Tusk Review

Kevin Smith’s Tusk stems from an idea he and fellow podcaster Scott Mosier struck on an episode of his SModcast network. An impromptu conversation turned into a theatrical released movie. The lesson with this film is what’s funny and captivating to a friend may not be when it’s presented in its completion to an audience.
Justin Long leads as Wallace a podcaster out of Los Angeles whose show is co-hosted by Teddy (Haley Joel Osment). While in Manitoba, in search of a story he comes across Howard Howe (Michael Parks) who tells him some very grand tales. One of these tales describes how a walrus had saved his life, and was his only true companion. Howard abducts Wallace in order to recreate what he had in his youth. Yes, he turns Justin Long into a walrus. Teddy and Wallace’s girlfriend, Ally (Genesis Rodriguez) team up with detective Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp, yes really, it’s him) to discover where he has been abducted.
This movie does share similarities with The Human Centipede, but it does feel very different tonally as this is a horror comedy. The tone of the movie is a complete mess. It goes from absolutely goofy and childish to absurdly and uncomfortably dark. In one scene, we see Johnny Depp talk funny while making googly eyes, then switch to a mutilated Justin Long. It makes the film seem more unnerving. The dark elements don’t seem to fit, and it makes them feel more gruesome.
The humor in the film doesn’t work for the most part. Theres a few laughs in the movie, and almost all come from Johnny Depp’s character. Naturally, he is a caricature but he’s the only source of fun in the movie. Not to say his shtick doesn’t become a little overdone. A lot of the jokes rely on us laughing with the characters, who think the plainest jokes are absolutely hysterical. The rest hope we laugh at Wallace’s situation, but it’s not easy to laugh at. In fact, it makes it seem less funny that we’re supposed to laugh at it. I just felt bad for the protagonist, it seemed cruel that we were supposed to mock him; even given his absurd situation.
Justin Long fully commits to the material. He does a good job of handling the comedy even though he doesn’t have much to work with. His captive scenes are rather intense, at that point he takes it seriously and it gives much more credibility to the horror aspect. Even as a man/walrus he gets intense in the role, and we buy him as man in horrible peril. Michael Parks is a compelling antagonist. He’s calming at first, then slowly transitions into full on nutcase. It’s clear that he’s having so much fun with the character. Director Kevin Smith makes the character unfittingly pretentious with his quotations of Hemingway and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It’s clear that it’s meant to comically offset the ridiculousness of the situation, but it seems more like he’s trying to force in complexity. Johnny Depp (who is actually not credited) completely dedicates himself to the comedy. He has the most engaging character in the movie. His segments feel like a different movie, as they are nothing but silly, while Wallace and Howard are mostly unnerving. The main characters are rather underdeveloped, but the leads do a good job of bringing them to life.
Genesis Rodriguez is bland until the second act of the movie. The character doesn’t really offer much beyond the stereotypical girlfriend role in a horror movie. But, later she gives a very powerful crying semi-monologue. The scene is rather pointless, but the performance is surprisingly amazing. She’s so great when her character is under duress, but so bland when she’s not presenting excess emotions. Haley Joel Osment’s Teddy serves no real purpose in the movie. His seat could be filled easily by Rodriguez’s character. He just moves along with the plot. All he seems to do is to laugh at Wallace’s jokes to an excessively unconvincing degree. He’s there just to be a means for exposition. Osment does nothing with the character, he’s there just because it’s supposed to be funny that the kid from The Sixth Sense is in it.
Kevin Smith seems like he’s trying to be Quentin Tarantino. He has scenes of dialogue that go on and on. They don’t serve any purpose to the plot, nor do they develop the characters. In his previous films, that’s how we got to learn more about his characters and also laugh. They’re not funny in Tusk. It feels like a way to boost the run time to make it feel more like a theatrical release. The tangents are exhausting and really seem like he’s trying to mimic the dialogue of films like Pulp Fiction.

The effects on the walrus are cheesy but effective. Certain parts of its body look more convincing than others, but to explain it would ruin the film’s big reveal. The build up is definitely intriguing and the payoff is a big surprise. It is genuinely disturbing, when the premise made it seem more goofy. Tusk turns into more Hostel than Shaun of the Dead. About half the movie Justin Long is a human/walrus hybrid, and he fully commits to it. He appears tortured, where the tone tries to make it seem funny. The film is shockingly dark, as the protagonist is mutilated and imprisoned. I couldn’t find any way to find humour in this. It makes the movie feel off. The movie wasn’t sure whether they wanted me to laugh at him or sympathize with him.
Tusk is an extremely uncomfortable mess of a movie. The overall strong performances aren’t enough to save Kevin Smith’s latest effort. The actors do a good job of giving dimension to weak characters. His inability to seal a tone makes for an unwanted feeling of unsettlement. The laughs are sparse, making the movie feel more like a horror movie with a single comic relief character. Tusk was a curiosity for me that I wish had stayed that way.