'A Different Man' Reviews: "Writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s third feature boasts three remarkable performances"

         On September 20, 2024, A24 releases 'A Different Man', which has received predominantly positive reviews from critics, currently holding at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, "Aspiring actor Edward undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost." The Critics Consensus reads, "Surreal and unsettling, A Different Man overcomes an occasionally tenuous narrative grasp by virtue of its bold, provocative approach to serious themes." The ensemble cast includes Sebastian Stan and Miles G. Jackson. Read the full review round-up below.

       David Ehrlich of indieWire says, "Schimberg creates a house of mirrors so brilliant and complex that it becomes impossible to match any of his characters to their own reflections, and absolutely useless to reduce the movie around them to the stuff of moral instruction." Adding, "Edward’s fate is written in the stars from the moment he defies the gods and becomes a different man (or deludes himself into thinking that’s possible), and Schimberg’s movie settles into an assured feeling of predictability once the rehearsals for Ingrid’s play are interrupted by someone named Oswald, whose neurofibromatosis suggests that he might have some lived insights to share with the show, and whose charisma soon threatens to steal the spotlight away from its very self-conscious star. Oswald is, of course, played by Adam Pearson, who was also in “Chained for Life.”

Photo by John Jackson on Unsplash

        Daniel Fienberg of Hollywood Reporter notes, "Like the famous “Eye of the Beholder” episode of The Twilight Zone, in which humans turn out to be society’s freakish outcasts, this dark comedy suggests what happens when an aspiring thespian afflicted with neurofibromatosis manages to find a miracle cure, only to long for the life he had when he was still deformed."

       Peter Debruge of Variety writes, "With “A Different Man,” Schimberg attempts — and mostly succeeds, with deliciously awkward results — to cram a lifetime of thoughts about beauty and ugliness, attraction and disgust, identity and performance into a postmodern meta-film mold that few (apart from Charlie Kaufman, perhaps) have managed to make tolerable. Add to that Schimberg’s Brechtian way of cueing audiences to interrogate his choices as they go (the makeup is deliberately imperfect, the script brazenly self-conscious), and you get an exercise more appealing to film critics and academics than to an amusement-seeking public."

       Tim Grierson of Screen International praises the film, stating, "Writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s third feature boasts three remarkable performances, including Sebastian Stan as the self-loathing thespian and Adam Pearson, a British actor with neurofibromatosis. Pearson’s very presence challenges the film to avoid exploitation and, instead, offer a blistering portrait of identity, authenticity (both in the arts and in life), and chronic dissatisfaction."