Director Riley Stearns says he didn’t realize he was making a perfect movie for 2019 when he started writing The Art of Self-Defense four years ago. Starring Jesse Eisenberg as a timid and weak man who takes up karate, Stearns’ darkly comedic riff on toxic masculinity just kept becoming more relevant. The Harvey Weinstein claims broke during the shoot in 2017 and the #MeToo movement became a phenomenon.
