Peter Suderman Reviews Kevin Smith’s Insane New Horror Movie Tusk

I reviewed Tusk, Kevin Smith’s bonkers new
weirdo-movie, in
today’s Washington Times.

Short version: I liked the focused, nutso first half. And then
the movie just trails off. From my review:

Much of the movie’s first half
pits Wallace against Howe in increasingly
quirky, tension-building conversations. These scenes are long, slow
and masterfully acted and written. 

Mr. Smith, one of the icons of indie cinema in the 1990s, built
his reputation on his ability to craft nimble, funny,
existentialist dialogue. In films like “Clerks” and “Mallrats,” he
captured the circular rhythms and pop-infused sensibility of bored
and aimless Gen Xers.

In “Tusk,” his target is the cruel, nihilistic wit of the
Internet generation, embodied with sleazy gusto by Mr.
Long (who first came to fame in a series of ads for Apple
computers). But instead of pairing Mr. Long with another
of his own kind, Mr. Smith sets him up against someone
who turns out to be far more cruel and mischievous.

Howe is an exquisitely deranged horror-flick villain,
played with intense and often hilarious midnight-movie menace by
Mr. Parks, and written with a kind of meticulous specificity
by Mr. Smith.

I won’t spoil the details of Howe’s big plan, but let’s
just say it’s not an accident that Wallace’s name sounds an
awful lot like “walrus.” Essentially, Howe plans to use
and abuse Wallace for his own amusement, just
as Wallace planned to do with the young man he originally
intended to interview.

Most attempts to create instant cult-hits fall flat. They’re too
over the top, too self-conscious, too in-on-the-joke. Smith isn’t
totally successful, but he comes a lot closer than usual on
Tusk, because even though the central concept is
completely ridiculous, the movie isn’t just an exercise in
wink-wink, nudge-nudge goofiness. It’s straight faced enough, and
yet also bizarre enough, that there are times when you can’t quite
tell whether it’s a horror movie or a comedy or just a stunt with a
wide theatrical release. The real answer, I think, is that it’s all
of the above.