Tusk

So… am I clearly unable to deliver what I’m feeling? Yeah, kind of… but let’s try again, soo… 😊 The movie was going really well, and the dialogues were pretty catchy, but boom—the first thirty minutes are over, and you get the first disappointing booster shot. They really didn’t have to make him this disturbing. I know, I know—it was the whole point of the genre—but it was disgusting, is all I can say. It was super disgusting to watch, and believe me, I’ve watched things. It was disgusting in a way that kept bugging me. Even if they wanted to do that to him, they didn’t have to make him super talkative and active at first. The transition was unbearable. My Final takeaway is whenever you have to travel to a remote area, make sure to text the address of the place you’re headed to your loved one.

"The walrus is far more evolved than any man I've ever known. Present company included." Howard Howe (Michael Parks) Tusk may be the most accessibly bizarre film you will see this year. Writer/director Kevin Smith, not known for subtlety, has crafted a smart horror film that comments on humanity, relationships, and obsession. If you're not into philosophizing or theme hunting, you can still enjoy his expert use of horror-film tropes to satisfy your macabre urges. Podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) travels to Manitoba to interview Howard Howe, an eccentric adventurer claiming to have great adventures to tell. Before long, Wallace is kidnapped by Howard for the purpose of transforming him into a walrus. That's weird, of course, but Parks and Smith make it a believable obsession, as John Lennon made the lyrics of I am the Walrus sound as if he actually was saying something profound. Based on the Lewis Carroll poem, the Walrus and the Carpenter, Lennon's lyrics picked the villain of the duo for his title while he really meant the good guy (the carpenter). Anyway, the walrus motif here is part absurd and part profound, the latter relating to the reduction of a foul, motor-mouthed podcaster into the animal he really is (witness his blathering egotism with his girlfriend, Ally Genesis Rodriguez and his more important mockery of a YouTube self mutilator). For me, a dilettante compared to knowledgeable freak geeks, the makeup used in that Walrus bit is effective—so much so I had to look away even though it wasn't grotesque. It just fit perfectly in the man-is-an-animal theme. Smith again shows his low-brow versatility when he humorously slams both Canadians: "I don't wanna die in Canada!" (Wallace Bryton) and Americans (see the carryout sequence).