Clayface

Babyface

Clayface is a tough one.

There’s a fair amount to admire about this production overall. For one, this is a big breakout role for star Tom Rhys Harries, who – until now – might be best known for having a role in the original movie version of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen. Clayface is sure to raise his profile, no matter the movie’s box office performance. He’s really good in fleshing out this unusual character.

It’s also interesting to see where some of the character- and world-building goes with this DC movie that is decidedly much, much darker and counter in spirit to James Gunn’s more upbeat DCU (at least so far, with Superman and even the now clean and sober Supergirl).

This is a “hard R” body horror thriller with loads of on-screen violence and even a bit of nudity. It centers around an actor, Matt Hagen (Harries), who at the movie’s start is showered in praise after collecting his first Academy Award nomination. It’s a rather witty start, too. He’s on the Imperial Pictures studio lot, which looks an awful lot like Warner Bros. Studios. (Wink wink.) There’s a great moment of Matt in a makeup chair, getting his face massaged in ways which make his face look like it’s made of… well…clay. Nice foreshadowing.

But, in the mood for a night of celebrating at a popular night club, he encounters the perfect girl who’s perfectly wrong for him and who winds up totally upending his life. Sure, Mia Torrez (Joana Ribeiro, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote) is hot, but she’s also the girlfriend of a mob boss, Markos Szabo (David Dencik, No Time to Die). It shouldn’t even be necessary to say it, but maybe it still needs to be written down and plastered on posters: Never, ever (as in – for reals – never, ever) play with a mob boss’ girl. Especially a Gotham mob boss.

It will not end well for you.

But poor Matt didn’t get the memo. He sleeps with Mia and wakes up in the morning to some unwelcome observers.

Brutally assaulted, Matt’s beautiful babyface and gentle eyes – his moneymakers – are carved up and he’s left to put himself back together.

After losing a lawsuit against Szabo (of course – Gotham is the world capital of corruption, after all), Matt seeks help from a doctor experimenting with molecular biology. Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie, Blink Twice) pushes back on Matt: her work is still a long way off from being ready for human testing.

But Matt’s got nothing to lose.

Scarface

The setup is fine. The tone is fine. It fits in well with other recent DC movie “off-shoots,” such as Clayface co-producer Matt Reeves’ The Batman and Todd Phillips’ Joker.

The problem is Clayface doesn’t maintain a realistic, grounded world and that becomes its undoing. It’s in turns dark and silly; on occasion, it’s both at the same time.

Sure, there are plenty of grisly, gruesome on-screen scenes of body horror, cutting, blood, guts. Plenty of gross stuff.

Consider that the high-end of where Clayface wants to go. It’s essentially setting a new standard for where a DC villain origin story can take some sinister ideas. In some respects, it also falls in line well with the tragedy of Arthur Fleck as played by Joaquin Phoenix.

But there’s no way this Clayface could face off with Battinson – Robert Pattinson’s dark, grounded take on the Batman. The downfall is the narrative equivalent of shooting one’s self in the foot.

After Matt overdoses – by his own irrational actions – on Caitlyn’s molecular concoction, he quickly learns to control his condition. His face can melt. It can shift. It can transform into the appearance of any person he’s simply thinking about.

That includes transforming into Caitlyn while sleeping restlessly. (Creepy. But it’s an early indicator Matt might have some romantic feelings for the doctor who’s setting his life back in order.)

So. It is a little interesting Matt can transform simply by thought.

But the problem – and it’s a big, big problem – is it’s not only Matt’s body that transforms. While he’s out on the mean streets of Gotham and brings one mob villain after another to their timely demise, he not only assumes their physical appearance, his clothes change to match what they’re wearing.

Come on. That’s so lazy.

That is so extremely uninteresting.

If there was any possibility of bringing this Matt Hagen toe-to-toe with Battinson, he’d need a more reality-based condition that requires some quick thinking on his feet. As in, how do I get dressed appropriately? Steal the victim’s clothes. That’s one way. But a magical molecular transference of fabric is silly.

And when it comes to morphing into a nightclub hottie – including her skimpy dress and heels – that’s a breaking point.

That’s sloppy, unconvincing, insincere writing. That discounts the drama and the much more interesting dynamics of a man without a shape or a shoe size.

Which is all the more disappointing given the screenplay is co-written by Mike Flanagan, who’s made quite a name for himself in the world of Stephen King with his new streaming series adaptation of Carrie and his sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep. The other writer is Hossein Amini, who wrote Drive (starring Ryan Gosling) along with episodes of streaming series Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Alienist.

Why did they take this path of narrative cheating? Rather like Clayface’s mimicry, it makes everything around it seem cheaper.

Put Szabo and his henchmen at the top of that list.

They’re all right out of Central Casting. None offer anything compelling in terms of unique character traits. They’re all just standard bad guys. Generic mobsters.

False Face

The most effective aspects of Clayface belong to the scenes of body horror. Toward the end, there’s one particularly stunning moment when Matt is found sleeping in his bathtub, reduced to not much more than a lumpy mound of clay. As Matt transforms and shifts into other people, his core self gets lost and he starts looking more and more like the huge, hulking, menacing mass of clay that has been featured in Clayface animated fare and other iterations.

In this telling, directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil), Matt is more of a vigilante, an anti-hero, than straight-on villain. At least for now. Where he goes from here in the event of future installments is up for grabs. Tragic good guy (like Darkman and so many others) or villain (bringing him in line with the bulk of Batman lore)?

First introduced way back in 1940 in Detective Comics, Clayface has usually – but not always – been a villain, a fierce adversary to Batman. In this case, he’s an anti-hero with an unlikely love story – as one-sided as it might be – with Caitlyn, the woman who has the capacity to both save and end Matt’s life.

It’s not that Matt’s out to seek justice. He’s righting those who wronged him more so than. His brand of “vengeance” isn’t limited to dyed-in-the-wool villainy. After climbing his way up the Hollywood ladder to stardom, he sees it all fall away after his run-in with Szabo. His business manager sells him out. His best friend rats him out to the press with stories of past indiscretions (a story thread that appears and disappears with equal convenience). He loses all his money. His house. His career. Everything.

Eventually, his entire life goes down the drain.

Literally.