The Art of Self-Defense
The Art of Self-Defense is a witty and idiosyncratic takedown of machoism that doesn’t shy away from its uncomfortably terrifying aspects.
author - managing director Riley Stearns ' SXSW breakout hitThe artwork of Self - Defenseis a scrap like someone strain to conceive of what might ’ve take place if , inThe Karate Kid , Daniel LaRusso had decided to study at Cobra Kai after all . What ensues is an unsettlingly rummy sendup of the idea of manliness and the vainglorious ( and , at time , obliviously homoerotic ) nature of tough - bozo behavior . Its function of heavy satire and thriller elements should be intimate to anyone who ’s ever follow a parody of masculine finish before , but it manages to throw off enough curveballs to stave off feeling like a wan imitation of better films . The Art of Self - Defenseis a witty and idiosyncratic takedown of machoism that does n’t shy away from its uncomfortably terrifying aspects .
The Art of Self - Defensestars Jesse Eisenberg as Casey Davies , a mild - mannered , 35 - class old accountant who is savagely assaulted by a motorcycle gang when walking home from the grocery store one dark . While recovering from his injuries , Casey make up one’s mind to take up karate lessons at a local dojo execute by a charismatic , if enigmatic , black belt ( Alessandro Nivola ) who insists that everyone simply call him Sensei . As Casey pass on to the tier of yellow belt , he proceed to struggle to stand up for himself and is pay for by Sensei to take part in the mysterious nighttime classes attended by the school ’s highest - ranking students . There , Casey is pulled into an progressively twisted earth of hypermasculinity and brutal sodality that he cheerfully embraces … at least , in the beginning .
Structurally , The Art of Self - Defenseinvites comparisons toFight Clubin the way that it follows an unassuming bloodless collar worker down the rabbit hole as he becomes part of a bizarre subculture of manlike hostility ( one that primarly postulate cisgender men meeting at Nox to pommel one anther silly , no less ) . Stearns ' script does n’t taste to reinvent the recipe so much as put a impertinent spin on it by using dryly grim humor often deliver in the style of a Wes Anderson comedy . As a result , the film plays out as an divertingly quirky satire for its its first one-half , especially in the scenes where Casey - acting on Sensei ’s orders - abandons his milquetoast existence of being perpetually humiliated in favour of belligerently swan himself ( violently , if needs be ) at body of work , and listen to comically loud heavy metal in his car .
By the time its 2nd half rolls around , though , The Art of Self - Defensebegins to feel less like a dark lampoon and more like a repugnance drollery ( if not a categoric - out horror pic ) . Along the manner , Casey ’s search for sureness morphs into a perturbing descent into duskiness full of desolate jocularity that are just as likely to make you cringe as they are to instigate spooky laugh . In a means , the film ’s nondescript stage setting and historic menstruum ( based on the technology and interior innovation , it ’s meant to be somewhere in the eighties or ' XC ) creates a barrier that makes it easier to plow the comically toxic masculinity on display here than if it had taken topographic point in , say , the present - day . Stearns and his stateless person Michael Ragen also tend to keep the tv camera at a aloofness from the action and film everything as though it ’s being find from the point of view of a singular scientist observing the conduct of these super unsafe men .
In many ways , Casey and his odyssey are a chip off the same block for Eisenberg ; where his versions of Mark Zuckerberg and Lex Luthor dealt with their feelings of emasculation by call on to the net or projecting his insecurities onto Superman , his character inThe Art of Self - Defensetries to overcome his sense of insufficiency by embracing what he perceives as a macho lifestyle . Eisenberg ’s droll deliverance and uneasy manner wee him an excellent fit for Sterns ' comedic sensibilities , and it ’s grueling to conceive of another actor embodying Casey quite as well for it . He ’s match by Nivola ’s likewise deadpan approach as Sensei , a man who talks about soldierly art and swift acts of revenge with the same stoic intensity as he does the pricing for karate gear . Imogen Poots rounds out the trifecta here as Anna , the sole female teacher at Sensei ’s school and a hardened brawler who ’s learned to take her instructor ’s unapologetically sexist remarks in pace as easily as she doles out a lacing or brushes off a strike to the case .
IfThe artistic production of Self - Defenseis not as stylistically assured or thematically ground - breaking asFight Club , in some shipway it improves on that cult classic by never accidentally making Casey , Sensei , or their peers ' conduct seem " nerveless " and always portray their ultra - masculinity as being either ludicrous or , during its second one-half especially , downright horrifying . Still , because it ’s such an effective skewering of overstated machismo , it makes for an overall pitch - dark movie that ’s difficult to recommend to passing moviegoers who ’re merely await an off - kilter clowning about that guy fromThe Social Networklearning karate . For those who are game , however , Stearns ' wry examination of fragile maleness is worth the meter to retard out .
TRAILER
The Art of Self - Defenseis now wager in U.S. field of operations nationwide . It is 104 minutes long and is rated roentgen for violence , sexual content , graphic nakedness and language .
