One of the pleasant surprises for us at this year’s SXSW was Jesse Eisenberg’s latest film, “The Art of Self-Defense.” And with its limited release beginning next month, the film is going to “Deadpool” levels of meta-marketing to drive interest.
In the latest teaser/infomercial/retro commercial/whatever, we meet the karate sensei at the center of the film, played by Alessandro Nivola. This guy is straight out of the bad guy handbook from “The Karate Kid.” He’s the prototypical jock sensei that is trying to peddle his self-help series of cassettes to teach you how to become a karate master, while also being an all-around manly-man.
This sort of messaging not only produces a quality, funny bit of marketing material but plays really nicely into the plot of “The Art of Self-Defense.” The film follows Eisenberg’s character, a hopeless young man that has no spine and can’t seem to defend himself from being bullied, even as an adult. He goes to the karate class and gets a healthy dose of toxic masculinity that is aiming to make him the alpha that he dreams of being.
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As mentioned, the film debuted at this year’s SXSW and in our review, we said, “Through all the uncomfortable testosterone and occasional grating of quirk, the cast sells all of it, specifically Nivola as the hyper-masculine instructor who is so overtly-comical that it doubles back around to achieve a sad truth.”
Joining Eisenberg and Nivola in the cast is Imogen Poots. “The Art of Self-Defense” comes from writer-director Riley Stearns.
“The Art of Self-Defense” arrives in theaters on July 12. And to learn more about the sensei’s dojo, you can click here.
