What is it?
The 2019 American dark comedy crime drama mystery martial arts thriller The Art Of Self-Defense film.
What is it about?
This is how Rotten Tomatoes describes this movie:
After he’s attacked on the street at night by a roving motorcycle gang, timid bookkeeper Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) joins a neighborhood karate studio to learn how to protect himself.
Under the watchful eye of a charismatic instructor, Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), and hardcore brown belt Anna (Imogen Poots), Casey gains a newfound sense of confidence for the first time in his life.
But when he attends Sensei’s mysterious night classes, he discovers a sinister world of fraternity, brutality and hyper-masculinity, presenting a journey that places him squarely in the sights of his enigmatic new mentor.
Audacious and…
My Thoughts
When I saw the trailer for this it caught my attention as something different, it looked like a strange flat dark comedy that could be better than you would expect, and so I decided to watch this movie when I got a chance; and my brother GC watched it with me.
This is an unique movie that somewhat reminds me of a combination of the movies Napoleon Dynamite, Cuck, and a Wes Anderson movie.
The trailer and the movie are pretty similar, and so the trailer was not misleading.
This movie has a more flat style to the comedy where it is not trying to be funny really, but the situations and delivery and strangeness et cetera makes some things funny that normally would not be funny especially since some things are dark.
This movie has some surprises, better writing than you would think, it did not waste much time, and it was better than you would expect.
This movie is a bit eccentric and can be a bit hard to describe, it is a type of movie that you do not see that often, and is worth watching for something different.
I was surprised by some of the use of combat and martial arts, and how this was written in a way that managed to have some foreshadowing while still having some surprises while managing to have some comedy while still portraying some serious things in a unique way.
I also like how the movie ends with an answer to the art of self-defense, this movie is actually pretty clever, we need more movies like this.
The end,
-John Jr
John Jr's Blog 