Tusk - Film Review

I have for many years been a huge fan of Kevin Smith. The director that brought us classics such as Clerks and Mallrats. I know many people have slated him over the years and claimed his films have depreciated over time and that Clerks and Mallrats were in fact as good as it gets. I disagree.

I think he has always worked hard at producing a piece of work that on some level hits the intended audience, and as he states very openly (just look him up on Youtube) the longer he kept working the further from his original voice he became. He was not always able to write about his situation as he was able to with his first few films. This can be said of any artist really though. Many bands first 2 albums are great as they struggled to write and record them, after that they lose the connection to the poor kids they used to be and are now richer, more affluent and don't connect as directly with their previous message.

Now this for me only happens to Kevin Smith with Cop Out. It's not as bad as some people claim, but it certainly is not the finest or funniest buddy cop movie that is out there, but you can see what he tried to do and from all accounts the star of the film did not make that any easier.

Many derid Jersey Girl but actually I think it is quite a touching film despite the timing of the Ben-iffer relationship that was in progress.

However this review of sorts is to look at his 2014 (so only 2 years old) film Tusk. The first time he really ventured into the horror genre. After hanging up his directing hat in 2011 (bar a few short Jay and Silent Bob TV Movies) he felt that he could produce his own art again through podcasts and different mediums outside of film making. It was only through the podcast that he comes to the idea of the film that is Tusk.

The film follows Justin Longs character, a podcaster, who with his friends run an outlandish show looking at the weirdest on the web. The original trip he takes is stopped after tragic events and while wallowing in a bar finds a notice that intrigues him.

Not wanting to delve too deeply into the well that is the rest of the film and spoil what is going to happen, the original premise came from Kevin's own podcast episode where the discuss an advert put on Gumtree in the UK (Brighton to be precise) where a man was looking for someone to come and live with him for free, but where they would have to contribute dressed as a walrus.

You can imagine how a horror film would take this, and it really is an almost traditional type horror film that is not built on cheap jumps or found footage but on the psychological fears of the main character. The fear of being captured and helplessness of a situation. It is disturbing in places and I think that the "villain" of the film is perfect. Michael Parks, who was the fabulous church leader in Red State (another Kevin Smith film I love!!) has an air of weird, powerful and creepy.

The story is played from both the side of the missing person and his friends who recruit a detective played by Johnny Depp to find him.

It really got me how quickly the story progressed and the tensions I was expecting to be in play were not the there, that is not to say the film isn't tense, it does just get there quickly and push you through the jarring concepts it throws at you.

For me this is a world away from what Kevin Smith has done before and this is no bad thing. He still has a very good cinematic voice, and while he may not ever be considered a traditional auteur or one of the great directors, I don't think he should be written off either. To me he never phones in a film, or deliberately does it for the paycheck. As a fan of film, you can tell he is trying to deliver a message within a system that wants the next big thing. This is why his smaller films are seen as such a success because he had creative control and it was about the passion he had, not the pay day at the end of it.

Tusk is a clever idea, that while it may not hit on every step, I applaud the ideas behind it and think it is a film that plays well with its own rules.

I think you should make your own opinion on it as it is nothing like what Kevin has done in the past (maybe for the best) but it is something that will challenge you and even if you hate it, I don't think you can say that it didn't try to get you to question something about the nature of the human condition.