Once
every blue moon a movie comes along that raises my eye brows and makes me think
that Hollywood isn’t entirely hopeless and bankrupt of imaginative ideas. These movies tend to be indies boldly defiant
of tried-and-true conventions and unafraid of being different. ‘The Art of Self Defense,’ the quiet and
subtle dark comedy from director/writer Riley Stearns (better known as the ex
of the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead) starring Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro
Nivola and Imogen Poots, is the latest such eye-opener.
TAOSD
is the story of Casey (Eisenberg), a socially awkward thirty-something loner
and auditor by profession whose singularly mundane life is the very definition
of boredom (and anything devoid of excitement) itself. His peaceful and languid existence is turned
upside down one fateful night when he was robbed and nearly beaten to death by
a marauding gang of motorcyclists while going to the grocery store to buy dog
food for his hungry dachshund.
Determined to never be a helpless victim again, Casey resolved to defend
himself by purchasing a gun but found a much better alternative when he chanced
upon the karate dojo run by the charismatic “Sensei” (Nivola), in which he
immediately enrolled. The less said
about the rest of the story the better because, boy oh boy, you will never
guess (short of reading the spoilers that is, but what’s the fun in that?) how
it unfolds.
I
love this movie. It is subversively
funny, unexpected in so many ways (from Eisenberg’s dead-pan acting to the many
twists and turns in the plot), altogether fresh and surprisingly riveting. If I didn’t know better, I would almost take
TAOSD as a Jim Jarmusch film because it has that certain feel in tone and
style. And that is quite a compliment in
itself.
Grade: A
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