Time: 112 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence, offensive language, sex scenes, nudity, suicide & content that may disturb
Cast:
Sebastian Stan as Edward Lemuel
Renate Reinsve as Ingrid Vold
Adam Pearson as Oswald
Director: Aaron Schimberg

I was curious about A Different Man after hearing some great things about it. I didn’t know a lot of details about it outside of it starring Sebastian Stan. Turns out that it is among the best movies of the year.

A Different Man has an incredibly smart and clever screenplay, and unravels in brilliant ways. I will keep plot details somewhat vague, but I can say that the plot was engaging and I was interested in seeing what direction it was going in. It’s a bizarre but interesting story about art imitating life and the other way round, and the exploitation of real life stories. Most of all though, it is exploring insecurity, self hatred, alienation, body image, and the perception of oneself, all through Sebastian Stan’s character. While there are other movies about things like this, A Different Man feels fresh and original. It has a good balance of tone, dark and emotional, but also funny and absurd, and it certainly leans into absurdism at times.

Sebastian Stan delivers his best performance yet, he captures the confusion and identity struggle of his character. It’s a devastating and excellent performance and among the very best of the year. Renate Reinsve is also great. Adam Pearson is also a highlight and a scene stealer. He appears much later on, but takes the movie to a whole other level with his charismatic and magnetic performance. He particularly does well at acting as pretty much the opposite of Stan in terms of personality, making their dynamic all the more interesting and compelling.

The movie is well directed by Adam Schimberg, the camerawork and editing are top notch and it’s such a visually excellent film. The makeup on Sebastian Stan to portray his character’s neurofibromatosis is also outstanding and looks incredibly real. It also has one of the best scores of the year from Umberto Smerilli.

A Different Man is unique, cleverly written, and darkly comic, with phenomenal performances from Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson. Definitely among 2024’s best films and not to be missed.