I Interrogate My Friend About The Amateur

If this isn't your first time reading my articles, you're probably aware that I go to the cinema a lot. When I go, I try to pick movies that look interesting to me. However, sometimes I have to make concessions. Over the past couple months, a good friend of mine has frequently joined me on my celluloid adventures. Since he usually allows me to pick the movie, I thought it was a good idea to let him choose for a change. Without hesitating, he selected The Amateur.

My knees weakened; I dropped my coffee, shattered porcelain expanded upon the floor in slo-mo. How? How could he select something so mid-looking. Of all the movies in all the cinemas, my friend wanted to see a spy revenge thriller starring Rami Malek. Not that I have anything against Rami, but boy did the trailer not sell this movie. And I'm so sick of this trend of movies with boring titles! The Amateur, The Accountant, The Beekeeper, when does it end? And it's not like I hate spy thrillers. I actually quite enjoy them. But this execution style, of an agent gone rogue due to injustice, to me, is so played out.

I was baffled. Still, in the name of being a good pal, I agreed to watch it with him.

Walking out of the cinema, my bafflement had increased four-fold. I thought that, if I watched this movie, I would understand my friend better, but it only made him a bigger enigma. Friendship has a lot to do with trust, and, after this movie selection, I did not know if I could trust him anymore. For the sake of the friendship, I decided to sit him down and ask him questions about why he chose this movie, his thoughts on it, and where his love for spy thrillers starring Rami Malek originated. The interview was tense, subversive, and enlightening. Here is what transpired:

Lucas: My first question is, why did you want to watch The Amateur?

Friend: Growing up, I watched a lot of revenge movies where the main character avenges his wife. This new movie gave me a feeling of nostalgia. Another reason was the main character. He was an unconventional hero for these kinds of stories. He wasn't a super agent. He was smart, but not an action hero.

L: Rami Malek played the main character. Are you a fan of his?

F: I watched Mr. Robot and I did not really like it, but then I watched Bohemian Rhapsody and I was extremely surprised. He was amazing. I think he won an Oscar for that one and it was well deserved. After that, I hadn't watched anything with him, so I was excited.

L: Was there something in the trailer that made you think this was a movie that you wanted to see?

F: There was one particular moment where Rami Malek was walking toward the camera and there was an explosion behind him and he gets scared by it. It seemed comedic. It seemed like a subversion of the trope of the hero not looking at an explosion. You know what I'm talking about?

L: Right. Like, usually, they walk away looking cool. But in this one, he was like...

F: It's not a big deal. It's weird to be excited about it, but, for some reason, it emotionally resonated with me.

L: You mentioned that, growing up, you watched a lot of revenge movies.

F: It's not because I liked them; it's because they were around. There were a lot of these kinds of movies. One that comes to mind was Law Abiding Citizen. Kind of the same setup. Gerard Butler loses his wife and then he decides to take justice into his own hands and he avenges her. When you're 14 years old, it seems exciting. It's like, "I would avenge my wife. I would want to do it." You want to think of yourself as the guy who would act like the hero in these kinds of situations. It's also satisfying because it is such a huge injustice that happened and you root for this kind of character, like you root for The Bride in Kill Bill. I just like this feeling when I'm 100-per-cent invested and I badly want the main character to win.

L: Now that we've seen The Amateur, what were your thoughts?

F: Currently? Underwhelming.

L: What did you see in the trailer that you thought you were going to get, but then, in the movie, disappointed you? Where did it lose you?

F: I expected it to be more comedic. I thought that, when you have this character, which is clearly a fish out of water, who is not a hero, who tries to avenge his wife, I thought they would lean into the comedy a little bit more, but it wasn't funny at all. It was extremely cliché. The film tries to appear as a subversion of the genre, but it's not. It's just cliché.

L: What was your least favorite part of the movie?

F: I don't even know where to start. The first scene. I'll start with the first scene. The main character is working in his garage, fixing a plane, in a suit and tie, before going to work. It was from the first minute I was like, "what's going on in this film?" And then there were the scenes between him and his wife. There was zero chemistry between them. And I like both of them. I like Rami Malek. He's a great actor. And I like the actress, Rachel Brosnahan. She was in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I know she's charming. She's amazing. But in this film, I did not feel any chemistry between them. Then, early in the movie, there is another sequence where Rami Malek is seeing off his wife. He runs after her car while waving to her. It was one of the most awkward scenes I've seen this year.

L: They included that scene in the trailer. I'm surprised that you saw it early and you still wanted to watch the movie knowing it was coming.

F: I did not know that this was going to be an interrogation, but okay.

L: You mentioned the opening scene with the airplane. What was it about this scene that rubbed you the wrong way? To me, it was just a guy waking up to start his day and working on his airplane.

F: Yes, exactly. Exactly. That's exactly what it was. And then, at the end of the movie, he actually finished the airplane and flew into the sunset. It was such a surface metaphor. They show the disassembled plane in the beginning and then the assembled plane flying away in the end. Almost like telling us, "Look at Rami Malek. He's a whole character now. He's at peace with himself now." It's so cheesy.

L: Considering he spends the movie murdering people and running from the CIA, I don't think the airplane metaphor worked. How could he be more at peace? I mean, okay, he killed his wife's killers.

F: He did not kill the main one.

L: That's true.

F: He basically accepted that he wasn't a killer and that was the thing that brought peace to his life. That's what makes him like a plane.

L: Did you have a favorite part of the movie? [Long silence] You said you were excited to see him be scared when the explosion went off. Did that scene work for you when it happened in the movie?

F: No.

L: How come?

F: I saw it in the trailer. I think the main problem of this movie was directing. It seemed like work for hire, in a way. I did not feel like the director actually had a vision for this film. A lot of scenes were ramping down. There was one scene where the head of the CIA invites a subordinate to her office and then just asks one question. And then the subordinate answers, "I don't know." And she says, "thank you very much." And that's it. I don't understand why they had this scene in their office. Why call someone for one question? Why did they not film this scene in the corridor, for example? There were a lot of these really small moments, which you would never notice if the film was good. The film wasn't good, so you notice them all the more.

L: There was one part that I liked. The person Rami talked to through the computer, and her character — or its character — whoops, spoiler. He doesn't quite know who this person is and then that person plays an important role later. That didn't work for you?

F: It did work for me. However, it seemed predictable. One of the first things Rami Malek assumes is that he's

talking to a middle-aged man. You understand that if a character assumes that it's a man, a middle-aged man, then it's not going to be a man. So it's either a woman or a child. Two options. Or a really smart cat.

L: So, you're going on the record as having no favourite part in this movie?

F: No favourite part.

L: It was your idea to see this movie and you can't even give me one part that you enjoyed!

F: Yeah, unfortunately. I'm a human being and I'm prone to mistakes and this was one of them.

L: I was especially underwhelmed by the scene when he tried to kill that woman with pollen. After that, the movie lost me.

F: The scene with the pollen; I did not hate it as you did, because it seemed like a way of killing that the Rami Malek character would choose.

L: Can you die from pollen?

F: Some people have really bad allergies.

L: So bad that they die? That if they were ever engulfed in pollen, it would be all over?

F: I think so, yes.

L: Really? Well, I could look more into that because I just don't believe it could happen.

F: I think it could happen. People sniff shellfish and then start dying.

L: Do they?

F: Or peanuts. Start dying instantly.

L: That's anaphylactic shock. Do people get that from flowers?

F: Why not?

L: Flowers are everywhere. Peanuts you can avoid.

F: Yes, but it's like specific kinds of flowers.

L: He used sunflowers in the movie and that was enough. On a side note, I learned in my research for this interview that they made The Amateur before this in the 80s and the woman who was working the flower stand in this year's Amateur was the main character in the old Amateur. It was a Canadian movie. Kind of a fun fact for you.

F: Thank you.

L: Do you have any final comments on The Amateur?

F: I wanted to watch this movie because all of us, sometimes, want to watch something safe, something familiar, something maybe nostalgic, and something that will bring you some sort of memories or feelings that you had while watching these kinds of movies for the first time. And this movie promised that to me. But, while watching it, I was so disappointed because I couldn't ignore all the flaws and all the plot holes and imperfections that this movie had. Instead of getting what I wanted, I left the theatre disappointed. This accounts for me being such a pain in the ass, as I am. Because if I wasn't so annoying, I would just watch it and I would enjoy it and I would have a great time. But, for some reason, I decided to analyze it and this was a huge mistake. Just don't analyze it. Just allow yourself to have a great time without thinking.

L: Don't let your friend grill you about why you made him watch this movie.

F: Yes, yes. That's my main takeaway.

My main takeaway was that I wouldn't let my friend pick the next movie. It was clear that nostalgia's rose-coloured glasses made him incapable of selecting cutting-edge movies. Still, I was glad to hear that he was capable of criticizing a movie he had selected. Sometimes, people will refuse to be wrong. This friend's humility was inspiring. Although I will select the next movie I see (it'll probably be Thunderbolts*), I still hope that this friend will be by my side in the cinema — if only for his insights.