Over four decades, the grand thespian, Willem Dafoe, has displayed a widely eclectic range of performances. From his interpretations of Jesus of Nazareth to T.S. Eliot to Vincent van Gogh to the Green Goblin to the dozens and dozens of punks, army veterans, government agents, and odd guys named things like “Mag Dog” he’s portrayed, Dafoe has been one of the most intense, and interesting actors of modern times.
The trailer for his latest film, Vasilis Katsoupis’ Inside, due out on March 10, 2023, looks to be a mighty addition to Dafoe’s great filmography as it appears to largely present a one-man show (there are only a few other names in the credits), with a tour de force performance from the lead. The film finds Dafoe playing Nemo, a high-end art thief who gets trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist goes wrong. The film premieres today, February 20th, at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, and is a highly unique, supremely artistic variation on classic survival stories.
Inside Is an Intense Experience
After the preview begins with the Focus Features studio logo accompanied by the sound of a helicopter, we are taken to a daytime of the Manhattan skyline. We see a dark-clothed Dafoe (who incidentally was also in Inside Man, Spike Lee’s 2006 high-concept heist film) scurrying around a spacious, shiny expensive as hell looking apartment with a view to die for as it gets dark outside. We hear a voice, presumably on a closed wire that only Dafoe can hear, saying, “Number one – go, go, go!” then, “Okay, you’ve got seven minutes – stay focused; the art in here is worth millions.”
We see Dafoe’s Nemo attempting to remove a painting off of one of the walls, but lights suddenly come on, and an alarm sounds. Nemo scrambles, yelling, “it won’t open!” as he tries to flee the space through the front door and the windows, but the security system has locked him inside. “Sorry man, you’re on your own,” the disembodied voice tells him and exits the picture completely.
With eerie instrumental punctuation, the title tells us that this film is coming this March, then we get a sweaty, dark close-up of Nemo. Then a sad silhouette desperately touches the window screen as the music gets eerier. We see him moving around the penthouse, trying his phone (or walkie-talkie), eating ice out of the refrigerator, and finally screaming, “Help me! Get me out of here!” as we see shots of one of the few other cast members, Eliza Stuyck as a maid named Jasmine, who looks to be helpless to Nemo’s captive situation.
Nemo’s predicament gets even scarier as he appears to descend into madness, destroying sculptures and furniture, butchering a fish, killing a bird “Nobody here but us pigeons,” he wearily declares), and frantically scrapes at the edges of every possible place that could lead to escaping. In one immaculate shot, Nemo pulls down Maurizio Cattelan’s 1999 installation, A Perfect Day, which depicts a bald businessman taped to a wall with mounds of duct tape, from a wall while saying, “I feel you brother, I’m gonna set you free,” before it crashes to the floor.
Dafoe's Nemo Goes Mad While Trapped Inside
“When I was a kid, my teacher asked what I would save from my house if it were on fire,” we hear Dafoe say in voice-over. “The answer: my sketchbook, my AC/DC albums, and my cat, Groucho,” he states. “I didn’t mention my parents or my sister -- does that make me a bad person?”
As a montage of dark, scary imagery of a tortured Dafoe bouncing off of the walls of the lavish but now trashed penthouse, we hear him continue, “Cats die, music fades, but art is for keeps.” And with the discomforting, sinister soundtrack amping up before quickly dying, the trailer ends with an “Only in theaters March 10” title.
So director Katsoupis, whose second film this is after his 2016 debut, My Friend Larry Gus, looks to be serving up a different kind of art film as it is heavily dominated by actual works from known artists. Aside from the aforementioned canvas by Cattelan, works by such luminaries as Egon Schiele, Lynn Chadwick, Maxwell Alexandre, and David Horvitz can be seen surrounding Dafoe’s Nemo throughout the trailer. The stylish look of the film, via the promising snatches of cinematography that wash over the viewer by Director of Photography Steve Annis, adds to the possible visual appeal Inside may have to curious audiences.
While Dafoe’s sole presence may indicate a spare screenplay, award-winning writer Ben Hopkins can be trusted to have given him a strong framework in which to go mad, and it looks like the master actor has re-defined the phrase “chewing the scenery” to the umpteenth degree.
Unless one suffers from extreme claustrophobia, this haunting two-minute and 30-second sneak peek at Dafoe’s debacle should intrigue movie-goers to see the upcoming psychological horror film Inside when it hits the big screen exclusively on March 10th before expanding to more screens March 17th.