Shahab Mossavat

I loved No Time to Die. How does Bond come back from that? Is the name Bond just an alias, anyway? It has been described as a love story, but that would be a gross mischaracterisation of a much more intricate film. The themes of sacrifice and loss - inherent of a love story - only really arise after Bond's meeting with Blofeld; and scene shift to 'Madeline at Home'. Before that, the film is frontloaded with action sequences both in Italy and Cuba, which are traditional and breathtaking. And Ana de Armas's brief cameo as the '3-weeks-out-of-training' *Paloma* is sexy as hell. The casting of Lashana Lynch as Nomi is also inspired, and moves the narrative of the whole 25-film canon, on. And all the back referencing with the music riffs from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the heritage Aston Martins: Sean Connery's DB5, Timothy Dalton's V8 Vantage were perfect counterpoints of the past against Nomi's DBS Superleggera of the future. Loved it - an accomplished and sophisticated film. Fitting #EndOfAnEra movie.