The art of self defense review năm 2024

The way characters speak in Stearns’ script might take getting used to for some, as Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, playing Anna, his lone female classmate, state emotions and motivations plainly and directly, with little more emotion than the basic characterizations and personality quirks defined in their first scenes. But simple is exactly what Stearns is going for. The film’s dryness is pertinent for its specific sense of humor to land. Not unlike Office Space or The Lobster, The Art of Self-Defense uses the miniscule satisfaction of nonsense achievements, such as advancing to yellow belt in your 30s, to satirize the smallness of everyday life.

It helps that Nivola perfectly nails the Sensei’s over-the-top demeanor, cutting through Stearns’ appropriately low-key scene construction with some absolutely hilarious, self-serious nonsense (he at one point states in monotone, without a hint of irony, that he stuck his index finger through his former master’s forehead). His purpose to the story, however, is also to show us why Stearns chose to tell this story in 2019. As the Sensei gets more and more involved in Casey’s personal life, he’s encouraging every facet to be masculine to the extreme. And so, Casey starts rocking out to heavy metal, refuses to pet and coddle his dog, and shouts at his coworkers to do push-ups with him. At the same time, Anna, clearly top of the class, is continually denied a deserved ascension to black belt because, as her Sensei says, women are naturally weaker than men.

This makes The Art of Self-Defense a critique on toxic masculinity stated as plainly as it could possibly be stated, practically designed to provoke those who subscribe. Once that becomes clear, the setting and overall plot start to feel more introspective. The twists and turns that follow are straight out of a kung fu movie, with betrayals, challenges, and blood all there for one purpose: making the men feel like men. But what Casey can’t see that Anna can, at least partially, is how all this purported strength actually makes them weak. Again, these are middle-aged men in contemporary Middle America, not the samurai of feudal Japan.

The Art of Self-Defense Gallery

And yet, Stearns’ script states its themes so upfront that the film doesn’t leave a whole lot to chew on once it’s over. The Art of Self-Defense at its root is a story about the dangers of a violent mindset, primarily those typically associated with men. In today’s world, there’s a lot to say about that, but Stearns stops just short of saying something new. Instead, he repeats points made before in as creative and entertaining a way as he can muster.

There are so many precise little comedic details, such as the pointed set decoration in Casey’s home and the Sensei’s dojo, that help realize Stearns’ vision fully. Eisenberg proves to be a serviceable lead to guide us through that vision, but really it’s Poots and Nivola who wind up most realizing the film’s unique personality. Still, the film’s undeniable originality comes from the mind of Stearns. His hilarious, and occasionally quite tense, critique of the notion that physical strength and power are intrinsically linked in today’s world boasts a brutal honesty few filmmakers would dare dive into.

Verdict

One of the most original films of the year so far, The Art of Self-Defense is a searing critique of male violence, and the notion of power at large, told through a traditional kung fu flick set in present day America. Dryly funny, the film also carries a wisdom that makes Riley Stearns a talent to watch.

The satirical karate movie starring Jesse Eisenberg posits that these days, men do not have to dig deeply to find their inner brutes.

Bleecker Street

Casey Davies (played by Jesse Eisenberg), the protagonist of The Art of Self-Defense, is afraid—of other men, in particular. “I want to be what intimidates me,” he tells Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), the soft-spoken, self-assured instructor at a local karate dojo who seems to be everything Casey isn’t. Riley Stearns’s new film is a parable about Casey’s fraught ideals of masculinity that veers between goofy parody and rather straightforward horror. The script prods the audience to laugh as Casey begins his absurd journey toward becoming more intimidating, then suddenly swivels into more frightening territory.

This tonal muddle is appropriate to the state of the American psyche in 2019, when fury and rage are constant factors in every kind of discourse and seemingly empty threats can be hard to separate from real danger. The Art of Self-Defense, which follows Casey’s transformation from mild-mannered office drone to terrifying street vigilante, functions as an update of Fight Club, 20 years on. Whereas that earlier film saw its disaffected Generation X protagonists get in touch with their violent instincts as a form of catharsis, The Art of Self-Defense posits that these days, men do not have to dig deeply to find their inner brutes.

This role is an ideal fit for Eisenberg, but also an interesting challenge—though he’s played many a deadpan weirdo in his career (in films as disparate as The Social Network and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), they’re usually of the motormouthed variety. Casey, by contrast, is muted and robotic, given to skittishness and liable to fully shut down when threatened. After he’s attacked by a motorcycle gang, he considers buying a gun, but instead starts taking karate lessons with the mysterious Sensei (who provides no other name).

Nivola is one of those actors with movie-star good looks who has found his calling playing bizarre characters, and The Art of Self-Defense finds him at his funniest and weirdest. Sensei presents himself as a cool and collected warrior, but speaks in meaningless platitudes, telling Casey to buy more heavy-metal CDs and learn a foreign language, such as German or Russian, that will make him sound “tough.” Silly as this advice for becoming more masculine is, karate provides Sensei with a simple method of ensnaring lonely men in his cultlike following: Have them learn to kick and punch, and reward them with special belts.

That’s incentive enough for Casey, who takes quickly to the rules and ranking system of the martial art (in which each belt signifies a different level of experience and strength). Stearns wrings many an awkward laugh from the bromance that emerges between Casey and Sensei. But things start to get a lot stranger and scarier when Casey is deemed ready for the “night class,” an intense, ritualistic experience that encourages more outright violence. The film, uproarious in one moment, becomes rather grim in the next.

Eisenberg, Nivola, and a hilariously brusque Imogen Poots (as Sensei’s only female student) are more than up to the task of finding the comedy in scenes of nasty violence or brooding anxiety. Stearns, however, is less interested in balancing those tones than he is in exploiting their uneasy tension. The film is not set in a particular time or place, and its mixed reference points—a dingy beige cubicle and bulky monitor straight from the Dilbert ’90s, combined with other technological and cultural details from the present day—create an anachronistic, unsettling little world. The characters speak with plain and disarming honesty, spouting the kind of whole, robotic sentences favored by surreal directors such as Yorgos Lanthimos.

Stearns’s satire is mostly of the blunt-force variety. It’s hard to find much nuance in a film in which the characters bark out sentences such as “Everything should be as masculine as possible” and challenge one another to fights to the death. But that’s the world The Art of Self-Defense is describing: one where pure testosterone bubbles to the surface of every conversation and confrontation. It’s ostensibly a fantasy. But it looks a lot like home.

Is The Art of Self

The cinematography is simple but effective, the actors give great performances, and Riley Stearns has really done a fantastic job with the script and direction. This one is definitely worth a watch if you like the genre, even if you don't, give it a go, it might just surprise you.

What is the point of the art of self

The satirical karate movie starring Jesse Eisenberg posits that these days, men do not have to dig deeply to find their inner brutes.

Is the art of self

Parents need to know that The Art of Self-Defense is a dark comedy about a timid man (Jesse Eisenberg) learning to find his masculinity -- with unexpected results. Expect some pretty intense martial arts fighting, with lots of blood and broken limbs.

How does the art of self

After coming to this revelation, Casey confronts Sensei and challenges him to a duel to the death, and Sensei confidently accepts. However, when the time comes, Casey promptly shoots him in the face, and leaves the corpse on the mat as a trophy.