Film Review: The Tracey Fragments (Victoria Film Festival)

The Tracey Fragments, starring my beloved Ellen Page, is the second film I've seen at this year's film festival. The film is directed by Bruce McDonald, and written by Maureen Medved (it's a screenplay adapted from her novel of the same name). Just seeing Ellen Page's name as the title role made my walk into the theatre with high expectations. I absolutely adored Page in Juno. Whether or not I would consider her performance in Juno Best Actress worthy is questionable, but I would be very excited for her to see her win the award at such a young age. As much as I loved Page in Juno, I've started to get the feeling that she is extremely type-cast. Her young looks make her a perfect candidate for any and every femme-fatale role. That is not to say she doesn't play these roles extremely well because she does.


Now comes the problem that is The Tracey Fragments. The film portrays the life of a 15-year-old girl who is subject to an unbelievably large amount of bullying at school, a stereotypical broken home life, and myriad of other ungodly trials and tribulations which find her wrapped naked in a curtain. Through the movie Tracey continues to state: "I'm just a normal girl." Umm...no, you're not. I understand this statement is supposed to be ironic, but there was no moment in the film where I felt a deep connection with the protagonist. Her life was too chaotic for me to relate to it. I know people who have gone through hard times, but this sort of stuff would never happen to a normal human being without them ending up dead.

The writing of this film is extremely haphazard and cliched. It is presented in an avant-garde form with multiple frames on-screen simultaneously portraying different points-of-view and perspectives. I assume this is a representation of the "fragments" of the story. At best, the form was a veil to cover the poor writing. There were times when the script was so unbelievable I felt insulted and wanted to leave the theatre.

In the end I just felt bad for the film's editor. I'm sure that he/she poured a lot of energy into this film and for it to turn out so terrible is a shame. This film had a sellout crowd and I can only hope that it does not receive the Victoria Film Festival's viewer's choice award as a result. My vote still goes to The Hammer.

Film Review: The Hammer (Victoria Film Festival)

So it is that time of year in Victoria. Film Festival time! Let me begin by saying how extraordinarily glad I am that it is not my movie theatre that is hosting the festival as I hate dealing with a ton of customers and an empty theatre is the best kind of theatre (in my books at least).

The Hammer is a comedy written by, starring, and co-produced by Adam Carolla of Loveline/Man Show/etc. fame. I can sum up the review of this movie in one line:

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT AND EXTREMELY HILARIOUS!

This movie was everything amazing about Carolla's comedy transported from the radio to the big screen and it moves over flawlessly. Possibly more exciting than seeing this movie during the film festival was the presence of Adam Carolla himself, in the flesh, in our little west coast capitol. The post film Q&A session proved as funny as any Loveline call and I felt honoured to be a part of it. The biggest downer though was the small audience. Despite being an opening night movie the turn out was pretty low. I blame this more on a lack of advertisement by the festival than Carolla's cult following.

The Hammer follows the life of retired amateur boxer Jerry Ferro (Adam Carolla) as he turns 40-years-old, loses his girlfriend and job, and returns to the world of boxing. I know what you're thinking, Stallone did the boxing movie thing already. The difference is the absolute comic genius in Carolla's script. He takes what is pretty much a tired story line (underdog rises to victory) and makes it one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. It is full of the rants and raves that made Carolla a favourite on talk radio. Ranging from verbal berating of Los Angeles' pride in its tar pits to disgust at taking the blame (and ticket) for a friend who was driving 37mph on a highway. The plot may be a bit corny and cliched at times, but the excellent comedy overshadows any flaws.

I can only hope The Hammer does well enough on its independent circuit to eventually reach a wider audience. Once again, Adam Carolla has brought me to tears of laughter and I eagerly await his next project which I am sure will be a hit as well.