Indignation | James Schamus | July 26, 2016
Leaving home for college represents many things: your first experience of adulthood, leaving home for the first time, having to meet new people in an uncomfortable environment. For many attending universities across American in the early 1950s, it meant avoiding the draft and being sent out for uncertain fate in the Korean War. This is the case for protagonist Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman) in director James Schamus’ Indignation, which he adapted into a screenplay based on Philip Roth’s book of the same name.
We’re introduced to Messner at the funeral for one of his high school classmates in Newark, New Jersey, who was killed in battle in Korea. We learn that Messner was the smartest of his ragtag group of friends, and he’s lucky enough to be attending Winesburg College in Ohio through an academic scholarship, certainly a welcome alternative to serving overseas. He spends the rest of his summer working alongside his worrisome father (Danny Burstein) at their kosher butcher shop. Only because of the war, his fathers parental worries become unbearable (“The tiniest mistake can have consequences,” his father warns), to the point that his overbearing worrying makes Marcus even more eager to escape his dad. But it also causes strain on his mothers (Joanne Baron) relationship with her husband. It isn’t easy for Marcus to leave, but it’s clearly time.
Marcus has no problem with his classes, excelling in them in standout fashion and doing well at his job at the school’s library. Only, being a Christian college, he’s forced to attend a certain number of school-hosted chapels, a problem considering he’s an atheist. He struggles to integrate socially, never getting along with his roommates Bertram (Ben Rosenfield) and Ron (Philip Ettinger), and ignoring the invitations of Jewish Fraternity president, Sonny Cottler (Pico Alexander), to join their ranks. These introverted decisions catch the attention of the schools Dean Caudwell (Tracy Letts) who doesn’t understand why such a standout student can’t find resolution with his roommate and prefers to keep himself in isolation.
Everything changes for Marcus with one simple glance at the beautiful knockout student Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon). He summons the courage to ask her out, and is totally perplexed when she gives him oral sex on their first date in a car parked in a cemetery. All made even stranger considering that prior to this he never had any experiences of this sort. As the relationship awkwardly develops, Olivia is eager to find out more about Marcus and his life back home in Newark, and to please him sexually. Only whenever Marcus tries to learn about her family and past, she shields herself, only giving him certain details about her troubled past. Marcus falls fast for her, and becomes understandably irked by others labeling her “easy.” As much as enjoys the sexual experiences, he can’t quite shake the notion that clearly she’s more experienced sexually than he’d like to believe.
It’s hard to believe that this is the directorial debut of Schamus, but at 56-years-old, he’s no usual case. As the former chief of Focus Features (he was behind such greats as Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) he has more than enough movie-making experience, and it shows. He wonderfully adapts the notoriously tough to adapt work of Philip Roth, giving it all a classic filmmaking feeling that’s transportive and feels timeless (very Mad Men at times). The bookends that are used to tie it all together could be seen as dull or cliche in lesser hands, but the connective beginning and ending is an important part of this feature that raises Indignation’s emotional heft.
Credit to Logan Lerman (who also helped produce), who has already proven to be a more than capable actor with memorable turns in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and Fury. He offers a stunning performance here, which may be his finest yet, playing Marcus’ smart but also repressed anger and frustrated nature with finesse and poise. Then there’s the presence of the stunning Sarah Gadon, who captives in every scene she’s in, leaving you in awe with just one look. This is a star making performance, one that we can look back on when Gadon becomes an even bigger name. But the true star of the film is Tracy Letts, who is able to hold rapport and intense dialogue with Logan Lerman for nearly 15-20 minutes straight, in the sort of scene that deserves Academy Award recognition. As the Dean his tough interrogation of Marcus comes off as intense, violating, but also funny and insightful, and that was anchored by the terrific as all hell performance by Letts, who is better than ever. It may be one of the best scenes of the entire year so far.
From the on-point set pieces, to Jay Wadley’s lovely score, the great all-around performances, and James Schamus’ confident adaptation and direction, Indignation is a film with surprising amount of power that stuck with me in the hours following my screening. If this is Schamus debut, I can’t wait to see what he delivers next.
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