This dark and often surreal comedy walks the line between
deadpan brilliance and over-the-top outlandishness. I inadvertently glanced at
a review which spoke about the film’s skewering of toxic masculinity. I guess
you could say it does that. But it also touches upon misogyny, bullying,
transformative experiences, the cult of personality (and, well, just cults as a
whole), the need to belong, fear of being weak, and myriad other subjects. But
honestly, all of that came to mind after I watched the film and stewed on it
during my drive home. In the moment, TAOSD is an absurdist jaunt into the life
of a glorious sad sack who finds redemption in karate. Kind of. The film is
teeming with foreshadowing and, in a way, is pretty predictable, but it moves
at such a wonderfully succinct pace that you kind of forget about the
breadcrumbs that have been dropped until BAM! they smack you in the face and
you say “Damn, I should have seen that coming!” I dig films like this, you
know, ones where seemingly innocuous events that occurred in the beginning of
the film come back into play at the end; it’s like a tightly woven tapestry
of
Jesse Eisenberg plays the socially awkward protagonist to
great effect, perhaps a smidgen over-the-top in terms of how stiff and detached
he is from reality and social norms. Then again, that seems to be the film’s
major ploy: fucking with the balance of impassive and camp. Imogen Poot is
equally enthralling, giving an earnest, yet smoldering performance. And
Alessandro Nivola as the off-kilter karate sensei is wonderfully
malevolent.
On top of it all there’s plenty of good old ultra-violence
sprinkled throughout, which offsets the droll satire nicely and helps create an
atmosphere where you never really know what’s going to happen next. Okay, I did
mention all of the blatant foreshadowing leading up to predictable moments, but
the violence often works as a jarring red herring.
If you like your comedies swinging from the gallows, but in
an irreverent and left-of-center manner then this is an entertaining and
engaging effort.
Rating: 4/5
RIYL: The Lobster; Safety Not Guaranteed; After Hours;
Withnail & I; Repo Man
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