A Different Man

A Different Man is a film that I have heard exactly nothing about, I didn’t even know that Sebastian Stan was in this film so I was both surprised and intrigued. This movie has also been getting a lot of awards season buzz lately so I thought it was my duty to make sure this ended up on the watchlist. Sebastian Stan has taken some wildly different roles in the last few years, and I know that he really just works to eat but he is building up a hell of a portfolio.

The camera style for this is very interesting. The entire aesthetic of the film is. It feels like it takes place in the 70s/80s. The film style is a little grainy. It actually reminds me a lot of Woody Allen films. Annie Hall feels like it was a cinematic influence.

Edward is having some issues dealing with the crush he has on his neighbor. There is a stunning lack of confidence that comes with his condition. He inherently feels like no one will want him or find him attractive because of his appearance. That seems to be the catalyst for why he decided to go through with the surgery.

This transition process looks like it's terribly painful. He’s vomiting, pieces of his face are coming off, he’s bleeding from his face. This is a lot to go through to change how you look. He is clearly very distressed. Look, I am super terrible with any kind or level of body horror and now this guy’s face is peeling off. I am not having a good time. Well now we can see that it is Sebastian Stan under all these prosthetics.

Well he finishes shedding his face, and obviously looks like a completely different person. He decides to take his new face and venture outside. For the first time he is treated like a normal person. Noticed by girls, and given attention by this group of guys, He ends up hooking up with this girl in a bar and clearly this is a new experience for him.

He’s claiming that Edward is dead, claiming that he killed himself. The neighbor overhears this and is clearly distressed by the news. The next time we see him he is a successful real estate agent, he’s wealthy and his life seems to be a little brighter. But he is the same insecure man that he was before. He sees his old neighbor and follows her, like a creep. And he discovers that she finally finished her original play, one based on his life. He auditions for the role of himself, which I think is a little weird. He does it to be close to her which is super creepy and I hate it. He is still very awkward, and clearly uncomfortable around her. But she actually seems interested in him which seems to freak him out even more.

Oswald is a much more outgoing person, regardless of his condition. There is very much a theme of; it doesn’t matter what you look like, it matters who you are. An incredible theme to build on, director chick is very taken with Oswald and who he is as a person, it doesn’t matter what he looks like because he’s charismatic and funny.

The fact that someone with the same condition Edward had is as outgoing and lovely as Oswald is seems to be sending him into an emotional spiral. Edward is taking everything Oswald does very personally, because he has to deal with the fact that the reason that he didn’t have romantic relationships or any real friendships wasn’t because of his deformity, it was because he didn’t have a personality. He made his deformity who he was, and that left him with nothing else.

The third act moves pretty quickly. But the pacing was built up really well. Once Oswald was introduced and Edward starts to spiral the tension is built up very quickly and his emotions and the fact that he’s losing his mind a little bit drives the third act's pacing.

The neighbor/director lady is kind of a bitch. She just uses people as she sees fit and then disposes of them. She sucks.

I think part of his anger also had to come from the fact that she did write an entire play based on him without really knowing him. I’d be pissed too.

Overall I think this might be the best thing that Sebastian Stan has ever done, I’m not surprised that he has gotten a decent amount of nominations off of this. I think the theme was incredible and well articulated, it was perfectly paced. The story was tight and nothing lagged or went on for too long. The narrative did a really great job of focusing on Edward and how you can transform your looks but that doesn’t change who you are. I think it was really incredible, I'm giving it a really strong 9/10.