Ava and The Evolution of The Female Led Action Genre

During a year in which a global pandemic has forced governments to redefine how we live. At a time when we have to consider our futures and witness the lives of those around us change indefinitely. one of the more sedate symptoms of the pandemic are distinct changes to the movie release calendar. Because of changing release schedules, lockdowns and changes to social norms some releases have come and gone with little fanfare.

One of these movies was Ava (2020), starring Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, Common and John Malkovich. The action thriller was poorly received by professional critics and it went straight to an on demand release in the United States it seems to already be a forgotten movie. Yet Ava is another fantastic addition into the female led action genre.

A genre which continues to go from strength to strength but also has formed a distinct stylistic focus over the past two decades.

Growing up in the 1980’s and 90’s during a time when action cinema was dominated by men. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren and others were all household names and some became megastars. Whilst this cinematic age would eventually lead to some classic movies like Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) which was a sequel to a superior first entry which had helped to make Schwarzenegger a star years earlier. This time in cinema also spawned movies like Predator (1987) and Rambo (1986).

Whilst there are classics within this male orientated genre as some of these movies had broader reflections on technology (Terminator 1 and 2), science fiction horror (Predator) and The Vietnam War (Rambo). The genre would not survive as Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) would redefine the mass market blockbuster before the dawn of a new decade and then in later years the hulking machismo of Stallone et al would be replaced with more thoughtful action stars such as Keanu Reeves in movies like The Matrix (1999) and Speed (1994), by the start of the 2000’s the death of the muscle bound machismo of the 1980’s would further be confirmed by The Bourne Identity (2002).

What is of note in many of these action movies is that their primary stylistic reference is that of science fiction, war movies and the relentless pace of some 1970’s action and mystery stories like The French Connection (1971).

The only male led action movie franchise that was born out of another genre entirely was James Bond. Bond dominated action movies in the 1960’s and 1970’s. With his sharp clothing, penchant for exclusive brands, foods, and sex. Bond on screen took his style from film noir and during the Sean Connery era it used the visual acuity of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959). Yet for all of his style James Bond movies were simplistic fantasy movies. Designed to give the audience a wealth of endorphins and catharsis at each movie’s end.

In 1963 John Le Carre published The Spy Who Came Who Came In from The Cold, what Le Carre did in his espionage writing was antithetical to the glamourous fantasy world of James Bond. Le Carre imbued his writing with a distinct sense of moral relativism as he fused his characters and the world they inhabit with a sense of morose sadness. For Le Carre the world of espionage was not celebratory it was almost a sad retort to the failings of geopolitics.

A movie would arrive in 1990 which managed to fuse action, film noir and melancholy into one movie: Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita (1990), arrived on screen.

Starring Anne Parillaud, Beeson’s movie tells the story of a young, drug addicted woman who after an attempted robbery is complicit in a murder. She is then offered the choice between death or to be become a paid assassin. What La Femme Nikita managed to do was to combine the action thrills of the 1980’s with the glamour James Bond yet Beeson also married this to film noir in a distinctly different way. Like many of those old black and white movies Beeson placed his protagonist against sprawling cityscapes in which whilst even surrounded by people those characters were alone. He also gave his movie an ending in which Nikita walks away from her lover and away from their relationship. The movie also avoids the quips of James Bond in favour of a more serious tone that Bond would adapt later in his history with Licence to Kill (1989) and Casino Royale (2006) in La Femme Nikita there are no heroes or villains. Only death and human beings.

The movie also leans into the complex morality at play in Le Carre’s work whilst also offering fantastical action.

Beeson’s movie is seminal in that it points toward the levels of sophistication featured in the majority of the female lead action movies which follow it. A genre which exists outside of the framework of the constant plethora of comic book movies which dominate the industry. At most ends of the spectrum of the female led action movie, the thrills are met with layers of both popcorn fun and humanistic truth.

Ava is a movie which when viewed in the context of other female led action movies is a wonderful addition to the genre and to Jessica Chastain’s canon of movies.

Chastain is a generational talent, able to portray the paradoxes of professional integrity, drive, determination and emotional focus with a distinct sense of vulnerability.

In terms of espionage and action she is perfect for the role of Ava. Chastain has traversed the periphery of the action/espionage movie before in Katheryn Bigelow’s controversial telling of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden Zero Dark Thirty (2013).

At the end of Bigelow’s thriller Chastain’s CIA agent- Maya is left alone sat on a military charter flight unsure of her destination as she cries tears, solitary and alone. In a movie that is widely criticised as being a piece of propaganda it is a wonderfully sedate and contemplative ending.

Prior to this Chastain had also played a police officer in Ami Mann’s Texas Killing Fields (2011) and more poignantly a Mossad agent charged with hunting down a genocidal Nazi in The Debt (2010).

The Debt is poignant in terms of Ava and Chastain’s career because the movie is able to ask questions of how the Mossad agents perceive their own morality and reflect upon their actions.

With Ava Chastain is also able to bring the intensity, charisma and glamour of what she brought to Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game (2017) and a character like Elizabeth Sloane from Miss Sloane (2017).

In Ava Chastain plays a former soldier who now works for a group of assassins lead by John Malkovich’s character: Duke, Ava has killed many people without question and is now starting to have doubts about the rights and wrongs of her profession.

Ava is now asking her victims what crime they have committed before she ends their lives, this has led to Dukes’ deputy Simon (played by Colin Farrell) starting if Ava can still be trusted.

What makes the movie interesting is that it opens with a title sequence full of imagery pertaining to US political hegemony. During the title sequence we see images of war combined with Ava’s new job as an assassin.

What the movie then does is to present all of the iconography we expect from this genre (glamorous dresses, foreign locales, firearms, wigs and mystery) and marries the iconography with a main character who is questioning her own morality during the movie. This emotional deep dive is combined with Ava realising how her own mistakes and selfishness has affected her own family and her personal relationships. Ava also features Geena Davis in the cast as Ava’s mother: Bobbi which is wonderfully ironic as Davis also starred in The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) which was one of the best action movies of the 1990’s.

Instead of providing the audience with the catharsis we expect at the end of most action movies Ava instead asks us as the audience to see Ava as an emotionally scarred murderer and (perhaps) someone whose only intimate relationship is with violence. There is also a stunning musical sequence in the movie set to Alison Goldfrapp and Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan’s song: Ocean a scene where Ava contemplates committing suicide.

Contextually this sequence is an indicator of the sophistication of most female led action movies and as to why it is a genre I prefer most. It is also significant that a movie so successful as a genre piece has been so underrated by critics and audiences.

In Jung Byung Gil’s The Villainess (2017), Kim Ok-Bin’s character Sook-hee plays an assassin whose baby is brutally murdered in the second act of the movie. She then goes on to exact terrifying revenge on the people who took her child’s life. Yet the movie runs away from the traditional tropes of a revenge narrative in that her life has been destroyed in a transformative way because of the violence she has perpetrated on others and has now fallen victim too. In this story the lead character becomes the Villainess. Here we feel culpable as audience members as we have enjoyed the gratification of the violence we are presented with and yet as the movie concludes we ask ourselves what was the cost for the character and perhaps how violence is accepted in action cinema but in society itself.

At the conclusion of Point of No Return (1993) Starring Bridget Fonda (which is a remake of La Femme Nikita) Maggie Hayward disappears into the future. One devoid of love and romance and the fulfilment of leaving her old life behind her. I mention this movie specifically because the movie concludes with Maggie Hayward walking away whereas in the original movie the audience watches the two male co stars discuss the female lead. Again, we are denied the traditionally cathartic ending of many an action movie.

In Atomic Blonde (2017), before the triumphant ending we have a musical setpiece based around Kaleida’s remix of 99 LuftBalloons by Nena. Here our lead character: Lorraine Broughton is broken down by the cost of the violence around her which has led to the death of her lover Delphine played by Sofia Boutella. Whilst the movie does feature a joyous ending it also takes time to reflect upon the cost of the violence of the movie.

Director Reed Morano’s criminally underrated The Rhythm Section Blake Lively stars as Stephanie Patrick; a former university student who becomes an assassin to seek revenge on the people who killed her family. Like Ava the movie removes the veil of uplift from the audience as Stephanie willingly arises into this new world of horrific violence and murder.

Whilst Anna (2019) does feature one of the least ambiguous endings of many an action thriller, the movie still uses explicit portrayals of sex and violence which is also set amongst more moral ambiguities than in the majority of male led action movies of today.

It is clear over time female led action movies have established their own style and their own rules.

These movies suffer at times both critically and commercially. For example you compare these movies to most of the pictures released under the banner of comic book movies. These movies are usually R rated and this allows them to approach character and action in a more emotionally dextrous fashion than most modern blockbusters.

Bond movies tend to conclude in a way that adheres to the mainstream appeal of a multi billion dollar franchise. I love the Bond movies and especially the work of Daniel Craig in the lead role. Yet those movies avoid any actual sexuality and the brutality at play is conveyed not through bloody violence but because of the skill of the stunt choreographers. In most of the movies led by female action stars the action is bloody and brutal and the as the dust settles after the violence there is a discernible cost for the story and the people in the movie.

Why is it then that in some circles this genre is still seen as an ethereal companion to male ‘heroes’.

The film critic, photographer and podcaster Lesley Byron Pitt said on the Hustlers of Culture podcast that he didn’t see characters on screen as heroes or villains he simply saw human beings.

Pitt’s viewpoint is beautifully illustrated within the female led action genre which is years ahead of its male contemporaries in many regards and also is one which doesn’t receive the necessary kudos in a crowded cinema landscape.

To compare Ava and the rest of these movies with female led action movies in the comic book genre (it is worth noting that of all the female led comic book movies to be released only a few of those characters have appeared in their own movies first) where movies like Wonder Woman (2017) and Captain Marvel (2019) open to high box office numbers.

These movies feature binary interpretations of morality and are linked to larger franchises led by male characters. Yet these movies are still as genre specific as the movies I have mentioned but they draw on the comic book as a direct influence. Ava and the other movies draw upon film noir but they are still as genre specific as stories based on graphic novels.

Critics are also far kinder to comic book movies on the whole than these action pictures however in terms of how each of these stories relate to their specific genre they not only are part of a piece they actually are more successful at both adhering to and pushing the expected boundaries of their genre.

Which brings me back to Ava. A movie that has been poorly reviewed and has been given little spotlight yet not only is it a wonderful movie it is also another beautiful variation on the female led action movie.

Unlike Ava and her cinematic peers I hope this genre does not walk into an uncertain future.

Ava Is available on demand and on Blu Ray and DVD now