A Different Man (2024)
a review by Evan Landon
There are a lot of A24 Studios fans out there that will eat up most of everything they release, and if I was a cynical person, I would say that I am the same as all of them. It would be easier for me to talk about movies that I did not enjoy by them because they have a tendency to knock whatever movie they choose out of the park. Sometimes, A24 will give you their artistic take on some of the topics that multi-million dollar studios refuse to even pay attention to because they cannot see what they have in front of them; they only care about how much money it could possibly make them and that is why they fail as often as they do. You cannot just double down every single time you fail and expect to get your head above water.
I am happy to inform you, dear reader, that this movie was one of the most intriguing, well-written films that I have seen all year. It will be rough not being able to add this to my Top 10 Bestest Films of 2024 because I am reviewing it now, but that is still a few weeks away. Why is it so good? Let me tell you why.
If you are unfamiliar with the film, it depicts the story of a disfigured man who goes through a surgical procedure to appear normal to others, all the while helping a woman who is directing a play based around his experiences. Once he peels his face off, he realizes that nobody truly recognizes him, so he decides to pretend to be a different person because he wants to start over in his new skin. One of these relationships he attempts to reconstruct is that of the play director as he attempts to star in her play in the role she created in his likeness. The problem is that he is not a trained actor and it is not until he wears a plaster of his old face that she not only casts him, but begins a romantic relationship with him as well. Things become even more complicated when a man suffering from the same exact affliction he was comes into their lives and takes over his part and this new life he had built for himself, leading to a series of events that unravel his lies of conceit, rage, and jealousy.
What I found interesting about this psychological thriller is how it did not rely heavily on its gore or special effects; in fact, the actor playing both characters at one point in the script did not even have make-up applied. Writer and director Aaron Schimberg was able to utilize the talents of actor Adam Pearson's very real affliction with neurofibromatosis (say that ten times fast) to make a wondrous meditation on what it means to be beautiful and how to accept who you are despite any and all setbacks. The script is able to convey deep, philosophical musings at its core without coming off preachy or pretentious, thus also allowing the viewer to metaphysically look inwards without turning away from any scene in disgust.
Also, very huge praise to Sebastian Stan, who portrays the man character and is able to not only display both characters seamlessly and calculated, but is able to express every emotion without the exposition that would accompany such a part. I never thought I would say that, yet here we are. Kudos, good sir.
Although its budget is difficult to pin down, it is conservatively between $500k and $600k, but it pulled in a box office of $1.2 million and A24 Studios rarely care about that sort of thing when they tell introspective stories such as this. They make their money in other films when they hit, such as Everything Everywhere All At Once, Civil War, Talk To Me, and Hereditary, which all did very well critically as well. This one falls somewhere in betwixt their eccentric arthaus production decisions that we cinephiles find so intriguing.
Movies should be made with much more care such as this and not just throw a bunch of money at a shit movie with a dozen writers and directors with little regard to the audience. This one really won the pony for me.
4 out of 5