Bruce McDonald's adaptation of Maureen Medved's stream-of-consciousness teen novel The Tracey Fragments turns the screen into an ever-shifting mosaic, with anywhere from two to 20 separate images appearing at the same time. Some show different angles on the same action, and some show what's going through the mind of the title character, played by a pre-Juno Ellen Page. Dubbed "the titless wonder" by her peers, Page is a miserable high-school student with a grumpy father and a distant mother. When her younger brother disappears on her watch, Page begins a cold journey through the Toronto night, winding up naked, wrapped in a shower curtain, and riding the city bus. As Page reflects on how she ended up this way, McDonald uses her anxiety as the foundation for an audacious formal experiment, intended to depict the inherent schizophrenia of the adolescent mind. McDonald isn't the first to play with multi-screens,...
- 7/9/2008
- by Noel Murray
- avclub.com
By Neil Pedley
This week sees the return of the Wachowski brothers, Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") and Henry Bean ("The Believer") to the big screen, not to mention new films from documentarians Nick Broomfield ("Tupac and Biggie") and Doug Pray ("Scratch"). On the other hand, after running around Tribeca, we still need to catch up on last week's releases.
"The Babysitters"
The idea of the spunky teenage boy succumbing to the allure of an experienced older woman is the kind of Hollywood golden goose that launches major careers (think Dustin Hoffman). But when the roles are reversed, the result is the directorial debut of David Ross that sees an entrepreneurial high schooler (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam) and her friends turn their babysitting ring into a call girl service, realizing there are alternative ways to pay for college besides waiting tables. It stars when one local dad (John Leguizamo) goes...
This week sees the return of the Wachowski brothers, Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") and Henry Bean ("The Believer") to the big screen, not to mention new films from documentarians Nick Broomfield ("Tupac and Biggie") and Doug Pray ("Scratch"). On the other hand, after running around Tribeca, we still need to catch up on last week's releases.
"The Babysitters"
The idea of the spunky teenage boy succumbing to the allure of an experienced older woman is the kind of Hollywood golden goose that launches major careers (think Dustin Hoffman). But when the roles are reversed, the result is the directorial debut of David Ross that sees an entrepreneurial high schooler (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam) and her friends turn their babysitting ring into a call girl service, realizing there are alternative ways to pay for college besides waiting tables. It stars when one local dad (John Leguizamo) goes...
- 5/5/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
- Despite its edgier, visibly more art-house-like appeal, I'm a little bit surprised that no one hand put their hands on The Tracey Fragments sooner especially considering the buzz related to Ellen Page's other, more popular film called Juno. Th!NKFilm have picked up Canadian indie pic (which has pretty much toured the entire film festival circuit) from avant-garde filmmaker Bruce McDonald (read our interview with him here) for a May 9th release. Based on screenwriter Maureen Medved's novel of the same name, Ellen Page plays a 15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz who is naked under a tattered shower curtain at the back of a bus, looking for her little brother Sonny, who thinks he's a dog. Tracey's journey leads us into the dark underbelly of the city, into the emotional cesspool of her home, through the brutality of her high school, the clinical cat and mouse games with her
- 2/20/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
- We all know it’s difficult to be a teenage girl. Only, there’s adolescent angst and confusion caused by raging hormones and a developing mind and then there’s Tracey Berkowitz. On many levels, Tracey is like all the other girls. She’s waiting for her body to develop; she longs for the new boy in school’s affections; and she transforms her life into a fantastical movie star existence in her head when the dull monotony of reality gets to be too much. That said, the life she is fantasizing an escape from is far from perfect; it’s far from acceptable even. Between torment from her peers in school, a hotheaded father, a mentally unstable mother and a missing brother, it is not surprising that Tracey’s focus is so, well, fragmented. And while Tracey’s plight makes The Tracey Fragments a compelling tale in its own right,
- 11/1/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.