Mamet’s latest film, Henry Johnson, is not an easy sit. It’s not Glengarry Glen Ross, where so much of the film is listening like listening to Jazz. Only it offends. Oh boy, does it ever offend. Does it tell the truth? Absolutely. It tells the truth about the desperation of being a salesman. It is also about how we negotiate and manipulate, how we posture our moral superiority. But what most people take from that movie is this: great dialogue, great acting.
The same holds true for Mamet’s latest, Henry Johnson, only it doesn’t follow a linear path. The same way Glengarry isn’t so much about the plot as it is about the character dynamics — and that palpable desperation — Henry Johnson is about moral ambiguity. It is dense and not a film that can be gotten in one go, I don’t think. It requires you engage with it, you reach in and feel around until your fingers wrap around an internal organ – a heart, maybe? Probably not. This is less about that. This is more about manipulation and betrayal.
Henry Johnson, the titular character played by Evan Jonigkeit, is on a spiritual or moral journey that will decide his fate. He will be tempted in different directions by different people.
Henry Johnson was based on Mamet’s play of the same name. It could be described as a play in three acts, though it does not follow a linear structure, and for that, you’d best be paying close attention. You are moving through ideas driven by words and brilliant performances by actors who understand the material (otherwise, it would fail). Mamet is, above all, a theater writer and director. He knows how important actors are but also that challenging material is not for any actor. Most actors know that if you’re doing Mamet, you have to be able to do Mamet, not to sound too pretentious. One of the best to ever do it is obviously Alec Baldwin.
But the actors assembled for Henry Johnson showcase their adept and nimble skills at following the ideas here, which is not easy. All of them are top-notch, and if the industry actually awarded deserving performances instead of the consensus of the flavor of the month, Henry Johnson would be an SAG ensemble nominee.
How is our fate decided in life? We trust people. They either tell us the truth or they tell us a lie. In Henry Johnson’s case, it’s his faith in people, his trust in them that sends him down the darker path.
The first figure Henry Johnson meets is his boss at an expensive law firm who seduces him in a long conversation that eventually lands him in prison (pay attention, it moves quickly). That actor is Chris Bauer, someone who slips into the Mamet dialogue like a second skin. That encounter leads Henry Johnson into a cell with another seducer, played by Shia LaBeouf. It is, hands down, LaBeouf’s best work as an actor — but he’s always good. What has doomed his career is his private/public life. Puritanical scolds won’t give him a break on that – so here we are, all of us cast out of utopia building a counter culture and for that, I can say he is brilliant in this film and he is a formidable talent.
Henry Johnson isn’t controversial. It isn’t about the Left. It isn’t about the “woke.” It isn’t about Trump. It isn’t about politics at all. At least, not that I could see. It is difficult not to think of another more famous Henry Johnson because the name is so specific.
The story of the Harlem Hellfighters is incredible and tragic. Barack Obama would eventually award Henry Johnson the Medal of Honor posthumously.
I can’t say for sure that Mamet had him in mind when he wrote this film. Maybe he did. Maybe he plucked it out of thin air because he liked how it sounded, like an everyman.
I would not presume to make the comparison to the lead character in the Mamet film except to say that it’s possible he is making a statement about the treatment of Black Americans throughout history, being used in one fashion or another and being betrayed to act against their own best interests. That’s about as far as I can get with it. The lead is not played by a Black man, though one of the main figures in the story is Black, the prison guard who once against outwits and outplays Henry Johnson. That is the absolutely brilliant actor, Dominic Hoffman.
The star of the show is, without a doubt, Shia LaBeouf. He is captivating as a man we never fully understand but we know that Henry is incapable of resisting his charms. That takes him down an even more dangerous path as his fate escalates. LaBeouf electrifies in this performance. You can’t take your eyes off of him and if this was a fair industry — an honest industry — LaBeouf would be a standout and a frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor.
Hollywood isn’t an industry that has room for writers and filmmakers like David Mamet, I’m sorry to say, which is why this film must be independently released. That gets even worse as streaming monopolies overtake the industry – they seem to care more about their reputations inside utopia than they do about diversity of content. I am not saying Henry Johnson is for everyone or that anyone sitting down to watch it will even understand it. What is undeniable is the writing and the acting.
You can buy a ticket to watch Henry Johnson over at their site for just $8 bucks. I’ve already seen it but I bought a ticket anyway to support the release and Mamet’s work. There is also something about it that compels me to want to watch it again. What did I miss? What am I missing? How far down the rabbit hole can I go?
Bravo to all involved. A fine piece of work by one of America’s finest writers. It will likely be among my top ten of the year.
