REVIEW
The Art of Self-Defense
Stars: 4.0
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Nivola, Imogen Poots, Steve Terada, David Zellner, and Phillip Andre Botello
Written and directed by Riley Stearns
Rated: 14A for coarse language, nudity and violence
Runtime: 104 minutes
Now playing at the Princess Theatre, 10337 82 Ave. in Edmonton. princesstheatre.ca
Hey guys … if you’ve ever been picked on like the weakling on the beach in that old Charles Atlas ad then Casey Davies knows how you feel. He also knows what it feels like to train hard enough to become the hero of the beach soon enough.
Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) is the hero of The Art of Self-Defense, a brilliant satirical look at toxic masculinity and the atmosphere of violence that exists in North America. Casey starts off as a mild-mannered accountant who audits expense reports – more like a milquetoast character, actually – and doesn’t really get along with the boys’ club at work. Not the most self-confidence anyone’s ever had, if you get my drift. He’s a solitary sort, amiable enough, but lives alone unless you count his dachshund.
One night, Casey gets mugged and his entire life changes. The trauma of the event not only keeps him from going back to work; his first thoughts turn to self-preservation. First, he goes to a gun store but the waiting period is too long. Walking past a karate dojo, he finds his salvation.
Writer/director Riley Stearns is smarter than to simply make this a tale of revenge. The dialogue and the tone of Art make it unique. It has a tongue-in-cheek weirdness that is truly marvelous and in many ways, it feels like a period piece parlor comedy set in the 1700s.
Here are some tidbits to give you a better sense:
“Karate is a language. At this point in your karate training, you are learning how to form words with your fists and your feet,” says the sensei of the dojo played by Alessandro Nivola. “My name is Sensei,” he adds.
Later, blue belt student Henry (David Zellner) states, “There’s a lot of testosterone in this dojo. That’s the hormone that men produce.”
Uh… OK. You wouldn’t expect to hear real people utter such droll and obvious things without a hint of irony, but they do here and it makes all the difference. At one point, Sensei tells the class the story about how the grandmaster of the dojo was accidentally killed on a hiking trip when he was shot after being mistaken “for a bird.” As ludicrous as that sounds, that excuse also seems realistic. Without this sense of humour, I expect that this movie would have been more tense and filled with dread. With it, it becomes a lot lighter and enjoyable, even when the brutal violence happens.
Stearns could be considered an offbeat filmmaker but, if this work is any indication, his sensibilities still come with a lot of smarts. The film really resonates as a dark comedy firmly based in reality… sad, brutal reality.
The heart of Art is in Eisenberg’s invested portrayal of the nebbish who has to confront the embodiment of aggression without a lifetime of machismo to back him up. He’s an interesting actor whose naturally frenzied nervous energy lends well to his portrayal as a guy with low self-confidence, even down to the inflection of his speech. We totally believe how he becomes obsessive about martial arts in order to stand his own ground and defend those he cares about. What does that say about the real world?
