For those of you who don't know, I love podcasting. Not only do I do Joemiroquai, but I also run the Joemirocrew Podcast Network (link below). It is essentially a series of podcasts involving myself and my friends rambling about anything that's on our minds, from video games and media, to old times. Now, the reason why I started getting into podcasting is because of a certain podcast guru, Mr. Kevin Smith.
Some know him as the dude who got kicked off the plane, whereas others know him as that guy that is always on the Walking Dead marathon on AMC. Well, he is head of the SModcast podcast network, and on one of his flagship podcast SModcast (with producer pal Scott Mosier), there was an episode called the Walrus and the Carpenter, in which Scott and Kevin essentially created a premise of a movie off of a wacky Craiglist-esque post (link below). After loving that episode and hearing that it was actually going to be turned into a movie, I was super excited and ventured to the closest screening (about an hour away, in Davenport, IA) of Tusk.
It almost looks like the moon has a mustache.
Before the movie even started, I knew I was in good company. The theater was small (120) and the audience was even smaller (approx. 30), but walking into a theater of followers of SModco (SModomites? SModcastanets?) made me feel right at home. The premise of the story is unorthodox to say the least. It starts off with Justin Long (yep, the Mac guy) and Haley Joel Osment (yep, 6th sense kid who sees Bruce Willis all the time) recording a podcast on the Not See Party. The Not See Party's premise is that Wally Bryton (Long's character) goes and interviews people that are a little off, and brings the story back to Teddy (Osment's character) and they riff on the story from there. When Wally finds a video of The Kill Bill Kid (basing it off of the Star Wars Kid), He decides to go up to his home in Canada. When he finds out he was bullied to the extent of committing suicide, Wally goes to a bar and finds a peculiar post in the bathroom. The post consists of a man who wants to tell stories and has a lodge open for people to stay. He stops and grabs a drink from the Eh-to-Zedd on his way over, and when he asks where the Bifrost is (where the guy lives), the clerks say that it's Aboot two hours from there.
Mountie approved Canada humor right here!
When Wally arrives at the man's house, he is welcomed and is offered tea. During this time, the old man (played by Michael Parks) starts telling stories. Over time, Wally feels drugged and eventually passes out. When he wakes up, he hears more stories from the old man consisting of a Walrus. While he was stranded on an island, his only friend was a walrus. Because of this, he then asks," Is man truly a walrus at heart?" Well… I'm not going to cover the plot to the entire movie, but things spiral out of control, in the sense that, well, eventually Wally is converted into a full walrus, complete with the skin of other lodgers. After the walrus suit is revealed, well… the movie just goes frickin bananas from there. That's all I'm going to say.
Weirdly enough, this is the normal part of the movie.
OK. Done with the coverage, now to the positives. I gotta give it up to the one guy that truly keeps this movie alive: Michael Parks. His character is layered with stories, mysteries, and all-around craziness that it felt like you didn't know what to expect when he was on the scene. His character starts as a Renaissance Man, and over time you realize that he is just insane. Not only that, but Smith wrote that character so wonderfully that each of his stories were more gripping that the last. Not only was the writing for Parks done well, I also thought that overall the writing was done well. Smith combined a sense of dark humor and backed off on the stereotypical crude humor, and well… never thought I'd say this, but it's nice to see a well thought-out dick joke.
Critic approximation of a Kevin Smith movie.
In addition to Smith's writing, I feel that Tusk was also a step up in his role as a director. There was movement in the camera when there was a larger sense of action, whereas the camera remained stationary when characters were giving dialogue. Smith always as a cool way of just letting the characters go and not adding flashy camera angles or epic music to make up for what is happening. The untampered, raw appeal definitely goes in your head and sits there until you feel the exact same feeling that Smith was portraying.
Now, there are a couple of issues that I had with the movie. The good news is that Smith fleshes out the characters through dialogue. However, I will say that this movie is very dialogue heavy. Like, real heavy. Like, it's like eating a jar of peanut butter heavy. There was a monologue about 2/3s the way through the movie delivered by Guy LaPointe (who has a very interesting cameo), in which I was getting antsy for the next scene. I understand that the actor that played LaPointe was a move from left field, but his monologue firmly established in my mind that he is much better in action sequences than he is delivering exposition. Thankfully, most of the monologues are interesting and will keep you entertained, especially if it is delivered by Parks or if it the monologue by Wally's girlfriend Allie (played by Genesis Rodriguez).
The only other issue that I had with the movie is the role of Wally (Long). Although he has charisma and Long plays his role very well, I didn't know if the character himself was supposed to be likable. There are multiple flashbacks of him being self-centered and his girlfriend missing the old Wally. Over time, Wally pleads for forgiveness and says that he realizes how much he messed up. However, in the end I didn't know if Smith was aiming for a redemption story or a story focused on getting what you deserved. After thinking about it, maybe it's not about reaping what you sew… it's about being a frickin walrus!
Wilford Brimley needs NO costume.
Upon hearing that so far Tusk has only received a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, I was wondering the reasoning for the low score when I thought it was a good movie. As I thought about the things I laughed at and things I liked, I realized that a lot of those aspects were from various episodes of the SModco network. From seeing the "What! What!" shirts from Edumacation, to mentioning Ponder Rock, to seeing Ralph Garman finally having some lines, I realized that if someone isn't familiar with the SModco universe they may not receive the movie to its full effect. Smith has declared multiple times that he has already established his audience so there is no need to make things introductory. Not only that, but he is now making movies that he wants to see and not what the mainstream media wants to have created. Thankfully, Smith brings to life what those of us envisioned from The Walrus and the Carpenter, and I believe that dialogue and mixed characters aside, Tusk is the kind of movie that I want to see more of! I say go see it and you will not be disappointed!
Thank you,
Joey
Joemirocrew
https://soundcloud.com/joemirocrew
SModcast 259: The Walrus and the Carpenter
http://smodcast.com/episodes/the-walrus-and-the-carpenter/
No comments:
Post a Comment