The Whale
Story Stream
Washing the Whale (With Dove) March 16, 2023
Darren Aronofsky’s film The Whale, which stars former 90s hunk Brendan Fraser as a reclusive, obese writing teacher, did well at the Oscars this week. The film won best makeup and hairstyling, and Fraser won Best Actor, all to enormous controversy. ...
Destructive Authenticity in Full Focus February 20, 2023
The Whale is the latest “controversial” film in which the average moviegoer will struggle to discern where exactly the controversy lies. It follows Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a morbidly obese, couch-bound gay man as he reckons with his impending, slow...
Don’t Call It a Comeback February 13, 2023
Brendan Fraser’s performance in The Whale has been as widely heralded as any in memory. Thirty-one years after Encino Man, Fraser has received endless plaudits and is nominated for an Oscar for best actor, the winner to be announced next month. In di...
Western Society Is Built on Stigma February 08, 2023
The backlash against The Whale seems to have taken Darren Aronofsky, its director, by surprise. The film concerns a gay online English instructor named Charlie who is dying from congestive heart failure, an ailment hardly unrelated to his weight of 6...
What’s in a Fat Suit? January 05, 2023
In a strange, parallel turn, and with a much heavier fat suit, Brendan Fraser is trolling critics with his lead role in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale”—a no-frills adaptation of the 2012 play by Samuel D. Hunter. As a surprised Matt Walsh (who probabl...
'The Whale' Is More Than Cheap Spectacle December 16, 2022
Perennial miserablist Darren Aronofsky seems like just the guy to adapt a play about the final week in the life of a morbidly obese man coming to terms with his imminent death. In one fashion or another all of his projects have been harrowing, and he...
'The Whale' and the Fat Suit December 09, 2022
The new film “The Whale,” which A24 will release on Friday, is about a man named Charlie. He lives alone in a squalid apartment in Idaho, grieving a male lover, and is estranged from his ex-wife and teen daughter. His only companions are a nurse and ...
