Wow. One of my favorite films of the year.

This is a REALLY hard film to do well. The balancing act that it takes to make something as smart, incisive, brutal while still being laugh out loud hilarious and very human is insane.

Alessandro Nivola's performance as Sensei is revelatory. He's grounds the performance in just enough realism that it never becomes arch and is therefore vastly more effective. Imogen Poots is fantastic as well and she conveys so much with such subtlety. Eisenberg is no one's favorite actor and can be quite off-putting to many but here he is PERFECT in a role he's basically born to play. One that on its face seems like he's played numerous times before.


Imagine Jim Jarmusch grew up watching Jody Hill films. That'll kind of give you a sense of what you're in for.