Honesty isn't Brutal

Grade: A

Cut straight to the bone, this minimalist masterpiece shrugs off convention and dives head first into experimentalism and truth. Starring Shia LaBeouf and Evan Jonigkeit, David Mamet’s latest cinematic offering shows a tale of punishment, the misdirection of power, and the possibility for at least one character to use his wits to get out of a bad situation.

The might of this film is of course in the writing. Mamet uses his patented double-speak, switched power, musings, and direct and hard-hitting reality. Honesty isn’t brutal, but this film is. It does not sit by the park and contemplate so much as it builds a tightly wound stick of dynamite and allows it to explode just before the credits roll.

There is a consistency and a claustrophobia to it. Dominic Hoffman who plays Jerry Pritchard is a revelation. Evan Jonigkeit brings a single-mindedness and a quiet reserve of malice. LaBeouf gives a performance that displays nuance, trustworthiness, and barrel in your face immediacy. With the words on the page not only falling off the bone but covered in the sauce of audaciousness, this is a feast for the mind.

Under Mamet’s direction, he uses slight staging and emphasizes the importance of his verbiage. Everything hangs on the scripted scene and it is a rapturous experience. By using the Internet site itself, Mamet chose a different road in presenting his opus. He knew that audiences in theaters may not like it and that the streamers wouldn’t enjoy the “staginess” of the proceedings. Smartly, Mamet decided to market the movie on his own with a cast and crew that believed in his thoughts.

The story begins with what seems to be a lawyer played by Jonigkeit who goes down for a crime. Actor Chris Bauer’s stark symbolism of locks clicking and lights being extinguished open the film. Bauer’s character hands the fate to the title character. Then, from what appears to be a law office, the scene cuts to a sliver of light shining on the floor to a prison cell. After a few moments, LaBeouf enters and the picture is off and running.

Like the rapper Twista, the words become a vortex of subliminal (and sublime) minutia. As the speech continues to spell out a tale of intrigue and criminality, the audience begins to feel the walls closing in on both LaBeouf and Jonigkeit. After an exchange in the prison library where the two inmates are given “a hard ten” minutes by the correctional officer Pritchard, Johnson must sup in the linguistic exercises as espoused by LaBeouf.

Then, the scene goes into Act III. Lights flash, alarms blare, a helicopter whirs, the signs reading “DO NOT DEFACE LIBRARY BOOKS” stack against the door as Johnson has a pistol in his hand. He talks to Pritchard who is bloodied slightly, but undeterred. Calmly, he sits in a chair and recounts various points in his life and the situation at hand. The finale is powerful, sudden, and wraps up the tale with still too many questions raised than answered.

Maybe this represented a way for Mamet to flex his muscles in his seventh decade. Maybe it all means that he is still a robust artist that can craft material that is harrowing, dark, and light and redeeming at the same time.

Whatever this writer/director intended, he made a piece that resonates and builds upon a storied and vast career in the arts. Henry Johnson gives the viewer a sense of his own self-worth and reflection on humanity. It’s that, but it is also just a small, relatively quick excursion into the depths of the soul of man.

When David Mamet finally rests down his pen, he can be glad for the various works he has created. Johnson will rank among his best works. Sure it has its distractions and total apprehensions about itself, it still is a stellar addition to the canon. First performed as a play in California, that sense never leaves the mind. What saves the film from being what has been perceived as blocks in much of Mamet’s oeuvre (play like staging, profanity, no women) actually lifts it even higher. With just five characters coming in and out of the frame, this movie still punches in its weight class with agility and excellent timing.

To perceive this work as just another fodder for the right or whatever nonsense the media has heaped on Mamet for the past few years would do justice to no one. Johnson brings together the ideas of confinement and the limitations of liberty. It grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until you tap out of the hold. What’s so amazing about this movie is that it clocks in at two hours and feels longer and shorter as well. It creates within the viewer a visual representation of what art is supposed to make you do. It permits anyone who sees it the chance to look at these characters and fill in the blanks. That’s great art. When a writer or director can give you just enough details to connect the dots yourself, that’s a refreshing alternative to the glut of TV and movies who give away too much too soon. The slow burn of this film grants the viewer the experience of being right next to the characters, almost feeling their breath. Witty and not all that funny as past Mamet scripts, it still brings together ideas of struggle and might, precision and indecision.

As deep as it cuts, it never really loses its nerve in those hundred twenty minutes. This particular affair lends itself to the inner workings of Mamet’s mind. Sharpness prevails despite the fact no ladies appear and the prisoner speech still rankles. Aside from that, there is a deep-seated intellectualism that is never preachy or too esoteric for the audience to digest. It’s all about the brain. This tale reaches into the gray matter and stirs things around until you become sure who the real star of the film is.

It breaks apart the shackles of conformity and distinguishes itself from mainstream offerings. Johnson may not be up for any major prizes come awards season, but that’s to the performers and the filmmakers credit. And they never lied.

Objective Observations:

Is the title in any way a reference to the World War I decorated veteran of the same name?

Could there possibly be a sequel for the character who stands last in the film?