The Geek Curmudgeon

Day one of Fantastic Fest 2014 delivered one excellent film and two lesser outings. Here’s all the gory details.

Conceived from an episode of his own podcast Smodcast, Kevin Smith writes and directs the solidly mediocre Tusk. When podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) disappears in the backwoods of Manitoba while interviewing the mysterious Howard Howe (Michael Parks), his best friend (and podcasting cohort) Teddy (Haley Joel Osment) and girlfriend Allison (Genesis Rodriguez) team with the former detective Guy Lapointe (the uncredited Johnny Depp) to find him.

While pretty and hitting the standard tropes of the horror/comedy hybrid genre, the tedious movie relies on too many overly long episodes, both humorous and horrific, that water down some potentially clever and captivating moments. The best and truly only memorable scenes occur when Howe relates the supposedly true and fascinating tales of his past.

Long lacks the charisma and charm for a leading man and garners little sympathy for the insufferable prick Wallace. As with many of Depp’s and Smith’s characters, the French Canadian ex-cop is amusing at first but wears thin fairly quickly. Robert Kurtzman’s designed the many good and clever gross out moments. With most of the humor falling flat and the horror, not particularly terrifying, Smith should have left Tusk in its superior, original incarnation.

For his first feature length endeavor, director Billy Senese enters the fray of the scientific thriller with the disappointing Closer to God. Dr Victor Reed (Jeremy Childs) successfully clones the first human being. Amidst a torrent of media scrutiny and religious protest, Reed attempts to protect his creation, only to have a dark secret threaten to destroy his work and reputation.

Starting with interesting discussions about the ethics of cloning, the film sadly devolves into a fairly standard creation revenge story, complete with villagers brandishing metaphorical pitchforks and a tense, if very predictable, final act. Senese manages to use his meager budget creatively. For the most part, the acting is workmanlike but never sensational, which can also be used to describe Closer to God.

New Zealand’s Jonathan King, director of the dark comedy/horror Black Sheep and the big-budget, kid-friendly fantasy epic Under the Mountain, returns with his third film, the sensational Realati. Vic (Nathan Meister) reaches the pinnacle of business success when he assumes the leadership of a mega-media conglomerate. But after his car is stolen and an encounter with the strange thief, Vic’s life goes topsy turvy. Not just figuratively but literally as well. Reality warps and bends, repeats, and changes. Vic and the audience never know exactly who or what to trust.

King’s masterful direction of the intelligent Chad Taylor script perfectly delivers the off-kilter, near-future tale. Meister portrays the sympathetic and often confused Vic with skill and poise. Complete with plot twists, red herrings, and big business shenanigans worthy of the best of Philip K. Dick, the highly recommended Realati culminates in a very satisfying conclusion.