Browse: Home / CHEVALIER

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Year of the Month: Haley Ioppini on PROCOL HARUM
  • Lunch Links: OUT
  • Choose
  • Year of the Month: Sunil Patel on THE DIRTY DOZEN
  • Film on the Internet: THE RENTAL

CHEVALIER

Posted By Julius Kassendorf on May 27, 2016 in Reviews | 3 Responses

If an alien were to judge women simply by how Hollywood presents them, that alien would think women were neurotic balls of insecure energy whose main goal is to cut everybody else down for the dual goals of getting a man and making themselves feel better. This is largely because Hollywood is controlled by men, and men tend to see women as an Other – that is, a creature who make have many similar physical characteristics as a man, but who might act in ways foreign to how another man might act. Chevalier flips the table asking what men would think if a woman pointed out all of a male’s foibles.

Athina Rachel Tsangari (writer of Mustang) put 7 Greek men on a boat coming home from a fishing trip, and have them compete with one another in a game designed to choose who is “The Best At Everything.” Each of the men have to come up with competitions for each other, including a literal dick-wagging contest of who has the biggest hard-on, but are free to judge each other on everyday common interactions. Does a guy snore? Is he polite? Well spoken? Butch? Brave? A man’s man? And, as with everyday interactions, this whole game is subjective. Somebody’s inability to get their wife pregnant might score fewer negative points than the other guy’s bringing it up as a way to undermine the competition.

Because men are literally judging and rating men based on everything from mannerisms to looks, men turn into neurotic balls of insecure energy whose main goal is to cut everybody else down to size in order to be the man on top. Not only are they jocularly competitive, but they get snipey and downright nasty with each other, spitting up skeletons from the closet at every turn. Tsangari shows no mercy in allowing these mostly butch and hairy men to slice at each other for our amusement.

An American film would use this opportunity to create competitions through feats of strength and other perverse and/or dangerous tasks, continually ramping up the risk until the bleakest of the bleak happens. Not so here. Tsangari doesn’t want to make a film celebrating the cult of masculinity, watching men manly each other in a brotastic competition of chicken. Instead, she’s merely peering into the soul of men as an alien entity whose behavior is foreign but strangely relatable. It’s a deathly dry comedy that seems to want to hold a mirror to men and see what happens when they’re reflected with the same degrees of alienation as they’ve used on women for years.

Clearly Tsangari has a blast putting the men through each other’s gauntlets, and the men are having a blast running through them. She’s created an incisive look into what men worry about, while also commenting on the reductionist viewpoint she’s taking, all the while nudging the audience in the ribs. The goal of the game isn’t important, so much as how that game functions as a catalyst to destroy its players. And, it’s such fun watching all the bricks come tumbling down.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged 2015, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Chevalier, Comedy, drama, female director, Foreign, Greece, Greek

About the Author

Julius Kassendorf

Julius Kassendorf is the founder of The-Solute, and previously founded The Other FIlms and Project Runaways in 2013. There, he dabbled in form within reviews to better textualize thought processes about the medium of film.

Previously, he has blogged at other, now-defunct, websites that you probably haven’t heard of, and had a boyfriend in Canada for many years. Julius resides in Seattle, where he enjoys the full life of the Seattle Film Community.

Julius’ commanding rule about film: Don’t Be Common. He believes the worst thing in the world is for a film to be like every other film, with a secondary crime of being a film with little to no ambition.

Related Posts

Decade of the Month: Tom “vomas” Morton on GO WEST→

Decade of the Month: Sunil Patel on SHERLOCK, JR.→

Decade of the Month: SPEEDY and the Fine Art of the Action Comedy→

Hail Margaret: Persia on The Marx Brothers’ Not-So-Secret Weapon→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    31038 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    26554 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    19053 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    18350 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    9702 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • Year of the Month: Haley Ioppini on PROCOL HARUM

    June 30, 2022 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • "Based on a true story."

    Lunch Links: OUT

    June 30, 2022 / The Ploughman
  • Is this someone you want making choices for you?

    Choose

    June 29, 2022 / Gillianren
  • Year of the Month: Sunil Patel on THE DIRTY DOZEN

    June 29, 2022 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • Film on the Internet: THE RENTAL

    June 29, 2022 / ZoeZ

Last Tweets

  • Year of the Month: Haley Ioppini on PROCOL HARUM - https://t.co/KVDKLupAS5, 8 hours ago
  • Finish out Pride Month with this week's Lunch Link OUT. https://t.co/tkEDYM1tzF, 12 hours ago
  • Choose - https://t.co/sqVw2yHzWR, Jun 29

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!