By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jason Buxton
Starring: Ben Foster | Cobie Smulders | Dan Lett | Gavin Drea | Reid Price
Year: 2024
Running time: 109
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9569096/reference/
Brett says: “Director Jason Buxton (BLACKBIRD) brings his second feature film SHARP CORNER to life with a unique tone that enriches the entire project. The film is led by a terrific (as always) performance by Ben Foster, who portrays a mild-mannered and unassuming Josh that wants the best for his family. Still, there is a lingering air of a lack of accomplishment in Josh’s life. He aims to please for wife Rachel, and he has the son he always wanted in Max, but the film’s subtlety allows the audience to sense a persistent itch that’s just been left unscratched.
“The hatching of Josh’s need for a new light of day begins as he and family have moved into a dream house. Despite this, Josh is almost immediately confronted by the fact that improvements to the house could be made. The attempt just to move forward in this new life is further upended by a rather precarious location of the new house. The home sits adjacent to a dangerous curve in the road, and the potential for car accidents starts to trigger an obsessive-compulsive behavior within Josh.
“The film is layered, one section at time slowly being removed to unveil a new level of obsession that brings a deeper set of uneasiness: each new scene the perfect instigator for having to readjust in one’s own seat. In keeping with the hovering notion of a car accident waiting to happen, Josh himself is an accident in slow motion. While it is very much its own independent spirit and tone, one might be able to detect a hint of Coen Brothers influence, yet not quite as elevated in its stylistic and dialogue choices. The fact that the main character is a man of constant struggle—perhaps even pathetic at times–who keeps burying himself deeper, no matter what choices he makes, is one of those thematic parallels. Another tendency toward that style is the uncomfortable sense of humor that trails this struggle.
“Josh is a unique type of character in that one can argue he is an unconventional type of villain, one the audience somehow is willing to play along with and even silently root for: if not for his uncertain end-goals and what those actually might be, then at least for his need for inner resolve. Others can side with the fact that he’s an uncomfortable take on the antihero premise, though the waters are muddied on whatever approach to the film one chooses to make, either way.
“4 CATS OUT OF 5“