1. As all good spy movies are, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is more a workplace drama, than it is a straight up spy flick. Old guard replaced by the cutthroat new, nostalgia for the way things used to be, a realization of the drones that the kings of the dominion have traded life, and very well humanity, to have power and prestige. It eschews the more noir-like elements that similar movies focus on, and brings with it a subtle surrender to the inevitability of betrayal and institutionalism, both in the grand and small scheme. It’s a quiet, reserved, tense, and airtight movie that says more with a look than many movies could say with reams of dialogue. It is simply a fucking fantastic movie, in just about every way I can imagine. 

2. When you have Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and John Motherfucking Hurt on screen almost all at the same time, it’s really hard to say who really made this movie. 

3. The sequence with Peter in the archives towards the middle of the movie is one of the absolute best “did so much with so little” sequences in a movie that I may have ever seen. Tremendous, smart, and barely any tips of the hat. You have to care enough about most of the little things in this movie to get the full effect of some of the clues, and man, when it hits, it hits. 

4. The scene with Oldman speaking to an empty chair, reliving that one moment from his past, is so, so wonderful. I would see the whole movie over again just to see that one scene. 

5. See above. I loved this movie.