Tusk-Kookoocatchoo

Once upon a time, a boy blew his credit cards on an indie movie with his buddies.  The film, which took place mostly in a convenience store, blew up and boom, new indie auteur Kevin Smith was born.  Since then, two things have remained fairly consistent.  One, he is a man who goes through life passion first.  He has no problem telling the world what he is about and what he loves, be it literature (comics), film (geek cinema), food (anything sugary), mind altering substances (pot) or sex (yes, please). He mixes and mashes with his passions and what he feels inspired by, but he is determined to make certain it is his voice that is the primary note being hit.  Now, he may have had pretenses at selling out and going corporate and should any of his attempts at actually doing so gone the way he wanted, he might have embraced it for awhile.  Because he does want success, he does want the benjamins and he does want to be the adored figure of millions.  Well, the thing is, is that he always comes back to his own voice.  His own voice has now brought him back to film, and he hasn't let his experience with Red State go away.  He loves the idea of small indie film and now has gravitated to gonzo oddball horror.

What started out as frustrated Kev not breaking out into radio has become an online empire.  Smodcast Internet Radio has become quite the little cottage industry, a network of internet radio shows about a huge range of interests, with Smith on many of them.  The flagship show, Smodcast, has Kevin with his friend and collaborator, Scott Mossier, palavering about whatever, but a go-to schtick is to pitch movie ideas on the air.  Kev then decided...why not actually use these?  From Smodcast episode 259, where Kev and Scott discussed a weird Craigslist ad offering free room and board for the boarder dressing up in a Walrus costume for a couple hours.  Kev took that concept and ran with it, with the story of a podcaster (Justin Long) pursuing a strange story and ending up being caught up in some madness up North.  Tusk is the first film in the True North trilogy, next up being Yoga Hosers, the lead characters in that one being the two Colleens, Canadian convenience store clerks (a favorite them of Kevin's), played by his daughter (Harley Quinn Smith) and Johnny Depp's daughter (Lily-Rose Depp).  Depp himself will be returning as Quebecois homicide detective Guy Lapointe.

I don't want to give the story away, but if you have listened to Smodcast episode 259, you know it already.  Walrus suit.  That's all I'll say.

I only have two criticism.  The Walrus suit, valiant effort though it is, shows the limits of the films budget.  But that's ok.  And given that Smith is a veteran podcaster, it kind of surprised me that the podcast scenes were a bit too FM Morning Zoo.  But that's ok.  Creative, clever writing and actors embracing the madness and surprisingly human moments, Tusk is a great opening to an intriguing new trilogy that so far isn't like anything you have seen before.