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The Texture of Clay

 
Clayface might be the most interesting Batman villain to -up until now- never appear in a live-action movie. His signature episode of Batman: The Animated Series, “Feat of Clay” is one of that show’s highlights, his origin story ranking up there with Two-Face and Mr. Freeze in terms of its pathos and tragedy. It is interesting that he was selected as the headliner of his own DC Studios movie though -his story is certainly interesting enough but there is a level of obscurity to him with the general public. Certainly compared to the likes of the Joker and Penguin and Harley Quinn.
I suspect the chief reason for the movie’s existence is the opportunity it gives DC to play in a different wheelhouse -something DC head James Gunn appears still interested in doing. Clayface is an R-rated body horror film that importantly does not neuter the character’s villainy for the sake of a more conventional superhero movie mold -the way that Marvel and Sony’s equivalent movies -the Venom films in particular did. There is something somewhat bold and intriguing in that, and with a script from Mike Flanagan, directed by James Watkins (after Flanagan had to pull out of directing duties himself), the movie lives up to that a lot more than expected, while also falling short of some of these same expectations it sets in other regards.
Fundamentally, Clayface is a movie about ego, much as its protagonist’s tragedy might endeavour to win you over. Its central character is Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), a very pretty and successful actor based out of Gotham City whose latest movie lands him an Oscar nomination. Out celebrating, he meets and subsequently sleeps with an actress Mia Torrez (Joanna Ribeiro), despite being warned of her powerful gangster boyfriend Szabo (David Dencik). Sure enough, Szabo finds them the next morning and disfigures Hagen’s face with a knife as punishment. This, alongside a false assault allegation from Mia (though apparently characteristic of corroborated behaviour from people who knew Hagen) effectively gets him cancelled and unable to find work. With reconstructive surgeries failing his standards, a desperate Hagen enlists the experimental nanite technology of Doctor Caitlyn Corr (Naomie Ackie), and after a time it appears to work perfectly in restoring his former physical appearance. But he soon discovers that in moments of rage or high emotion, his face and body begin to melt and take on the texture of clay, with the added horror of adversely effecting his psychology as well.
The cancel culture angle is new to this story, the script (perhaps rightly) figuring that the disfigurement alone wouldn’t be enough to end Hagen’s acting career in this day and age (in fact, it may well afford him a boost in audience sympathy). Flanagan’s script walks a tightrope in characterizing this -in maintaining some legitimate sense of tragedy for Hagen it casts the allegation as untrue, but couches it in some troubling history as alluded by others to give the charge credence. It is a failure of the film to merely let this simmer and not actually address it in any meaningful capacity beyond this plot (especially given the relevance it would have to the romantic tension that develops later between him and Corr), but it is a useful hint early on of his true character that the nanites perhaps enhance but don’t pull from nowhere.
In the meantime, the model for the story of Hagen’s deteriorating condition is clearly The Fly, notably in its pacing and expression through the lens of a romance. And it’s a pretty decent approximation of that dynamic even if the chemistry isn’t entirely there the way it ought to be. Where the transformation is concerned though, it is a touch underwhelming. The melting face effects are decent enough but they are not very distinctive. Two or three times we see it happen suddenly and it never looks different or more severe -compared to The Fly which had a whole host of various gross transitions of its titular character’s body. Yes, it is unnerving to see Hagen try to cut with tiny scissors the elastic flesh dripping over his eyes while in an airplane bathroom during turbulence, but we don’t see any other more extravagant effects of his cursed powers. And in fact, he transitions rather quickly into the conscious capacity to shapeshift into any person he meets. His first unconscious demonstration of this is genuinely provocative and disturbing when, while asleep and under Corr’s supervision, he transforms into her as a kind of calming response. But by the time he is engaged in a murder spree, copying the looks of several people at an elite party, it feels just a little void of substance -like a major point of his evolution has been sharply skipped over. Moreover, the 'sludge monster' incarnation of the character comic fans will surely be waiting for doesn't feature at all before the final minutes.
Still, the film does well in building out his villain origin story, and is smart enough to connect his otherwise empathetic self-pity with his intense ego and entitlement. His self-worth is entirely wrapped up in his image and it can be pitiful -Rhys Harries plays that strain very well. Yet the film builds real intensity out of it as well -he is clearly psychologically unstable, manifested not only in his visceral motive of revenge, but his narcissistic need to make a show of himself to his detractors and especially his increasing possessiveness towards Corr -something her boring cop fiancé played by Max Minghella catches onto. It is in these characteristics and the violence that they imply, removed from his powers and very familiar to certain kinds of identifiable toxic personalities, that the image of Hagen really stands out and even becomes a symbolic avatar for those themes. Both Watkins and Flanagan evoke the devices of Taxi Driver in the latter parts of this movie and it is quite apt.
It is not just the transformation that makes Hagen a monster and the movie, to its credit, never loses sight of that. And it is this clarity over its protagonist's story that helps Clayface overcome its lacklustre visual creativity and an occasional lack of imagination in the script as well (Gotham gangsters have become quite tedious by this point). It is a great play of misdirection how Hagen's tragedy molds like that clay into tangible villainy, confronting and subverting his sympathetic notes and speaking to his character in a pointed way that says more and is more disturbing than the goop that becomes his body. An interesting comic character given an interesting comic film.

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