My Cultural Diet

Don’t worry, I still love watching the debonair 007 gallivant around the world to foil dastardly conspiracies with wit, charisma, and an arsenal of fancy gadgets. But I also love spy films that forgo the globe-hopping glamor and instead, dive headfirst into the moral quagmire, films in which secret agents find their souls hollowed out by secrets and conspiracies until they’re so weary and cynical, it’s not entirely sure if they’re still one of the good guys. And when it comes to that sort of spy story, nobody’s better than John le Carré. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of his best-known novels, and Tomas Alfredson ably sets up its chilly Cold War-set story. Told in a fractured manner, it’s easy to get lost at times, to find yourself constantly wondering if you’ve somehow missed a key piece to the puzzle. Fortunately, even when you’re confused — and you probably will be — you can still relish in the film’s powerhouse cast, which includes Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, John Hurt, and Gary Oldman as spymaster George Smiley. (Who, by the way, is a complete one-eighty from his other great spy role as Slow Horses’ Jackson Lamb.)

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