Bring Your Own Blockbuster
Is 'A Different Man' as profound as it looks?
We've all got busy lives right?! So... when you're choosing what to do with your rare bit of 'me time' you want to make sure you get it right. That's why Ben and Jack are here to help you make the right choice for your trip to the cinema this week. With that in mind... should you part with your hard earned cash to go out and see 'A Different Man' at the cinema this week?
Starring Sebastian Stan as Edward a man suffering from neuro-firbo-matosis who struggles with day to day life and to build meaningful connections with other people who's life is turned upside down by a the introduction of Ingrid (Renate Reinsve) who moves in next door and a new experimental treatment that could potentially 'Fix' things in his life.
Some incredibly interesting themes in this one - but is it a wait for Netflix or run down to the local cinema film? Get stuck in with the lads and find out.
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- Broadcast on:
- 09 Oct 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
(upbeat music) - Well, Ben, so you saw a different man this week. How was that? - Really? - A shit that we'd go and watch it. - Yeah, really interesting. And I will, I'll front-load with, yes, you should watch it. I don't know where you should watch it. I don't know whether you should go and part with your hard-earned cash to go and sit and watch this in a wonderful cinema. I really, I got a lot from the film, but it's an interesting watch. It's an interesting theme. And I'm not sure, to begin with up front, I'm not sure that the film nails all of the, the subject matter that it sets out to now, but it is really fascinating. And there is some really interesting stuff that it gets into. So, films about Edward, who's suffering from neurofibromatosis, which is essentially like tumors all over his face. And you will have seen, if you've seen the trailer, you'll know exactly what he looks like. It looks like he has a quite severe, kind of almost disfigurement and people react to him in society the way that you might expect. He struggles with day to day life because he lacks confidence, he lacks the ability to really forge deeper, meaningful relationships. But he's offered up the chance to get experimental surgery that is gonna be incredible to assist for a life changing. He has the surgery and it does change his life. He suddenly looks like a very handsome, supposedly normal looking guy, a conventionally attractive man. But he worries about how people are gonna react to him. He's lived his entire life looking one way and then suddenly he looks really, really different. And so instead of telling everyone that he's had this surgery and that everything's fine, and he's kind of just ready to live his new life, he pretends that his former self committed suicide and that Edward is now gone and he's now gonna live out of his life under the name Guy. Now, just before he had the surgery, he had a neighbor move in called Ingrid who is a playwright and Edward is an aspiring actor. Ingrid is a playwright and she says, "One day I'll write a play and I'll put you in it." And long story short, he is really struggling to get jobs. When he changes his appearance, kind of changes his whole life and he starts a new life and he never kind of has the opportunity to revisit that with Ingrid and see if he can be in one of her plays. And because he's said that Edward is committed suicide, his relationship with Ingrid just disappears. They never see each other again until one day he sees that she's actually made the play that she always talked about making, which was a kind of biopic or a sort of biographical fear to show about Edward. He stumbles across it and is desperate to get involved in the play, but doesn't know whether to tell Ingrid whether he's actually Edward or whether he still wants to stay under the kind of false identity of Guy. And everything changes when another charming and confident man also with neurofibromatosis called Oswald applies for the role of Edward and manages to get hold of the role. Now, that's where I'll kind of like leave things because it just descends from there and is you could not predict where it's gonna go. It is really, really fascinating in terms of what the story is trying to do. I'm not sure that it necessarily nails what it's trying to do. So the things that I loved about it, the transformation scenes, Sebastian Stan plays Edward and at the beginning he has lots of prosthetics all over his face. The transformation scenes are amazing and the subject matter that it delves into after he has this transformation is really interesting because he suddenly become attractive to the world. And we all know, I mean, now you and I have definitely made this point, I'm sure at different sort of points I like, but the world is geared towards attractive people. Like the world is just a little bit easier for people that look like the kind of old school stereotypical Abercrombie and Fitch models that used to be like the ones that everyone kind of wanted to have their picture taken with. And I know that comes with all sorts of problematic stuff that has come to light over the course of the last kind of few years. But the world is certainly skewed towards attractive people tending to do better. And the film is that pains to try and make that point. In fact, I think at one point they sort of say that out loud. But in kind of having this character, Edward, experienced life as a so-called normal, attractive person, but still not be fulfilled. It starts scratching at what are we really after? What is self-acceptance really about? What do we need to do in order to deserve kindness from other people, kindness from strangers, kindness from people that we really care about, what they think? And it really gets stuck into how we want to be perceived. Now, the character of Oswald's played by Adam Pearson, who is absolutely fab, it's brilliant. And as I said before, he's a very charming, very interesting guy who basically shows the main character that you actually, if you want to, can be perfectly happy just the way you are. I would say, where it falls short, there's so much meat on the bone in terms of what you could do with those characters, in terms of like delving into why are people really nasty to people that don't look like them? Why are people really mean to people that maybe have a disability or are struggling with things? And again, it does sort of skirt around that subject matter, but it never really goes into the heart of it. And bearing in mind that this film's come out at the same time as the substance. Now, the substance leaves no stone unturned. I think it would be fair to say that, right? By the end of the third act, it's pretty much gone as far as it's possible to go with that idea, to the point of it being extreme and a bit bizarre, right? At least, that was my experience of it. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, it got to a point where, like, this is too far. I would argue that because the substance gives you that, it goes to the final furlong with it. This stops a bit short, and you're kind of left feeling like in no man's land. And by the time that you reach the end, you don't actually feel like the film has explored enough of the subject matter for you to get that emotional payoff that we're so hoping for, when you see this transition from Sebastian Stan's character, Edward, going from being someone that has these issues in their life to then being someone that is just living a kind of so-called stereotypical normal life. So it doesn't pack the punch that you want it to. Sebastian Stan is amazing in it, though. He's brilliant. He's far and away, the MVP. He does this whole bitter, angry, twisted thing really, really well. So to go back to the beginning, you should go and see it. It was funny. It was interesting. It pokes around a sort of philosophical subject that I think is really, really cool. It requires you to invest a lot into it, and it requires you to really sort of think about the film. I'd be tempted to watch it again, but I won't watch it again at the cinema. I will watch it again when it comes to streaming. And I think that's probably what I'd recommend for everyone else as well. I want to wait for when it rocks up on Prime, Netflix, Disney, wherever. And then really take some time over it and give it some thought. I've seen a mixture of opinions on this. I've seen some people say it's absolutely brilliant and it's breathtaking. I've seen some people say that it's a bit wishy-washing. It doesn't quite sort of get there with it. And I'll argue that the reality is somewhere in between. - Do you think anybody we up for awards consideration from this film? - No. No, and I really thought from the trailers, I really thought that it was going to be one of those. I thought it was going to be awards for 100%. Timing of the release, the subject matter, the way that it was shot. I mean, it looks beautiful, it's beautifully shot. I really thought I was going to be sitting there and it was going to move me a lot. - Yeah. - And the final act you asked didn't quite do it for me, but I would be interested to hear what other people thought and whether this was something for them that really, really moved them. And it sort of put all of the pieces in place and it just couldn't quite get the point across that it wanted to. At least just in my opinion, at the end of the day, I'm very aware of just one voice on this, but I think it's one to watch on Netflix when it comes out. - Well, let us know what you think. If you've seen a different man, drop us a comment either on YouTube or send us an email or reach out to us on any of our social channels. That B-Y-O-B pod you can find us on Instagram, TikTok. I can say YouTube as well and on X. Let us know if you've seen a different man. If you've got a different opinion to Ben, do like, do subscribe, hit notifications on YouTube so you can see when all of our brand new film reviews come out and yeah, enjoy. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) You [BLANK_AUDIO]