Tusk sees the return of Kevin Smith in the writer/director chair, and this time he decided to bring a story right out of left field. The movie stars Justin Long, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez, and Johnny Depp. It tells the story of a podcaster (Long) who travels to Canada to talk to a young man that had a life altering viral video. That doesn’t end up working out, so Long finds this other other guy to interview that has many stories to tell. Little does he know he is going to be walking himself into a nightmare he can’t wake up from, because this man wants to turn him into a walrus.
Kevin Smith has a pretty warped mind I tell you, because Tusk is a uniquely disturbing. I will admit, the opening act had me a little worried, because I felt some of the jokes missed, and getting introduced to Justin Long’s character made me think, “Really?”. His character is quite obnoxious, but I can see that why Smith decided to write him that way. THat obnoxious character thrown into a nightmare, so he realizes all what he had thing. It’s when Michael Parks hits the screen is when the story gets interesting,
Parks can take dialogue and turn it into a beautiful piece of music. There is a reason that Smith and Tarantino love this guy, because the monologues those two directors write, are articulated beautifully by Parks. Then we come to Johnny Depp. He made up for the travesty that was Transcendence. I didn’t even recognize him at first, and his character will go down as another Depp winner. He also does some beautifully executed story telling, and I will tell you he will have you chucking the whole way.
I highly recommend Tusk to anyone that is looking for a jaunty, humorous, disturbing film. Check out my video review below to hear me talk more about it. Let me know if you saw it and what you thought about it.