Review: Disturbing TUSK is One of the Best Movies of the Year

If you don't like watching excessive gore, don't see TUSK. If you don't like watching depraved human violence, don't see TUSK. If you don't like watching extreme human mutilation, don't see TUSK. However, if you are able to stomach this type of content in exchange for a wickedly glorious story, then there is no acceptable excuse for not seeing TUSK, the masterpiece of Kevin Smith's already storied career. Though I will undoubtedly be in the minority with this opinion, TUSK is unquestionably my favorite movie of the year.

The story, born from an episode of Smith's podcast "SModcast," revolves around a podcaster named Wallace (a mustachioed Justin Long) who braves the "True North" of Canada to research a story to tell on his popular internet show. The podcast premise is that his best friend Teddy (Haley Joel Osment) doesn't like to travel, so Wallace goes and talks to interesting people, and comes back to tell Teddy all about it. The show's setup also lends itself to its very funny, podcast-appropriate off-color title.

When his trip to interview an internet celebrity doesn't work out, Wallace finds a handbill on a bulletin board in a bar in which an elderly man promises a free room and stories of countless adventures in exchange for some light help around the house. Intrigued by the adventure stories, Wallace makes the two-hour drive to the palatial estate of Howard Howe (Michael Parks). While Howe more than delivers in terms of stories, he also delivers Wallace a cup of drugged tea, knocking him out. When Wallace awakens, something is clearly wrong, and after questioning Howe's latest story, Wallace learns that his host intends to surgically turn him from a human into a walrus... yes, you read that correctly, a walrus; thus the titular tusk.

There is no doubt that this is going to be a movie that divides audiences; it is quite possibly the darkest of dark comedies, and the disturbing imagery will surely turn some viewers' stomachs. But what Smith seems to do is to take the horror tropes familiar from movies like MISERY (a fantastic film) and the SAW franchise (not so fantastic films), and uses them as launching points for fearless exploration of character development and storytelling. While not everything in the movie quite works, the relationship between Osment's Teddy and Wallace's girlfriend Ally (the beautiful and talented, but underused Génesis Rodríguez) is underdeveloped, although Smith might be planning on remedying that soon.

The entire proceedings have a certain self-aware, Kurt Vonnegut feel to them. The absurd set-up provides the opportunity for nuanced characters to take shape and challenge the status quo. Though flashbacks in movies are hardly revelatory; here, they provide brief respites from the horrifying "present day" reality and expertly serve to ramp up the suspense and character involvement.

Behind the demented premise is razor-sharp dialogue and career-making performances. Though I doubt Long will receive an Oscar nomination for his performance, I truly believe that he should. His character runs the emotional gamut, and Long delivers a performance that so vastly defied my expectations that I am, almost embarrassed for not knowing that he was capable of it. He takes the art of eye-acting to levels not seen since the days of Norma Desmond.

Parks' Howe has all of the eccentricities that you would expect a horror villain to have, but they are all born from such a human place, that you occasionally forget that he is actually a psychopathic serial killer, and not the wheelchair-confined shut-in he pretends to be.

In addition to the ludicrously demented plot and strong lead performances, TUSK features hilarious moments from Harley Morenstein as a very proud Canadian Border Agent; Ralph Garman (Smith's podcasting partner) as a less than concerned Canadian detective; and the best surprise appearance since Will Ferrell in WEDDING CRASHERS, disgraced homicide detective Guy Lapointe is played by "Guy Lapointe."

I'm not going to spoil the surprise as to whom is actually underneath the well-coifed hockey mullet; needless to say, it is not the legendary Montreal Canadiens defenseman of the same name; but I strongly suggest that, if possible, you avoid finding out who plays the part. It will only add to the enjoyment; in fact, the actor playing Lapointe is so unrecognizable that I spent the first five minutes of his screen-time trying to decide if it was Ray Liotta or Michael Keaton. Turns out, it was neither. Lapointe has a talent of taking a 30 second story, and painstakingly turning it into a meandering seven-minute epic, all the while still managing to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Is TUSK a movie for everyone? Obviously not. I have no doubt that many critics and moviegoers alike will hate everything about this film, but everything they will hate, worked for me. I am generally someone who closes my eyes or turns my head when blood and guts come on a screen, and while I did at times during TUSK, the genius of the presentation compelled me to look more times than not.

Smith has already announced that this movie will serve as the tent pole for a "True North" trilogy, with the entire TUSK cast reprising their roles in YOGA HOSERS, which is currently filming, and MOOSE JAWS, which Smith says is basically "JAWS with a moose," will wrap up the franchise.

Check out the trailer below:

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