Taking apart toxic masculinity
In this new age of emerging wokeness and owned female empowerment, filmgoers should brace for, well, more bracing cinema that tackles bigotry and gender equality more and more — and not in metaphoric or subtextual ways. Take for example confrontational Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri and trailblazing French filmmaker Claire Denis (who’s been at this since 1988), both of whom were slightly radical at the time of their respective breakout films West Beirut and Chocolat. Not so much now.
Doueiri is back this month with The Insult, a nearly farcical drama about a random comment spoken in frustration that, given the historic tensions in the Middle East, escalates into a social and media maelstrom.
Doueiri’s morality play about two men who become the catalysts for religious violence has one question on its mind: Can justice truly be blind? When Palestinian refugee and contractor Yasser (Kamel El Basha), and Lebanese Christian mechanic Toni (Adel Karam) argue over repairs to a leaky drainpipe, one off-handed slur leads to another, and escalates to the point where the two find themselves in a courtroom, exposing their prejudices for the world to see.
The second act of The Insult is its strongest, with Doueiri ratcheting up the tension and revelatory accusations in lockstep. Neither man is perfect; neither is without his deep-seated prejudices. As the court case spirals out of control, an exploration of the powder keg that is the Middle East unfolds, and questions of what triggers human behavior and toxic masculine honor arise.
The story’s women are, notably, far more rational. Ultimately, Toni and Yasser take a hard look at their actions, prompting a hopeful if not traditionally happy ending. And Doueiri and co-writer Joelle Touma have distilled a purely Lebanese situation into something fundamental with universal resonance.
The idea of Denis making the vaguely rom-comish Bright Sunshine In is quite incredible. This is the woman who created horror from intimacy in Trouble Every Day and explored colonial collapse in White Material. Needless to say, there’s no laugh-out-loud comedy here, but a great deal of low-key, bittersweet existential angst (it is French after all), with a complex, recognizable woman at its center.
Denis directs Juliette Binoche as Isabelle, a 40- or 50-something divorced artist in Paris, seeking the kind of romantic and sexual connection the world constantly tells women her age not to expect. Denis and co-writer Christine Angot follow Isabelle through her muddled indecision and emotional misadventures as she jumps from one potential soul mate to the next.
Binoche is at her most understated, and given the film is hers to carry, she is mesmerizing as a woman refusing to be told how to act and what to expect in life. The comedy comes from awkwardness and frustration, the romance from the radiant Binoche’s unwavering faith in love. It’s not Denis’ best work by any stretch, but it is uniquely hers, and uniquely feminine in its voice. Directed by Claire Denis, written by Christine Angot, Claire Denis. Starring Juliette Binoche. France, 95 minutes, IIB. Opens June 7. Directed by Ziad Doueiri, written by Joelle Touma, Ziad Doueiri. Starring Kamel El Basha and Adel Karam. Lebanon, 114 minutes, IIA. Opens June 14.