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SUBMISSION:
Similar to The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, this is another 2018 gem that’s going under-the-radar. A well written and astutely directed film with outstanding performances. Stanley Tucci plays a college Literature professor who takes interest in the writing of one of his students. The student is played by Addison Timlin. What struck me about this move is how the acting was so authentic and the chemistry was so strong, not only between Tucci and Kyra Sedgwick, but especially between Tucci and Timlin’s characters.
The film moves at a slower pace, but it’s crucial to setting up the story and builds the tension and seductive affair between the teacher and student. I appreciated how director Richard Levine invests everything in his actors and characters and lets them tell the story, and they did. After all this movie is based on the acclaimed novel by Francine Prose, called “Blue Angel”.
The seductively creepy affair doesn’t appear to be as insane as it should be, due to how the characters expose their flaws and appealing traits. You want to shake Tucci’s character Ted Swenson and scream some sense into him for the grave he’s digging for himself, but Tucci plays him so authentically that you are compelled to find him endearing and likable. I did.
I can go on for a while about the magnetic these fine actors make their characters appear, but there is a lot more that makes this movie spectacularly seductive. The reliability of how real these people are being a major reason. The story itself is vastly intriguing. It’s like watching an impending car crash and gluing yourself to it. Submission is a sure-fire conversation starter about serious topics such as sexual harassment and the fine lines between teacher and student. Go out and see this alluring film.
SUBMISSION is out now in theaters in NYC and opens in LA and other markets on March 9, 2018
