The Amateur

Review: A 2025 action spy thriller, this film stars Rami Malek as Charlie Heller. Heller is a CIA analyst whose wife is killed and he takes it upon himself to track the killers down, despite his lack of field experience. This is definitely one of Rami Malek’s best roles since his Oscar win for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (I should mention that Malek is great in ‘Oppenheimer’ but is only in that film for like 3 minutes). The film was very well made & earns itself a spot in the top half of films I’ve watched so far this year. While it is certainly the type of film that may be forgotten a year from now, I think it is also one that will see a major surge when it is dropped onto streaming. Also, I do need to say that I am very happy to not have to watch this trailer anymore because I’ve seen it so many times at the theater.

High: Just a very well paced film that keeps you on your toes even though there are only a few big action scenes. The tone also fit the film really well. I wouldn’t say it had ‘jokes’ but it had some solid more light hearted & quippy moments.

Low: This film had a very good ensemble and used many members of it very well. Malek was great, like I previously mentioned. Laurence Fishburne was good in a limited role. Rachel Brosnahan was very well used for a character that dies 5 minutes into the movie (it’s not a spoiler! It’s in every trailer!). Caitríona Balfe, Holt McCallany, & Julian Nicholson were also all solid. Michael Stuhlbarg was good, but I think should’ve appeared prominently in more than one scene. But the most questionable thing to me (and what makes it my low) is what the heck were they doing with Jon Bernthal in this film? Why was he even there if they weren’t going to do a single thing with him? He was hands down the most interesting character in the movie but got three throwaway scenes & provided nothing to the overall story. Weird.

Rating: 7.5/10