Motion Picture ClubTUSK REVIEW
TUSK
Reviewed by: Yu-Sheng Wu (Roger)
Tusk is a hard movie to recommend.
Now, if you’ve visited critic aggregator sites like rottentomatoes.com and you’ve noticed the glaring 44% approval rating it has as of now. You might be wondering…why would I watch this movie?
Well… the reason why it is probably stems from the fact that Tusk is sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing… and it has a few strangely poignant moments. It’s a polarizing movie, some critics have given it glowing reviews and some have trashed the movie. But believe me, Tusk is one helluva memorable ride.
Born from a idea sprung from a podcast segment from one of Kevin Smith’s SMODcast shows, Tusk tells the story about a podcaster who travels to Canada to interview a man with a fascinating past, only to find himself embroiled into a dangerous secret involving a walrus.
Let’s get this out the way. Tusk is a body horror film. If you’re not a fan of David Cronenberg movies like The Fly or Videodrome, Tusk is definitely NOT for you. A movie self-described by Kevin Smith as a “cuddlier version of The Human Centipede”, Tusk succeeds where The Human Centipede by the means of genuinely disturbing moments, developed characters and fantastic performances.
You see, when you’re making a body horror movie, an important part of the drama that ties the narrative together lies within the victim’s characters. If you’re simply given a 2 dimensional cutout character as an audience proxy, nobody’s going to be disturbed about what happens to them. In the case of Tusk, Justin Long delivers—successfully giving us a character that we’ll despise in the beginning but sympathize for later on in the movie.
But the real star of Tusk is Michael Parks. As the antagonist Howard Howe, Parks chews up the scenery here. He’s memorable every minute he’s on the screen, whether he’s reciting parts of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner or he’s waxing lyrical about the nature of man, Parks’ performance and amazing voice gives credibility to a character that could almost turn into a caricature in a sub-par performance.
Tusk also introduces us to “Guy Lapointe”, believe me—Guy Lapointe and Michael Parks are worth the price of admission alone. Especially after you find out who “Guy Lapointe” is played by.
But Tusk isn’t without it’s fair share of problems either. While Michael Parks and co. are great at delivering long chunks of dialogue, it feels as if Kevin Smith is over-indulgent in his writing. There are a handful of scenes in the movie that don’t serve any purpose at all, in fact—there are certain moments on screen that feel like a excuse for Kevin Smith to make 2 certain actors play off each other. These moments throw off the pacing, and they feel hammed up, as the actors themselves are probably aware of how stupid the scenes they are given are.
Strangely, Tusk suffers from a problem that I never thought a Kevin Smith movie would have. There isn’t a lot of energy inside his dialogue scenes. In movies like Clerks or Chasing Amy, there’s plenty of enthusiasm that keeps the conversations lively and genuinely interesting. Take Chasing Amy for example, in Holden’s confession to Alyssa, the camera rarely cuts to her face—but it’s great, because it puts emphasis into what Holden has to say. But Tusk seems to alternate between one-shot’s and master shots and panning shots at random during dialogue set pieces, and the result is sometimes just ridiculous.
Tusk is also filled with glaring inside jokes from Kevin Smith’s podcasting career. While people familiar with Kevin Smith’s career might find the jokes and jibes hilarious, it won’t work for casual audiences, jokes that are supposed to elicit laughs end up sounding forced instead. This is probably the biggest problem with Tusk, yes, the pacing is almost forgivable—but it’s too self-referential to sometimes take seriously. Let’s put it this way, the Fleetwood Mac song Tusk is played the finale of the movie, while references are great in small effective doses—Tusk sometimes feels like a Kevin Smith wink-fest.
But in the end, I’ll have to give Tusk a recommendation. Yes, it’s sometimes overindulgent, it’s rife with pacing problems and it’s too self referential—but it’s probably the most memorable horror comedy I’ve seen in a while. Believe me, there are moments from Tusk that look like the stuff nightmares are made of.
Did I mention Gerard Way’s kick-ass cover of “O’ Waly Waly” played at the end of the movie? I’m tempted to watch the movie again just to listen to that song.
Yes Kevin Smith is a truly indulgent filmmaker, but when you look at his portfolio it’s hard not to see why. The man knows how to create ultimately unique characters in stunningly simple yet deeply complicated situations. Tusk is the same: hilarious, stupid and weird yet smart and original.