I am an absolute sucker for tight, well-choreographed spy flicks, but I also appreciate the artistry and finesse of an action movie filled with long takes, real stakes, and great set-pieces. Atomic Blonde unequivocally meets, exceeds, and sets the bar in both categories. Taking place in 1989 Berlin, it’s explicitly not a story about the Berlin Wall, but rather about the many international players operating in, around, and through the chaos, with clandestine operatives from around the globe all trying to exert control.

Charlize Theron and James McAvoy absolutely captivate, and it’s impossible to say too much about the vibrancy of the setting. We see Berlin’s raucous and unapologetic underground, and the choking boot of government and international politics pressed to its neck. The lighting, the sound, the grit, the energy, it’s all so passionate, fervent, and ultimately hopeful. The soundtrack is a love song to late-80s clubbing, and both the originals and covers are mixed cleanly with the action, drama, and emotion on-screen.

A running theme of the movie is trust, in that almost everyone we see is playing an angle—if not multiple—and in the cloak and dagger world of spies, nothing is ever truly what it seems. Confidences are gained, lost, betrayed, and backstabbed, in a way that not only seems believable, it feels downright likely amid the chaos of the cold war and the political upheval of the era. It absolutely scratches the itch I have for political spy thrillers because just about everything fits together, and the bits that don’t also have likely reasons, even if left up to the viewer.

Now, when it comes to action, Theron shows she’s no paper tiger. With dazzling scenes that are polished in their efficacy, including long single-take sequences that lesser movies would have split into dozens of shots. While there are guns, most of the combat we see is just like the city: grimy, filthy, up-close, and brutal. The movie pulls no punches, and neither do the characters.

I highly, highly recommend this movie to any fans of action flicks, spy dramas, or those with an overwhelming nostalgia for the 1980s. It’s one of my favorite movies, and an instant underrated classic.

Postscript: after enjoying this movie again recently, I looked up the English lyrics for Nena’s 99 Luftballons for the first time in a while, and boy its inclusion on the soundtrack—particularly in a somber, minor key—absolutely hits the bullseye on multiple levels.