The Art of Self-Defense

An unexpected gem aspiring to be the most bizarre film of the year. The story focuses on Jesse Eisenberg, who plays an accounting nerd with poor social skills. One night he gets so badly beaten up by a biker gang that he ends up in the hospital and decides to sign up for Karate for self-defense. The Karate class is led by an eccentric Sensei who, in addition to teaching Karate, also teaches a way of life, and the protagonist literally transforms into a different person. From that point on the film becomes incredibly bizarre. The film is half black tragic-comedy and half bizarre psycho thriller and together it works great. The film excels especially in the performances, the dialogues, which are not only smart but also informative (lots of interesting stuff regarding martial arts), and the last half hour kept my mind wondering how weird the film would eventually turn into. Unpredictable, informative, entertaining, funny, disturbing and gritty! 85% (10/17/2019)

If you look at it realistically, the transformation of the Jesse Eisenberg’s character is not particularly believable. But given how bizarrely it gradually develops, it doesn’t matter at all. The Art of Self-Defense is not a cute comedy about an antisocial nobody trying to learn karate (as it would appear at first sight), but a very, very sharp and dark satire about alpha masculinity. A very pleasant surprise, I wasn’t expecting how much it goes off the rails. (10/09/2019)

For this film I can understand and perhaps even agree with any rating of any kind, because I went through maybe the entire scale while watching it. There's not enough humor, but what is there is great. There's a lot of atmosphere, it's weird and dense, but I enjoyed being in it. The story doesn't quite make sense and it's crazy, but that's how art is sometimes. So yeah, check it out, it's a treat. (04/02/2022)

Okay, Okay, Okay... I was expecting a film that would stay more grounded, but instead, I got a mix that seemed straight out of the Coen Brothers' peculiarities and Wes Anderson's oddities. I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it probably needed a more skilled director and screenwriter. On the acting front, I have no complaints. Jesse Eisenberg really made the film his own with his performance (though I’d be remiss not to mention Alessandro Nivola as the karate master and Imogen Poots, who also didn’t overact and confirmed that the casting was spot on). The story probably looked great on paper, and don’t get me wrong, the ending did save the film to some extent. There are also several other well-executed moments, but the coherence falters, and an intelligently written situation is often followed by one that undermines it. However, as I mentioned, the madness and the delightful ending, all accompanied by the masterful Eisenberg, make it a slightly but still above-average viewing experience. I give it 65%. (01/09/2020)