Red Joan

Image   Red Joan, the intelligent espionage thriller based on Jennie Rooney's novel, is just the kind of art cinema I continue to champion. With subtlety and precision, the film unravels the complex psyche of Joan Stanley, an elderly widow played poignantly by Judi Dench in her middle age. Through flashbacks, we begin to understand her dark past as a Soviet spy at the height of the Cold War. Sophie Cookson mana…