Writer/director Kevin Smith gives another stab at horror-comedy, but only produces a tonally confused and narratively-limited tale.
For better or for worse, writer/director Kevin Smith is inspired. Once a filmmaker on the verge of retirement, Smith has now seemingly found more engagement in film-making than ever before. Between now and the next couple years, he has seemingly five or six different projects brewing (at least). But if they all end up something like his latest, Tusk, the journey there may be a little bumpy, to say the least.
Priding itself as the first major film ever based on a podcast — this case based on the SModcast episode “The Walrus and the Carpenter” — Tusk follows Wallace Bryton, host of the ever-popular podcast “The Not-See Party,” as he makes his way up to the True North to interview “The Kill Bill Kid,” an Internet legion that became a listener favorite for the “Party.” When the interviewing opportunity takes a sour turn, Wallace is stuck in Canada without a story to tell.
His topic drought doesn’t last long, though, for on the bathroom wall of a low-down Canadian bar is a letter requesting an able-bodied man’s service. The letter notes that free lodging will be given in his spacious backwoods home to anyone so willing to help with services around the house to a wheelchair-bound senior citizen. Taking up this strange offer, Wallace finds himself under the spell of Howard Howe, a mysterious older man who has a devilish plan for Wallace during their time together: to turn him into a human walrus.
As a key feature in Smith’s celebrity and film-making rebirth, Tusk is discernibly limited by its short-form origins. With Smith’s newborn pot-smoking persona oddly giving him more inspiration and creativity of late, he doesn’t seem to have enough restraint or feedback for his vision to spurt up its full potential, moving it away from simply the ickier side of its story. It’s a fever-dream of a film that’s ultimately just half-baked, no pun intended.
In trying to expand on this disturbed individual, Howe, and his preserved idea of happiness — while also incorporating Smith’s trademark lowbrow humor —Tusk is a tonal mess. Both comically and emotionally, Smith’s film is at a lost for what exactly it is trying to be. In listening to the original podcast, it’s evident that this story came from laid back comedic origins, but its final product can’t seem to decide how to mix its horror, dark comedy, sophomoric humor and earnest attempts at weird pathos. As such, the movie constantly bounces back and forth, creating a discerningly hodgepodge effort riffling in being absurd, but lacks any imagination in how to go beyond this.
There’s a deeply buried message inside Tusk about identity and finding one sense of self. A flashback scene suggests that Smith is ultimately talking about his transformation as a celebrity, but the movie never follows up on this original outburst of an idea. In lacking any full punches into psychological examination, Tusk is ultimately just a movie about a man becoming a walrus. Which can lend itself into a nice home-prisoner kind of movie, something more along the lines of The Loved Ones than, say, The Human Centipede films if done right. But in showing his walrus cards too early, Smith’s film is completely lost as to how to expand this story past the hour mark.
Subplots on infidelity are brought up, but never explored once the main plot goes into full force. While another subplot involving Johnny Depp—billed as “Guy LaPointe”—as an oddball French Canadian detective never gels with the film, narratively and especially comically. A painfully prolonged sequence involving Parks and Depp speaking gibberish for seemingly 10-minutes is when the movie ultimately throws up the towel and decides its fun has been had.
Still, there are comedic elements that shine. Parks' soft-spoken dark comedy has a good kinetic energy when done right, while quips involving Canadian’s flag never hosting blue being a very amusing segment. There is a funny story here, as heard from the original podcast, but because Smith seems so lost trying to find what film he is making, he drags everything to a confused halt.
It’s obsessed with being as messed up and dark as possible, but it doesn’t have anything to do or say other than being messed up. Which just gets boring and repetitive once the human walrus makes its full reveal. The practical effects are solid, and the initial reveal of Long as a human walrus is fairly disturbing, but beyond this, Tusk doesn’t know how to keep itself going.
Long is good as a befuddled torture victim, but as a douchebag podcaster his performance lacks its full edge. Long, as well as Smith, doesn’t really know if Wallace should be likable, a likable a-hole, or just unlikable. So the protagonist — much like everything else —is widely inconsistent. Depp is downright terrible here, being poorly directed throughout. But Genesis Rodriguez, oddly enough, gives a surprisingly sensitive performance that never really gets its full due.
Of course, the MVP of the film is Parks, as he commits to everything and seems the most assured, even when the script comes across as insecure. His performance doesn’t quite carry the zest that Dieter Laser brought to Dr. Heiter in Centipede, but with each twisted action, Parks knows how to deliver a sense of history and prolonging to Howard’s messed-up little life story that can be haunting when the movie settles down and delves into somber, thoughtful meditations.
Many of the problems that befuddle Tusk also feel upon Smith’s last film, Red State. But where State seemed to figure itself out past its awkward beginning, Tusk constantly is crippled by its confused identity. Smith still is a strong dialogue writer, and knows how to direct select actors and even understands a thing or two about ramping up suspense. Tusk, though, is ultimately in desperate need of a rewrite. Its origins suggest a funny low-budget dark comedy, but Smith’s horror assurance doesn’t know how to jell with his comedic background.
Tusk is supposed to the first part of a spiritual “True North” trilogy, with the next installment, Yoga Hosers, in production right now. If Tusk is a sign of what’s to come, prepare for a series of rather frustrating and inconsistent views.
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
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