Casey Davies is an accountant at a company. He is (almost) 36 (or 480 months), introverted, lives alone with his dog, and has no self confidence. One night he is attacked by a group on motorcycles, and almost killed.
Seeking ‘vengeance’ he decides to take up Karate, and meets the Sensei who takes Casey under his wing to train him in the art of it.
As the months go by, and Casey becomes more obsessed, he discovers the dark nature of ‘this’ dojo.
Direction
Written and Directed by Riley Stearns.
Cast/Characters
Jesse Eisenberg plays Casey. I’ve made mention time and time again that he excels in these types of roles, and this is one of his best.
Alessandro Nivola plays the nameless (until the last act) Sensei. He is both a mentor to Casey, and then later antagonist.
Imogen Poots plays Anna, one of Sensei’s protege’s who has been with him since the beginning, “still a brown belt” and broken down by Sensei – being the only female in the dojo.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
This is Eisenberg and Poots’ second film together in 2019, the other being the more absurd comedy Vivarium. While more in the realm of reality here, the characteristics of those on screen are still not ‘consistent’ with real life.
Following his near fatal attack, Casey plans on buying a gun, which delves slightly into the ‘gun culture’ and gun control themes – with comical undertones. Not being in a country where guns are available, the topic is raised with dark humour that could be taken negatively if taken too literally. This comes full circle in the latter part of the film.
Casey’s joins the dojo, and the we are introduced to the characters of the Sensei, who gives the history of the Grand Master, and the others within the dojo like Henry (poor Henry), and Anna.
The history of Karate, and the ‘cult’ like feeling of the dojo, give Casey reasons for going on, and he becomes obsessed, even sacrificing work for the dojo.
As Casey is promoted to yellow belt, this creates an obsession with yellow (and belts) – where he shops for food exclusively of yellow, and then makes his ‘normal clothes’ belt yellow. He then makes belts for all his dojo (like the brown and black belts) which they all love (and makes some hilarious dialogue that you have to see to understand).
The third act is where the themes start to shift to more sinister moments, when Casey joins the ‘Night Class’ and learns how ‘new recruits’ are found (which gives the reveal that the dojo were the culprits in his attack).
There are so many moments of ‘stupid’ dialogue, that real people would never say, but makes sense within the surreal world of this film. Sensei’s “karate is for men, and women can never be men” are simply absurdly hilarious. The final moments of the film following Casey’s “use of the gun”, taking over the dojo is just more brilliantly silly screenplay.
Score/Soundtrack
A brilliant use of music at times, especially during Casey’s training montages. His first during the day, is placid, with a beautiful piano overture. The second, is during the Night Class, with heavy metal playing over the top.
Overall
Hilariously funny, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. You need a warped sense of humor to really appreciate this one.
Easily one of Eisenberg’s best performances.
4/5
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