Indignation (2016)

Directed by: James Schamus | 106 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Richard Topol, Eli Gelb, Bryan Burton, Susan Varon, Linda Emond, Philip Ettinger, Ben Rosenfield, Tracy Letts, Jason Jiang, Pico Alexander, Noah Robbins, Steven Kaplan, Samuel H. Levine

To get straight to the point: ‘Indignation’ from 2016 is a penetrating viewing experience. Certainly not an easy fare. Feel free to say the opposite of airy. There’s a lot of talk and it’s quite gloomy in general, but if you take on this challenge, you won’t be disappointed. It is a beautiful, dramatic piece.

The story revolves around the Jewish top student Marcus Messner (a beautiful role by promise Logan Lerman, in terms of looks a cross between Tom Hardy and Douwe Bob), son of a butcher, who comes to Ohio with a scholarship to the conservative, heavily Christian Winesburg University of Ohio. to study. It is a bonus that he also manages to evade military service because a number of his Jewish peers lost their lives as soldiers in the Korean War (1950-1953).

Marcus falls in love with beautiful, troubled Olivia (Sarah Gadon) from the past. Their first date ends in such a way that Marcus doesn’t know what to do with Olivia. Olivia, in turn, finds the atheist Marcus intense and highly intelligent. Marcus also still has to deal with the perpetual interference of his father, an Orthodox Jew, who constantly warns him against all “temptations”.

Because his two Jewish roommates don’t talk respectfully about his sweetheart, he asks to be transferred to another room. Rather alone in the ‘least cozy’ room on campus than with two guys who speak ill of Olivia. Indeed, Marcus is of the intense. This is evident in the beautiful scenes between Marcus and the dean of the school, Dean Caudwell (another outstanding Tracy Letts). Spicy discussions about faith, university rites, social interaction and the limits of privacy. These scenes burst from the screen and form the backbone of the film directed by James Schamus (known as producer of ‘Brokeback Mountain’).

When Marcus receives a visit from his mother in the hospital after an appendectomy, she presents him with an impossible choice. She threatens to divorce her husband, whom she has hated for years. Unless Marcus promises not to see Olivia again. Marcus comes to the realization that it is almost impossible to fight against (selective) indignation, indignation.

‘Indignation’ is the film adaptation of a book by Philip Roth, a novella about the siege of the individual. One who tries to live pure in his own way is defenseless against the destructive forces of the coercive outside world. Because, as his father instills in him time and again, “The smallest misstep can have tragic consequences.” A film that leaves the viewer indignant…