A wickedly funny film about a facial experiment that also changes a man’s insides.
“A Different Man” is an A24 entry that uses an actor disguised by make-up for a deformity and an actual deformed actor, and yet, it doesn’t insult anyone. Yes, there are insults every now and then, but the movie isn’t mean-spirited. In fact, it takes a different approach that allows a deformed actor to get his face fixed, but then threatened by the uprising of the other actor who can’t.
Sebastian Stan is disguised by make-up and prosthetics as an actor named Edward, who has neurofibromatosis, and his only acting gig lately lands him on a training video about how you should treat others, despite their deformities. He’s kind of a skittish man, who barely has anything to say, but he does meet his new neighbor, a playwright named Ingrid (Renate Reinsve from “The Worst Person in the World”), who likes him for who he is, and is struggling to write her first play. He gives her an older typewriter as a housewarming gift, and at the very least, it makes her look like a writer.
He undergoes an experiment that could fix his face. His face begins to feel off, almost like in “Poltergeist,” and he now looks like Sebastian Stan. As a result of his new face, he fakes his own death, and now goes by the name of Guy. He still has a mask of his old face, as provided by the doctors, and is even willing to audition for Ingrid’s off Broadway play based on his former life.
Then, he meets Oswald (Adam Pearson, who actually has neurofibromatosis), another man with the same condition, who is impressed by his performance and even gets involved with the play. Oswald would play the original Edward, and Guy would play Edward after the transformation. “Beauty and the Beast” stuff.
Of course, Edward/Guy begins to feel threatened of being overshadowed by the nice and charming Oswald, who is poised to get more critical acclaim than him. It’s clear that both his outsides and insides have changed.
Using DNA from “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and “Adaptation,” “A Different Man” is written and directed with complexity by Aaron Schimberg, whose past credits include smaller works like “Chained for Life” and “Go Down Death.” His new movie does get a bit confusing during the third act, but I am kind of reminded of the last 2 minutes of the “Looney Tunes” cartoon “One Froggy Evening,” if you read between the lines.
Stan has already proven he more than just Bucky Barnes with movies like “I, Tonya,” “The Devil All the Time,” and “Sharper,” among others, but he really delivers in the role of transformation, which works in both senses. He’s a disfigured character who got the treatments to make him attractive, but it also changes his personality and identity.
“A Different Man” is not Pearson’s first movie, and that would be “Under the Skin,” in which he played a character known as The Deformed Man.” His latest movie feels like a breakthrough role, because of how he delivers the personality and charisma in his character.
It’s really smart the way the movie plays the notion of the now handsome man being lousy and the disfigured man being charming. It’s not the outside, but the inside that matters, and this film likes to toy with that notion.
Last week, Mubi released “The Substance,” which was about a drug that make an older person grow a much younger person out of her body, and boy, are there a lot of a side effects. Even though I admired the performances from Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley and the film’s ambition, I still thought it was too gruesome and crazy for me to process. But “A Different Man” uses an experiment to fix a man’s face, but the doctors didn’t say it would change his identity. Now, those are side effects we can deal with.
Now Playing in Select Theaters
Expanding October 4