The Art of Self Defense (Riley Stearns, 2019)

[therewillbeblus]

The Art of Self-Defense is a dark comic meditation on the isolated individualistic culture-less white American male trying to find value in an identity through social groups, exploiting the ridiculousness in every system and figure involved in this process, including our larger society, with glee in opportunistic amusement rather than strictly condescending judgment. The film tackles toxic masculinity and the consequences of infected egos from a comfortable objective seat, and finds as much humor in the editing process as in the script and performances, reminiscent of the best of Jody Hill and co’s work. Alessandro Nivola shows deadpan comic chops I never knew he had in a late-career revelation of skills, while Jesse Eisenberg is the perfect awkward vessel for the thematic irony of forced and desperate socialization breeding antisocial personalities (set in the milieu of karate, a spiritually anti-violent self-defense culture, but inverted to become a violent hive-minded cult, an additional atmospheric layer of schematic irony that permeates the film). While this film does get rather dark in its handling of the material, director Riley Stearns never compromises his relaxed (strangely zen) principal attitude that the absurdity present in white American anti-culture provides natural comedy to be recognized, exploited, and even celebrated as such through the deconstruction of the pathetic, and not with the unearned seriousness which these ideologies, institutions, toxic social behaviors, and personal needs demand to be treated on their own self-important terms.

[domino harvey]

Alessandro Nivola shows deadpan comic chops I never knew he had

Someone hasn’t seen Timecode!

[therewillbeblus]

Alessandro Nivola shows deadpan comic chops I never knew he had

Someone hasn’t seen Timecode!

*Immediately puts online request in at library*

[lzx]

Alessandro Nivola shows deadpan comic chops I never knew he had

Someone hasn’t seen Timecode!

*Immediately puts online request in at library*

It's available for free here without even an account!