Review of Tusk (2014) by Olivander_Wilde — 07 Jan 2015

This film is a highlight of Kevin Smith's inability to direct a coherent movie from a singular, stupid idea. Smith's dark brand of humor is a tempting bait that fails to develop into a full fledged meal.

The movie begins on an aggravating note as Justin Long is established as the unlikable **** setting the foundation of the audience's apathy as his journey into Canada falls into disarray. His character remains undeveloped and unlikable throughout his short duration on the screen before being mitigated to a wordless roll. It is a pity, double fold, as he delivered a wonderful performance interplaying between an insufferable douchebag at the beginning of the film and a desperate and broken soul by the middle. The inverse and same can be said of Michael Parks who begins his screen time with an impeccable noir air and brilliant performance, only to fall into the black pit of poor writing and mitigated screen time.

The only "character development" occurs in prolonged depositions monologged to the audience without any action or exposition occurring between them. Each one of the these scenes will begin on an interesting note only to continue ad nauseam until the audience and actors have lost interest, and then they continue just a bit longer. The few scenes in which anything does occur are far and few between, and so often poorly executed as to wish for the terrible character deposition “conversations” anyway.

And none of this is to address the terrible ending, the flat jokes, or the idiocy of the movie itself. I will end on this: I love movies with a twist, or ones that are willing to get weird, and this film does get weird, but when you are going to go all out - when you are going to put that dial on 11 - make sure it is not just white noise.