the world of this movie, the CIA is made up of a group of out-of-touch bigwigs whose actual hard workers (that would be the analysts) are so underfunded that they work in a basement infested with bats and mice. Sound familiar?
Amusement aside, the real source of praise for this film is the fact that it combines female empowerment and body positivity so seamlessly that it's not preachy in the slightest—this isn't a "girl power" movie, it's just a movie that happens show some really powerful women.
Exhibit A is McCarthy's Susan. She's a competent ass-kicking spy who turns out to be light-years ahead of her male counterparts. She also happens to be completely funny in a whip-smart way and full of zingers like only Melissa McCarthy can be. To top it off, not once is she treated differently because of the way she looks, and she's given a suitor who is totally unpredictable. When was the last time a male character lusted after Melissa McCarthy's ass in a movie?
Spy should also be given props for shying away from relying on McCarthy's physical comedy (which, it should be noted, she is very good at). But after awhile it gets old to be expected to point and laugh at the big lady who fell over—see every minute of Tammy for proof. You laugh at Susan Cooper because her dialogue is good and her jokes are funny, just the way it should be.
And isn't that exactly what the genius of Melissa McCarthy deserves?
Spy is out June 5.