'The Humbling' stars Al Pacino as a washed-up actor who gets a second chance at his career and life.
Director Barry Levinson’s aptly-titled film, The Humbling, comes to life based off of the poorly received Philip Roth novel of the same name. While this is not the most promising place to start a film, screenwriters Buck Henry and newcomer Michal Zebede manage to mine the diamonds from the dirt in order to craft this wickedly funny take on coming to terms with aging and the punches life throws.
The film introduces washed up actor Simon Axler (the perfectly cast Al Pacino) talking to himself backstage before one of his Broadway performances. It’s here that Simon’s biggest problem is revealed: he has an increasingly hard time differentiating between real life and his performances (and in some cases, full-on delusions). The film is entirely hinged on this problem, down to the way the film looks. Cinematographer Adam Jandrup plays with the harsh shadows and lighting expected from a theater performance, and many of the faux reality sequences have an off-kilter look and feel to them.
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