Malcolm Talks Movies
ENEMY
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
”Hey gang, it's your favorite movie boy and I'm back with another hot recommendation that's free to stream RIGHT NOW if you have Netflix.
A big personal goal in writing this weekly blog for me is to try and avoid discussing movies where I have nothing of value to add to what has already been collectively said. Despite my naturally masochistic impulses, I will never do a blog post on Chinatown, or 2001.
By this blogs very nature, I am not so much reviewing movies, as making recommendations and discussing why I think a given flick has artistic merit. That being said, if you shouldered the unique burden of being someone I recommended movies to when I was in film school, everything that needs to be said and more has been discussed about this following movie, so you can probably sit this one out. BUT, if I have yet to corner you in a bar and proceed to get far too worked up about Enemy by Denis Villeneuve, then hey, why not stick around?
Inspired by the novel “The Double” by Jose Saramago, Enemy belongs to a unique, and probably pretentious brand of cinema. One seemingly disinterested with the audience as a whole, disregarding the concept of entertainment in lieu of being a meditation on the behalf of the director. An abstract, often on what it means to be a member of today's society, a single cell in service to a far larger organism.
In large, that is the core rumination of Enemy. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a History professor, whose lectures are primarily focused on the cyclicality of history, and how empires create a dormant populace through the use of entertainment. His life is on the surface fulfilled, he is gainfully employed, dating Melanie Laurent, and has a great beard. But something on a profound level seems to be missing as we watch him move through day after day as if in a fog. That is until a coworker arbitrarily recommends to him a film he should watch.
He watches the movie. It seems like a forgettable affair, both to him and the audience, but that night he cannot sleep. He is plagued by dreams of colossal spider like creatures towering over the cityscape. He goes back and rewatches a specific scene from the film. That’s when he sees it. One of the background actors is himself.
This opens up a rabbit hole that Denis Villeneuve gleefully dives into with his signature cocktail of stylishly designed frames and an fantastically unsettling score. What makes this film so stellar in my eyes is that Villeneuve accepts that it is unconventional. Ultimately, it is a rumination on the protagonists (and by extension Villeneuve's) subconscious, and the lines between reality and his own internal state are heavily blurred. In less capable hands, this could have been a disastrous exploration of what cinema is capable of doing as a medium. However, Villeneuve never feels out of control here. Each decision, regardless of how bizarre, feels measured, and thoroughly thought out.
This masterful stroke on Villeneuve’s part throughout the film is what makes Enemy worth returning too. The film will behoove and confuse, it will leave you asking why. But if you allow this query for examination to be prompted you WILL find answers, because Villeneuve has ensured that each question has one.
I often find texts as nuanced and psychologically complex as Enemy similar to a rorschach inkblot. I’ve seen this film easily 20 times over the past 5 years, and each time I leave it with a different reading, or interpretation. By prompting me to use the powers of introspection, it is ultimately prompting me to grapple with how I am growing and changing as a person, and how my perception of this film is adapting alongside that.
Enemy might not be that movie for you, but whatever it is, I encourage you to find it. And along the way maybe check this one out too. That’s all for this week, godspeed friends.
Reasonable critiques and other addendums:
This is a film disinterested in having a concrete plot, or, frankly, really making sense whatsoever. This will turn some people off, and I am happy to admit that. Also, in the interest of being fair, it is DEFINITELY a little male gazey, and I can see some people being like “Ugh, classic mid-20’s white dude recommending me this movie that Melanie Laurent is only in for sex scenes despite her incredible talent as an actor, this guy sucks”. And hey, I wouldn’t call you out, sometimes I DO suck. I’m fallible.
The absence of Villeneuve’s frequent collaborators Roger Deakins and Johann Johannson (RIP to the strongest in the game) is definitely a bummer, and you can’t help but wonder what they would have brought to this project, especially since the trio were all coming off Prisoners which they did an incredible job with.
Enemy is available to stream now on NETFLIX