Review of The Skeleton Twins (2014) by Adlai N — 31 May 2015

Kevin Smith has long been one of the more polarizing directors and writers in all of Hollywood with people who watch his films landing in two groups, ones who abhor his disgusting graphic dialogue and content and the other who cant get enough of it. No matter what film he happens to direct, he always garners attention. His new film Tusk may be the most insane, bizarre and creepy that he has ever done that once again has people hating or loving it. About a man who gets turned into a walrus, the plot is straight forward but the way that its filmed is anything but. While it certainty doesn't break any new ground in this odd genre, it is unequivocally Smith and his unique style bleeds through in the most strange way possible. A weird experience but in the end, its something worth taking if one can stomach it.

Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) hosts a podcast with his friend Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment), titled the Not-See Party. They both belittle and savagely ridicule humiliating viral videos, to the disdain of his girlfriend Ally Leon (Génesis Rodríguez) who wishes he would tone down the meanness of his persona. Being a failed comic, he didn't get by with his by the book comedic route and found out the only way to get noticed is to be terribly savage to others. He goes to Bifrost, Manitoba, Canada in hopes of interviewing a man made famous for a humiliating viral video but tragedy strikes and he has no one to interview. While in a bar, he finds a handbill that offers a free home for a guarantee of a lifetime of interesting stories. With his interest piqued he heads out to the mans mansion but he eventually finds out that Howard Howe (Michael Parks) is insane and hell bent on turning him into a walrus.

Smith always brings together a great cast and does so again here. Old friend Long was great as a bitter, sarcastic podcaster. He really excelled as a selfish jerk who only cares about himself no matter how his girlfriend says he loves him. Funny, rude and overly sarcastic, he wasn't really something that you really liked or was meant to like. But in the end you had no choice but to feel empathy for him given how horrible the situation he ended up being in. the portrayal of fear and desperation was very real and made the overall creepiness of the film that much more effective. If the actors don't look scared and petrified, it makes it hard to buy into whatever insanity is put out on screen. Rodríguez was effective as the put upon, disrespected girlfriend who just wants the old Wallace back, but now I would think she would rather have the rude, inconsiderate jerk Wallace than the savage walrus Wallace.

A monologue directed toward the camera describing her plight in dating Wallace was rather touching and heartfelt, with the right amount of heart to give the story some emotional semblance. There wasn't much there throughout the film but there was enough to get the point across. It was a huge surprise to see Osment on the screens again and I have to say that I kind of missed him and felt bad that his career stalled so early on. He was pretty funny here as the co host of the Not-See Party and felt really comfortable in his role. Parks was a lot of fun and really went all out in his Dr. Frankenstein role. He hammed it up maybe a little too much but it can be forgiven how crazy the source material is. Parks plays a great villain here with extra menace that looked like to be having the time of his life. He had a similar role in Smiths previous film Red State, where he was the leader of a Westboro Baptist Church type cult that was equal parts insane and arresting. He got the most out of the role, pushing the character to the brink of insanity. It wasn't overly cheesy but restrained enough that we could buy into his warped psychosis.

In perhaps one of the more bizarre castings, Johnny Depp plays Guy Lapointe, a drunk ex-cop from Quebec. Depp certainly knows how to bring the weird and he does so with gusto here. Eccentric, odd and driven, hes the only one who has been hunting Howe and putting all the pieces together. Oftentimes he has some of the best lines by the awkwardness of the situation, facial expressions or the sound of his French accent. For all his strange roles and films hes been in over his career, this feels rightly at home. The unlikely pairing of Smith and Depp extends to their daughters Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp who have a brief cameo as clerk girls.

Smith is a great director and writer with an amazing talent for the gift of gab. He can make nearly any story interesting and make something original out of seemingly nothing. Which is where the story came from for Tusk. While on his podcast which is titled SModcast in a pot fueled haze, he and friend/producer Scott Mosier made fun of a Gumtree ad for a man offering a room if they dressed up as a walrus. While it was discovered to be a hoax, it interested Smith so much that he asked his twitter followers if he should make the film. The rest is how they say history. And in a twisted way, Smith made history as no film has never shown a man that was transformed into a walrus. While its not really funny in the ways that his previous films are, it has a bizarre sense of humor that balances a fine line between shock and awe horror and wacky camp.

A far cry from his Jersey saga, it never the less still has some of that same type of comedy that he is known for, just in different dosages. Its more like something you would see in the 80s where everyone made a so bad its good horror movie about seemingly the stupidest and oddest objects and creatures. Smith not one to shy away from making fun of himself, parodies the occupation that he is also known for. He demeans and breaks down Wallace's podcaster as an empty, shell of himself who doesn't really feel for the subjects that he brutally takes down. He exemplified the podcaster persona perfectly as someone who is mainly a tasteless jackass who is only out for clicks and nothing more. It also goes into the shock jock humor that many radio show hosts adapted to in the eras of Howard Stern and Bubba The Love Sponge. People want gross, disgusting and rude, not nice, polite and well behaved. While he has strayed from the usual material from his earlier films, I found it a step up from Red State. None of it really clicked with me and I could not really enjoy a portrayal of the Westboro Baptist Church in a heavy gun battle with police. It was as far away from Smith as you could get and Tusk feels like a return to form to something wholly original and never seen before.

There was a little bit more to hang onto in regards to the story and character motivations. I was just as intrigued to hear more of Howe's story as Wallace, even if it went into sick and twisted territory. Howe's motivations were simple and also illogical but everything seems illogical when you're watching a psychopath. He wasn't intent on straight up murder but recreating a pivotal moment from his past that forever changed him. Driven to get that feeling back, he enacts a crazy plan to make a man into a walrus. Like most psychopaths who go on a murderous tear, it usually starts in childhood. From then on he felt more in tuned with animals, refusing to interact with the beasts he calls man. While the themes of man and beast, loss of morality and the uselessness and ugliness of man have been explored before, it can be forgiven here for such a unique way of presenting it. There more here than a mass of F-bombs and some creepy, gross undertones. Smiths first foray into horror seemed like a perplexing one, but he created something that hasn't really been seen before and that should be commended. With everything being a sequel, remake, adaptation or prequel, I'm glad there's a filmmaker willing to take such a huge risk. He knows how to mingle horror, comedy and sentiment well, making you dislike and feel pity for Wallace at the same time.

While Smith may be unfamiliar in this genre, he revels in the weirdness of it all and gets down and gritty of its inert campiness. He isn't one to hold back or afraid to show too much. Its illogical like many horror films, but its made in such a way that you cant keep your eyes off of, even if many really do want to unsee what they have just saw. While not really scary, it holds a great tone of uneasiness throughout that will surprise. Some of the parts, mainly near the end were oddly sensual which gave it a whole other layer of weirdness. It got more crazy near the end and shows a bizarre dichotomy if Howe loves or hates the walrus that he is trying to recreate out of Wallace. The ending while insane is somewhat poetic in its delivery. I couldn't help but feel a little enthralled by it. Of course the ending is incredibly depressing but the transformation was needed to make Wallace feel like a human being even if he ended up a walrus/human hybrid.

While there was some gross and disgusting elements here, especially in how Wallace looks as a walrus, it is by no means the most deplorable looking movie out there. He reminded me of how Michael Rooker looked like in Slither as the slug monster but far more disgusting. Its not even that graphic and I didn't shy away from the screen once. The Human Centipede was far more gross as well as being a terrible movie in every single way throughout. I couldn't find anything worth mentioning that I liked from that piece of crap and made less sense as the movie went on. If there ever was a movie that is a stain on film, it would be that one. The Fly was one of the most disgusting films ever made which had a man had his entire body falling apart piece by piece to look like a human/fly hybrid. And lets not forget how he vomited acid on a mans hand and leg where you see it disintegrate into a liquified goo. Anyone complaining about the grossness of Tusk simply has a weak stomach, forgetting for whatever reason that there are far more graphic films out there. You see more violence and gore in the Hostel and Saw films.

You can't ignore family forever, no matter how long you have been apart or how much has changed overtime. Eventually you will have to meet and figure out why everything went the way they did, even if its worse than you imagined. Such is the case with The Skeleton Twins, a powerfully comedic and dramatic portrayal of loneliness and desperation. told with such heartbreaking honesty and awkward humor, you'll find yourself laughing one moment and left shocked and appalled by the revelations of the characters the next.

Milo (Bill Hader) is an unsuccessful actor and waiter in Los Angeles who hopes to rekindle a romance with his ex Rich (Ty Burrell) and Maggie (Kristen Wiig) is a dental hygienist married to a somewhat dopey husband Lance (Luke Wilson) living in upstate New York, the same town she grew up in. Milo and Maggie are twin siblings who have not spoken a word to each other in ten years, but a horrible set of circumstances puts them together. Maggie takes Milo in as a last resort and an attempt to rebuild the relationship that was once so fruitful and healthy, but along the way disastrous secrets get revealed that threaten to destroy both of their lives and their relationship forever.

Craig Johnson makes a great splash on the mainstream with his sophomore film, his first being True Adolescents. With such delicate topics that The Skeleton Twins delves into, it could have been hampered by them all but Johnson showed an amazing willingness to reveal the ugliness of it all with a stark honesty. While very outright and powerful at some moments, its also restrained and controlled. Johnson has a very forceful style that lays everything out but knows how to divvy it up without it being too much at once. He knows that Maggie and Milo are unlikable in many ways but they are also human with real issues. There may be some indie film cliches, but it overcomes them with a flowing narrative that doesn't apologize for the characters actions. Johnson's also wrote the script with Mark Heyman who wrote the Oscar winning Black Swan. And you can see where the simialrities lie in both films from the toxic mother to the damaged daughter and an increasingly depressing story. But The Skeleton Twins is much funnier. The awkwardness of the humor makes it stand out and a great place for Hader and Wiig to show off their improvisation skills. Hader was absolutely great as he sprouts off bizarre lines that come out of nowhere to make certain situations even more awkward. I loved the bitter sarcasm as well as the stinging insults that Hader and Wiig threw at others as well as to each other. It was written very much how depressed siblings would speak to one another.

Even though this movie has comedic actors like Hader and Wiig, it is by no means a funny movie. Its often awkward, troubling and depressing but realistic in its portrayal of siblings who don't get along anymore. Hader and Wiig have unbelievably amazing chemistry together which shouldn't be too surprising as they spent eight years together as cast mates on Saturday Night Live. For a long while they were both starring in blockbuster comedy hits like Superbad, Bridesmaids, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder, only entering more dramatic fare every so often. But this was above and beyond both of their best films and most powerful. Their performances are downright harrowing that shocks you into submission, but then their impeccable comedic timing makes any horrible instance or scene instantly funny and you forget for a moment how terrible everything is. They both do terrible things to one another and lie, but you cant help but feel for them by how funny they make uncomfortable situations. Both of their comedic expertise makes the dramatic happenings that much more effective and believable. The hidden angst, broken dreams and unfulfilled lives speaks to others who are stuck in similar situations. But it also presents a sliver of hope in the end if they stuck together.

Its hard to say who has had it worse with their love lives, but it would have to be Milo who is harboring for Rich to take him back who refuses him at every corner. Hader plays the depressed love lorn man with such quiet honesty that you can easily read him like a book to get into his head. His awkward, comedic observations made for some great laughs as he always finds a way to make a joke about his situation. He isn't one to lose his sense of humor despite all the bad things that are around him. Burrell was somewhat of an equal to Hader, alone and looking for love but with some hangups that stand in the way. You can see the more they interact with each other that he is just as pained as he is with empty eyes that want something more but cant. Wilson uses that dopey, everyman charm that has been so effective but reveals it as something more as the movie goes on. Blissfully unaware to his wife's problems, Lance is a jock type who is just happy to be with Maggie. He is sweet with his intentions and the only character in the film who isn't that screwed up which makes it all the more heartbreaking when the deep rooted secrets get brought up to the surface. He is a genuinely nice guy who doesn't mind Milo staying with them and is encouraging to him where others wouldn't be and he even attempts to fan the flames when Maggie and Milo's inconsiderate, pretentious mother Judy (Joanna Gleason) unexpectedly drops by.

The shocking death of their father affected them both drastically, more so than their mother who seems to be emotionally withdrawn from the impactful happenings of her life. Their parents combined for a toxic element of behavior that became unmanageable to deal with and the igniter for the way that they are both acting. Wiig was mesmerizing as a wife who doesn't know what she wants. Milo may have it worse in some situations, but Maggie does more damage to those around her, including herself. Living a somewhat idyllic life in Milo's perspective, she holds a mountain full of guilt that slowly seep through the cracks. Maggie was more Willing to alter her position in a life she cant envision living with. Wiig's performance is alarmingly real of a person who doesn't.