Review of The Art of Self-Defense (2019) by Dullurd — 21 Jul 2019

I like its ambition, but it's a pretty big misfire for two reasons, I'd say.

One big problem is that the film can't seem to make up its mind whether you're supposed to care about the characters or laugh at them, and tries to have it both ways. The very stylized dialogue and shtick-y performances made it impossible for me to see the characters as real people, so all of the emotional beats rang false.

Second, it really goes off the rails in the third act. The plot turns are pretty contrived and hard-to-swallow. Rather than having a bunch of events-for-the-sake-of-being-eventful, I wish the story had zoomed in more on Eisenberg's character, who remains frustratingly opaque throughout.