As
I sit here typing at this review, my first since returning from Wroxton, I
realize something:
I
could not have picked a stranger film for my first review back- one
where I’ll never look at walruses the same way again.
In his new film
"Tusk", Kevin
Smith returns to the director's chair after being absent for three long years.
The film, a major departure for Smith, focuses on a podcaster named Wallace
Bryton, played by Justin Long. Bryton, along with his best friend and co-host
Teddy Craft, played by Haley Joel Osment, facilitate a podcast where they find
videos of people doing strange things and make fun of the people who make the
videos. As Bryton heads to Canada to talk to one of the participants of the
weird videos, he stumbles across an advertisement detailing a man willing to
tell of his adventures at sea. Michael Parks plays Howard Howe, the man who
agrees to tell Bryton his wondrous tales. However, soon Bryton is kidnapped by
Howe and is held captive and subjected to many torturous and strange
experiments, including being forced to dress up in a startlingly realistic
walrus suit.
There is more to
the plot but if you have never heard of this movie before, then I really do not
want to say too much else to give anything away. "Tusk" is disturbingly terrifying at times. It stayed with
me long after the credits- even as I type this, I still think about it.
…yet the film
revels in being delightfully macabre, darkly humorous, and at times
surprisingly poignant. This is
easily the best movie Kevin Smith has made in years and one of the strangest
movies I’ve seen in quite a while.
For the most
part, the acting is pretty great with standout performances by Parks, Osment,
and the actor who plays Guy LaPointe, a Quebec detective who helps Craft and
Bryton’s girlfriend, (Genesis Rodriguez), find Bryton after he disappears.
Parks is deliciously terrifying in this role, coming off as sweet and calm, and
then slowly revealing himself as a deranged and absolutely terrorizing man.
It’s a shame Parks is not in more films, because he’s such an underrated talent
and he knocks it out of the park- pun intended.
Also, welcome
back Haley Joel Osment. I think the last big movie that he was in was 2003’s
"Secondhand Lions."
It has been quite a while since we saw Osment on screen, and he captured his
character excellently. His character joins Bryton in making fun of these
videos, but deep down his character is naïve and has a sweet sensibility,
almost as if he wants to be able to do the right thing, but just can’t. I hope
to see more from Osment in the future.
Finally, the
last standout in the film is the actor who plays Guy LaPointe. I do not want to
reveal who it is, for he is a very big name actor and I hope that you are as
surprised as I was. Admittedly, this is an actor, who has seemed as if he’s been
phoning it in for his last few performances. In this movie, though, he gives
probably the best performance of his entire career. His character is so
wonderfully wacky and gonzo that you can’t help but smile when he’s on screen.
The film’s plot,
which is undeniably silly at first glance, actually turns out to be a truly
unsettling and disconcerting film about losing one’s human psyche; losing
control of what really holds us together as human beings. How the story came
together is actually rather interesting, as Smith based the plot of the film
off a hypothetical pitch he and his friend, producer Scott Mosier, made during
episode 259 of their podcast called “SMODcast” after viewing an advertisement
on the website GumTree. The story Smith puts together is the most radical
departure he’s ever taken in his entire career, even more so than his last
film, 2011’s "Red State." The film is so darkly humorous that there
were times where I was laughing, but I felt like I shouldn’t be laughing
because
the moments on screen were not funny at all.
I will say that if you are grossed out by this kind of macabre type of horror, or just grossed out easily by horror, then this film is not for you. I saw people walk out of the theater grumbling angrily at how much they hated the film. However, if you are a Kevin Smith fan or want to see an interesting take on horror, I highly recommend checking out "Tusk".
"Tusk" is a very enjoyable horror film. It is the best movie Smith has made in years, though it is also not for the very squeamish. If you are a fan of unique and weird horror, I suggest giving it a look.
Grade: B+