THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE (2019) ***

Jesse Eisenberg stars as Casey, a meek accountant who is accosted and mugged on a dark street.  After healing from his injuries, he decides to take up karate lessons to learn how to be more masculine and protect himself.  He excels at rudimentary karate and quickly moves up to the rank of yellow belt.  His Zen-like instructor (Alessandro Nivola) takes a shine to Casey and invites him to attend his “night class”, which is much more strenuous, deadly, and possibly illegal.  

The Art of Self-Defense reminded me a bit of Observe and Report as both films contain the same brand of dark humor.  Both also deal with men wrestling with possible mental illness working a job they are unfit to be employed.  There’s also a bit of Fight Club in there as well, as the movie starts out as primarily about fighting, but then takes a foreboding turn in the second act where the characters stop grappling and begin focusing their energy to criminal endeavors.  (Minus the satire though.)  

Eisenberg is ideally cast as the hero.  It’s fun seeing his transformation from introverted geek to alpha male.  It’s Nivola who steals the movie though.  He kinda looks like Armand Assante channeling Bruce Springsteen as the ultra-masculine, self-absorbed, and potentially whack-a-doodle “Sensei”.  He totally disappears into the role and chews the scenery while issuing hilarious monologues about what it means to be a man and the importance doing masculine things.  I know one thing:  If they ever reboot Karate Kid 3 with Nivola in the Terry Silver role, they’d have my $15.

After a rather flawless first half-hour, the film kind of falters once it becomes clear that Nivola is a nut and his night class is a front for his sociopathic tendencies.  Once he starts playing his students against each other and pushing them into illegal extracurricular activities, the fun slowly drops out of the movie.  Naturally, this all leads up to a final confrontation between Nivola and Eisenberg which manages to be surprising, frustrating, but fitting at the same time.  I can’t quite say The Art of Self-Defense is a great movie, but there are enough flashes of brilliance, especially in the early going, to make it a champion.