Willem Dafoe stars as Nemo in director Vasilis Katsoupis’ ‘Inside’, released Focus Features. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features.
Willem Dafoe is a renowned actor who, over the course of his long and successful career, has earned the respect of his peers. However, when it comes to high profile accolades, Dafoe always seems to be the bridesmaid, never the bride.
The recipient of four Academy Award nominations, three Golden Globe nods, and two individual Screen Actors Guild nominations, Dafoe has – somewhat astonishingly – never actually won any of those prizes. He picked up several Independent Spirit Awards (for ‘Shadow of the Vampire’ and ‘The Lighthouse’), but is otherwise content to just do his trade, enjoying his craft and the company of those he enjoys.
“Separate exhibition.”
Showtimes & Tickets
INSIDE tells the story of Nemo, an art thief who becomes trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist doesn’t go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works… Read the Plot
Because Dafoe loves to work, is open to location shoots around the world, and makes himself available to auteurs (Wes Anderson, Sean Baker, Robert Eggers, Lars von Trier, Paul Schrader, David Lynch, and Julian Schnabel, to name a few), the actor aged The 67 year old often finds himself cast in colorful supporting roles and/or as often intense leading men.
On the surface, a film like ‘Inside’ would appear to be set in this same vein of Dafoe canon – a “look” that provides plenty of show for its lead actor to step in, and maybe munch on some scenery. After all, this project is essentially a one-man show, where the main character grapples with the psychological consequences of being stuck in one location.
Willem Dafoe stars as Nemo in director Vasilis Katsoupis’ ‘Inside’, released Focus Features. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features.
Willem Dafoe’s Experimental Stage Experience Comes to Shine
But ‘Inside’, which opens in theaters on March 17, actually overlaps more with some of the experimental theatrical work from early on in Dafoe’s career. So while it lacks the kind of big hook that can shift its narrative in a direction that would have more mainstream appeal, this kind of experience – and Dafoe’s flair with communicating the character’s rich interior life – makes him an ideal performer for this experimental style. effort, which is essentially a stage play masquerading (in subtle cinematic form) as a film.
‘Inside’ opens with voiceover narration, which was shown in the trailer, which lets the audience know that they will be closely attached to the film’s main character. When Dafoe’s Nemo, a high-profile art thief, pulled off a timely heist in a New York City penthouse, he remembers being asked at school as part of an assignment what three items he would save in a house fire.
When Nemo can’t find a lucrative self-portrait, valued at $3 million, the break-ins begin to unravel. The security system, previously thought to be disabled, sounds the alarm. The outer door is locked, the partner speaking to him through the earpiece is released, and Nemo is left trapped. Doom seems imminent.
Willem Dafoe stars as Nemo in director Vasilis Katsoupis’ ‘Inside’, released Focus Features. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features.
Related Article: Willem Dafoe Speaks On ‘Inside’ Psychological Thriller and Acts Himself
What Happens If the Toilet Doesn’t Flush? So, what do you think happened?
Then a funny thing happened. As he tries to get out, the apartment’s AC system doesn’t work, turning on the heater. The mostly empty fridge yielded only truffle shavings, caviar and a few sips of water. When the supplies run out, Nemo is left gorging himself on the walls of the freezer. As hours turn to days, and days turn to weeks, Nemo arrives to view the closed-circuit security camera footage of the building as entertainment, fixated on the cleaning lady, Jasmine (Eliza Stuyck), who can never hear him.
Of course there are enough one-location escape films (Vincenzo Natali’s ‘Cube’) as well as no shortage of films that tell the story of stranded destruction (Robert Zemeckis’ ‘Cast Away’). ‘Inside’ will remind some viewers of the latter, which is fair and accurate insofar as both are told through an existential lens. But accommodations for general spectators are even less than in ‘Cast Away’.
Save one vision of a well-produced art show, ‘Inside’ doesn’t rest on hallucinations. It also avoids strenuous planning, instead replacing various escape or outside contact schemes (some with long arcs, some short) with Nemo simply watching TV, making food, or tinkering.
There is no ticking clock related to the events unfolding on the screen, or any identified outside threats. After Nemo is released by his invisible partner, he is alone with only his thoughts — saving a pair of tropical fish in an aquarium, and a dove with an injured wing flying outside on a balcony.
Willem Dafoe stars as Nemo in director Vasilis Katsoupis’ ‘Inside’, released Focus Features. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features.
Don’t Expect Any Ties To A Bloody Volleyball Named Wilson
Director Vasilis Katsoupis’ debut feature — working from a script by Ben Hopkins, based on Katsoupis’ ideas — uses the capture of one person, and its downward spiral, as mechanisms for exploring identity, community, and human frailty.
Therefore, the film’s narrative rests on a more intellectual and metaphorical plane. As Nemo piles furniture higher and higher, in an attempt to reach the apartment’s ceiling, the intersection of two different art forms provides food for thought; stacks of objects become separate works of “art”. Likewise, one is left free to ponder the implications and symbolic significance of Nemo’s inability to find self-portrait as the inciting incident of this situation.
Dafoe’s acting is, of course, the glue that holds ‘Inside’ together. And it’s the kind of performance that only someone trained in the art of theatre can create – rejecting tagged emotions or easy, obvious choices that only communicate feelings on the surface.
Dropping out of college after a year and a half, Dafoe cut his teeth, professionally, at the experimental theater collective X in his home state of Wisconsin. From there Dafoe moved to New York City. In the 1970s, he worked with the avant-garde Performance Group, training under Tisch School of the Arts professor emeritus Richard Schechner, before tackling exploratory theater work with the Wooster Group for the next 20-plus years. This grounded experience—as well as Dafoe’s lack of swagger, so often seen in some of his more iconic roles—benefits his work here, making Nemo a compelling character, open to multiple interpretations.
(Left to Right) Actor Willem DaFoe and director Vasilis Katsoupis on the set of ‘Inside’, released Focus Features. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features.
By marrying face-to-face storytelling with clever cinematic packaging, films pave the way for metaphorical interpretation
Katsoupis is also supported by the hard work of his team down the line. Production designer Thorsten Sabel helped create a device that, in times of degradation and breakdown, takes on exciting new contours. The paintings and installation art pieces selected for the space (some recreated, some commissioned) provide additional commentary of their own (“All the times to come after this moment,” read the signature in neon).
Editor Lambis Haralambidis achieves a graceful, intuitive rhythm to the proceedings, while cinematographer Steve Annis uses clever inserts (a bead of sweat on Dafoe’s neck) and evocative overall framing to elevate the material, and keep it cinematic regardless of the narrative form.
Composer Frederik van de Moortel contributes a score that connects to Nemo’s deteriorating psyche without nudging the viewer in too obvious a way. And, without offering anything specific about the ending, the cyclical and disheveled use of “Pyramid Song,” the lead single from Radiohead’s fifth album ‘Amnesiac,’ in the end credits gives the conclusion just the right mix of sobriety and melancholy.
In the end, is ‘Inside’ a film that will break into the mainstream movie audience? No, probably not. But, much to its credit, it wasn’t designed for that either. Its appeal may be relatively niche, with an easier group of film buffs finding appreciation in inward-facing stories that raise philosophically nuanced questions about the relatively ephemeral nature of human existence and the ways in which we choose (or are forced) to do so. . spend our time. Thank goodness an actor as attractive as Dafoe chose to spend time on ‘Inside.’ He makes this film worthwhile.
‘Inside’ received 7 out of 10 stars.
Willem Dafoe stars as Nemo in director Vasilis Katsoupis’ ‘Inside’, released Focus Features. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Inside:’
Buy Tickets: Showtimes for the film ‘Inside’
Buy Willem Dafoe Movies On Amazon
‘Inside’ is produced by A Private View, Bord Cadre Films, Heretic, Schiwago Film, Sovereign Films, Greek Film Center, Screen Flanders, and Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, and is scheduled for release on March 17.