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Thankfully we’re
at a point in Ellen Page’s career, where we can finally see some of her
films from Canada, and hopefully gain a better perspective of her early
acting jobs. As a fan through and through, I really want to see what
Page has had going for her beyond US projects, and in spite of some
interesting cameos from notable Canadian television stars, “The Tracey
Fragments” is Page’s show, and one that will prove to be incredibly
polarizing when it makes its way to the US. Some parts of it are ugly,
and absolutely pretentious, but in spite of those caveats, I quite
enjoyed it. “The Tracey Fragments” is as gimmicky as all hell, an
independent film that uses multiple shots of varying sizes to indicate
the shattered life of Tracey Berkowitz in all her angst and violent
nature, also adding a pop aesthetic that injects a pop graphic novel
atmosphere into the rapidly progressing story.
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“The Tracey
Fragments” is not so much a singular narrative, as it is one
that prefers to observe its characters in multiple angles
citing body movement, and facial expression as a means of
gaining an essence of their personality and conflict, and
more times than not, it works. The constant cluttering of
objects and body parts often serves to add a claustrophobia
that may further help us to achieve an understanding of
Tracey’s life, while the character herself is nothing more
than another self-absorbed teenager with delusions of
grandeur. |
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Even
when MacDonald attempts to draw sympathy with her relentless and
cruel torture at her high school, she’s still nothing more than a
shrill and self-centered individual who takes it upon herself to
indulge in some sexual fantasies and finds that her brother has
disappeared, one day. The following tragic consequences lead to her
life on the road after running away, thus the intended multi-panel
film acts on this sensation of chaos, and clutter in the life of
Tracey. It’s quite poetic, if incredibly off-putting.
If you’re going
into this movie with a headache or a bit of a hang over, then prepare to
see your lunch again in the bathroom. McDonald approaches the film at
such a frantic pacing zapping split screen to split screen, then small
screen to small screen, followed by screaming and rapid fire splashes
into the story, and it’s all so frantic, it will without a doubt cause
many to give in barely a half hour into the story. “The Tracey
Fragments” poses the mini-screens and various on-screen activity as a
way to convey the urgency of certain situations, but the breaking of the
fourth wall, paired with many of the fantasies are as pretentious as the
deepest bowels of indie film hell can get. From the rock star fantasies
Tracey engages in, right down to the climax in the car, there’s so much
pompous positing, that it’s often jarring to sit through. Through this
haze of fantasies and endless hipper than thou scenarios, McDonald
really only forces the illusion of originality, while the story of
Tracey is nothing you can’t find in a typical teen oriented film. Her
school life sucks, her family sucks, her brother is a loon, she can’t
find a boyfriend, and she’s still coming to grips with her puberty, “The
Tracey Fragments” only pretends to be innovative, when really, it’s just
more of the same. And it will definitely form a rift between people who
support what is accomplished, and people who despise what it attempts to
pass off to general audiences. As for those individuals still swooning
over “Juno,” once they step in to see “The Tracey Fragments,” they’ll
have no idea what they’re in for.
Ultimately it’s
an incendiary attempt at avant garde flair that will polarize many movie
goers still thinking of “Juno,” honest to blog. However, a multi-tiered
narrative is not enough to patch the “been there, done that” storyline,
even in spite of Page’s usually memorable performance.
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