Tusk

**
A podcast team's success has gained momentum and one of its team, Wallace (Justin Long), decides he wants to interview an internet darling (a doofus goofing on Kill Bill) who lives in Canada. When this turns out to be a bust, he sees a second opportunity to interview someone who could deliver some compelling stories for his podcast. What he encounters instead will change his life forever.

Kevin Smith's Tusk wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Surprisingly it wasn't as awful as I was thinking it might be considering the derision it has received since its release. It is fucking weird, for sure (I mean, you have this elderly journeyman adventurer wackjob who seems to have a heightened intelligence and an impressive intellectual vocabulary but has been using an ad proposing accommodations in exchange for help in chores and such taped to a wall in a service station bathroom to draw potential lodgers to their doom, trying to change them into a walrus for fuck sake!), and yet there's a tragedy to it that was quite substantial.

I think a majority of what didn't suck to me was the really talented Génesis Rodríguez as Justin Long's mistreated girlfriend, Ally. She has this gutwrenching monologue about how Long's Wallace has been using her for sex, abusing her love for him, and sleeping around behind her back, mentioning that without his podcast partner, Teddy (Haley Joel Osment, having not fared well over the years since The Sixth Sense) as moral (and, more importantly, sexual) support she would have been totally broken. Yet, no matter what he has done to her, Ally still cares deeply for him, so his welfare is still important to her. Wallace had been lingering in obscurity prior to the podcast, a standup comedy failure who found his mean streak and inner prick, using that bit of humor to become a hit, while Teddy is mostly his giggly, jovial supporting pal on the other side of their mancave-designed pod studio. A Canadian goof became an internet sensation with a Kill Bill skit that the podcast adored. But this guy kills himself, leaving Wallace without a story to return back home to LA with so he locates the ad on the wall and follows it to the mansion estate of lunatic Howard Howe (Michael Parks, who certainly looks the part), who appears to be a rather accommodating, polite, harmless, and welcoming man-of-a-full-life but has a dark side the podcast star will regret.

Poisoned by a tea he finds quite to his taste (an irony in itself), Wallace soon will see the ugly mania that lies within and soon surfaces from Howard. Howard wants to recreate an experience between him and a walrus that had saved him from near death while swimming ashore of an island after the sea vessel he was on hit an iceberg. Needing to survive, Howard kills and feeds from the walrus by attacking it from behind. So he wants to "give the walrus a second chance" by mutilating a human being and transforming it into a walrus of his creation so that he can face a death more fair to both parties. Formed from the skins of countless victims, Howard will build a walrus suit for him and actually sew and turn Wallace "into a walrus". The use of the victim's own leg bone to form tusks for his mouth is an added grisly detail!

As you can see the plot is a nasty piece of work. Long, despite being a rather mean-spirited human being, didn't deserve what happens to him. He does fall into the category of those unfortunate souls in horror that make their way down that path to doom unknowingly. Had he just known what awaited him, Wallace would have went back to LA empty-handed. Alas, there would be no movie if that was the case so what actually happens is rather grotesque and just sad. Long encased (and made into) a walrus is horrifying and seeing him/it trapped in this situation while Parks' human-hating monster (he was an abuse victim at the hands of clergy housing him) questions why he would be so sorrowful instead of embracing what he has become only heightens the tragedy of what is occurring to Wallace.

I wasn't expecting the film to be told in a dramatic way, perhaps expecting Smith to allow a lot more humor to enter the fray. When there is humor (particularly the scenes with Johnny Depp, as a Canadian cop "retired" thanks to his own opinions on the serial killings, dismissed by his peers), it fails often miserably. There is this long dialogue scene between Depp's cop and Ally and Teddy where he describes the killings that just falls flat and limp (and even worse is how his cop actually met Howard who pretends to be a "mindless simpleton" with little ability to speak plainly). I wasn't expecting to just grimace at this but Depp sinking in a part that should be a home run was rather depressing, I must admit. The poking running humor against Canada (and right back at us, as well) provides some moments I found amusing, but not one time did I truly find the film a real success. I think it was supposed to be more humorous than it appears, but something just never works. Still the horror of Long's situation did grab at times although the premise is sickening, and Parks' moments of pure excitement seeing his victim mimic walrus behavior, satisfied that he had finally found the right one to be his animal certainly is a jawdropper in its portrayal of sheer lunacy.

My favorite part of the film, besides anytime Ally was on screen, was the shared dialogue between Howard and Wallace, where the elder describes tales of Hemingway, shares bits of poetry and history, and some of his tales of adventure to the young podcaster soaking it all in. I liked the candor, and I thought the dialogue provided to Parks was rich and intelligent. Long's character is a numbskull embracing his new way of life as a podcaster doing whatever he can to attain an audience that likes his mean-streak. This "new Wallace" reveals itself even when talking to Howard, particularly the moments with the penis bone. We get a good idea of what Wallace is like when talking with Ally about the new career and identity, as well as, he sexual appetites with Teddy. To say his fate was of his own making, while not altogether wrong, his desire for a kooky story and a fresh character to convey on his podcast served as the catalyst towards the terrible situation he finds himself.