The Art of Self-Defense (2019)
Where I can't say that I am always the biggest fan of his I will say Jesse Eisenberg is an actor I am always interested in what he does. Being such a unique presence in nearly every movie he is in he is really hit or miss, sure there are plenty of times where he feels weird and ineffective but in films like The Social Network, he seems like perfect casting. The Art of Self-Defense is a movie that was hard to judge as far as much it meshed with Eisenberg who plays the lead Casey. Casey is a young man who is meandering through life when out of nowhere one night he is brutally attacked by a group of men on motorcycles. In response, he joins a local karate dojo which is run by a man only referred to as Sensei (Alessandro Nivola). Sensei takes Casey under his wing and tries to get Casey to embrace his heteronormativity masculine traits to make him a "real man". Where Casey jumps right on this bandwagon having seriously lacked direction in his life up to this point but slowly the faults of Sensei's mindset start to appear. From his misogyny is not respecting and promoting his qualified and dedicated student Anna (Imogen Poots) to a darker night class which he runs. Casey has to confront these hard truths while also finding more and more strength and meaning in his training and friendship with Sensei.

As I mentioned my main point of intrigue with this film was how Jesse Eisenberg would handle the role of Casey. Where he has done the role of the weak male tons of time before to see him have to take this character and then push it into these more serious scenes and social commentaries. It would be easy for him to feel out of place but he is easily one of the best aspects of the film. I cannot think of another actor who would be able to play this role as well as he does. He is able to transform into this character and works no matter the tone of the scene. Alessandro Nivola is also really fantastic as Sensi. Without giving much away this is a character who has a troubled relationship with the audience as we alongside Casey start to question him and he works really well.

Though I think overall this balance between being a comedy and almost psychological thriller is one of the weaker sides to this film. It's not that the movie fails either side as it really succeeds with whatever it is going for in each particular scene. It is a successful laugh out loud comedy that has so many genuinely great moments bringing some of the best comedy of the year so far. It is also a really effective thriller, you are engaged as developments occur and there are some scenes where I was on the edge of my seat. Even though these individual elements are strong on their own this movie struggles to put these two personalities together. It has so many scenes that suffer from the drastic changes in tone and at the end of the day doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Where the ideas in this film are really strong and it does succeed with plenty of what it is trying to do the overall execution feels weaker. The actual message in this movie also feels muffled and underdeveloped, where it clearly has things to say about topics such as masculinity and gender equality by the end I don't know if the meaning was developed or explored enough to mean a lot.
Still, I would recommend you check out The Art of Self-Defense. As I mentioned the acting is really solid and the pieces of the puzzle that is this film are notable and enjoyable. It is just when you put the puzzle together that is starts to disappoint. Where this film had the pieces to be great it will settle on just being "good" which is far from a terrible thing.
Still, I would recommend you check out The Art of Self-Defense. As I mentioned the acting is really solid and the pieces of the puzzle that is this film are notable and enjoyable. It is just when you put the puzzle together that is starts to disappoint. Where this film had the pieces to be great it will settle on just being "good" which is far from a terrible thing.