Little ‘Art’ to odd, off-putting film
Almost 10 years ago, “The Social Network” made Jesse Eisenberg a star on the rise. Since then he has hovered. Eisenberg has appeared in two of those “Now You See Me” movies, which I assiduously have not seen. He has also made several good indie films — “The End of the Tour,” “The Double,” “Night Moves” — that have failed to gain traction. He’s Lex Luthor in the DC universe, a mixed blessing to be sure. He has a “Zombieland” sequel set to open, so there’s money in the bank.
In Riley Stearns’ offbeat, frequently off-putting and finally off its rocker dark comedy “The Art of SelfDefense,” Eisenberg is Casey Davis, bookkeeper, loner, dweeb and “35-yearold dog owner,” who in opening scenes gets beaten up by bikers in an unidentified urban area. Casey’s understandable response is to want to buy a gun. But Casey also enrolls in a class in karate at a dojo run by a very strange, oddly hostile man, who wants be to referred to only as “sensei” (Alessandro Nivola). Sensei tells Casey about the strict rules at the dojo, beginning with rule No. 1, “No shoes on the mat.” The founder of the dojo, we are told, was killed in a “tragic hiking accident” when he was misidentified as a bird and killed with a shotgun blast. Is that supposed to be funny? Asking.
The sensei arranges to place Casey in competition with other students at the dojo. They are Anna (Imogen Poots in a role that Stearns’ estranged wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, was set to play) and Thomas (Steve Terada). Casey learns of night classes taught by the sensei, where the violence gets out of hand. It’s kind of like an even dumber, chop-socky version of “Fight Club” in which the protagonist experiences some sort of journey to macho manhood by way of physical combat.
For the life of me, I was convinced “The Art of SelfDefense” was based on a graphic novel. It was the only way to explain all the flat lighting, odd affect, strange dialogue, sudden outbreaks of violence and bizarre plot twists. Like Brit Marling and her creative partner Zal Batmanglij, writer-director Stearns has a thing for mind control and cults. But like Marling and Batmanglij’s work, that doesn’t make what Stearns has to say about those subjects interesting. Sensei appears to have an agenda for turning Casey into a macho man, instead of the weakling who wants to go to France. “Go to Germany,” barks the sensei, who teaches an “art form” developed in Japan. I get the Axis is back. An undercurrent of homophobia runs through the film. In one scene, Anna strikes an unconscious opponent over and over in the face with her increasingly bloodied fist. Later, Casey’s presumably “inappropriate” effeminate dog mysteriously dies and is replaced with a German Shepherd. Check, please.
(“The Art of Self-Defense” contains violence, sexually suggestive content, profanity and nudity.)