<em>The Art of Self-Defense </em>Explores the Absurd Horrors of Masculinity
The satirical karate movie starring Jesse Eisenberg posits that these days, men do not have to dig deeply to find their inner brutes.
Casey Davies (played by Jesse Eisenberg), the protagonist of is afraid—of other men, in particular. “I want to be what intimidates me,” he tells Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), the soft-spoken, self-assured instructor at a local karate dojo who seems to be everything Casey isn’t. Riley Stearns’s new film is a parable about Casey’s fraught ideals of masculinity that veers between goofy parody and rather straightforward horror. The script
