The Internship

In a cinematic landscape saturated with spy thrillers, 'The Internship' carves out its own brutal niche by asking a tantalizing question: what happens when the CIA's most elite, covertly-trained assets turn their lethal skills against their creators? Director James Bamford, leveraging his extensive action choreography background, delivers a tightly-wound 91-minute adrenaline shot that prioritizes propulsive momentum and visceral combat over convoluted espionage. The premise is a sleek, high-concept engine: a secret childhood program, known only as 'The Internship,' has molded orphans into perfect assassins. When one of its top graduates, played with chilling intensity by Lizzy Greene, decides to burn the system down, she assembles a team of her equally deadly peers for a mission of violent retribution. The film is less a cat-and-mouse game and more a brutal war between two sides of the same coin, with Philip Winchester's seasoned CIA operative leading the desperate counter-assault. Bamford's direction is kinetic and precise, favoring practical stunt work and clear, impactful fight geography over shaky-cam chaos. The action sequences, particularly a mid-film siege in a mirrored corporate lobby, are standout examples of coherent, hard-hitting choreography. The core cast, including Megan Boone and Sky Katz as fellow Internship alumni, sell their roles as consummate professionals forged in the same deadly crucible, though the script sometimes prioritizes their efficiency over deep emotional connection. The film's pacing is relentless, barely pausing for breath, which serves its strengths but occasionally glosses over the richer moral complexities its premise suggests. Cinematography is sleek and cold, using a palette of steel blues and stark whites to emphasize the clinical, institutional nature of the conflict, while the score pulses with aggressive electronic beats that underscore the ticking-clock tension.