Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-25 16:45:51

Realistic, in a surreal way

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (DVD) Ellen Page carries off the fifteen year old Tracey Berkowitz beautifully. She's honest, confused, hormone-addled, bullied, determined, naive, and desperate. She wanders between fantasy, memory, and reality moment by moment, and the kaleidoscopic display on screen captures that. She makes all the wrong choices but for all the right reasons. In her own words, "age fifteen, a perfectly normal girl who hates herself." The furious father, robotic mother, androgynous therapist, and overly playful brother all appear to us colored by the wild emotional tints of this young woman. Page, in an "extras" interview, characterize Tracey as honest above all. I guess she is. She hangs it all out, all the time, as so many young girls do, and shows us what she sees - even if no one else in the world would see what she does.This enjoyable film glories in its minimal budget. If you want plot, resolution, and events causally leading to others - well, maybe you haven't spent enough time around teenage girls. This projects a disjoint character that seems entirely too true to teenagers I've known.-- wiredweird

2012-05-25 04:22:43

Awful

I had to hit eject on this after about 30 minutes of torture. There is no plot, no story line, just endless multi-screen images of a 15-year-old girl's angst-ridden life. Maybe if you're 15, this film will appeal. It just looks like someone discovered split screens and went crazy with it. Skip this one.

2012-05-21 21:22:38

outstanding

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (DVD) What a breath of fresh air: Ellen Page; an oscar-winner waiting to happen; the story-line is so colored with covert realities that we all somehow share while acknowledging their infinite subjective realities, that even I, now past 60, easily flowed into Tracy's school-day imaginings. The multi-screen editing is done so well and on so many different levels that the "tieing of everything up" at the end signals not only an emergence of real creative genius in what is delivered to the viewer, but i think it indicates a real respect for the viewer that is often so lacking in our movie business. No movie ever made makes a clearer case regarding adolescent "puppy-love" than the car scene between she and "Billy Zero." The cost for this mistake? Well, that's the movie, isn't it? I think that the car scene should be shown in every high school.The less-than-adequate psychiatrist was also useful, as we need more movies to show the 'feet of clay' that our psychiatric profession has. Tracy is told "It's OK to be angry," so she starts shrieking hatefully at the shrink, who almost breaks into tears; necesitating Tracy's fervent apologies. In this movie, we are not spoon-fed, but as we "get it" - and as we get more of it (OK, I watched it a few times), a greater respect develops regarding its power. I think in the years to come we will look back and say "that's where split-screen really started." The technology has been around, but nobody's used it till now in any meaningful way. What a pleasure to see somebody actually DO SOMETHING.

2012-05-21 10:28:27

Forget The 'Fragments'

What are you supposed to think of a film that features a horse in a sex scene? Don't worry, the horse isn't a participant just an observer. This was only one of the many stylistic touches I didn't care for in this film. Tracy Berkowitz (Ellen Page) is a pissed off teen, clad in a shower curtain, transferring from bus to bus in the middle of the night hoping to find her missing brother. All of Tracy's angst comes from the fact that her parents are too busy arguing with each other to look after her or her brother, so she has to take care of them both. Her parents send her to a psychiatrist who she hates. After they lock her in the house for three months she escapes and starts riding the buses where she meets all kinds of creepy men who want to have sex with her. Tracy gets into some close scrapes and the film is sometimes scary/disturbing. The "fragments" of the title do nothing to enhance the story, they only make it worse. There's so much crap going on on-screen it's enough to give you a headache. Ellen Page is extremely talented and beautiful, but we already knew that. Just go and watch 'Juno' or 'Hard Candy' if you need more proof. Skip this Canadian made flick.

Prabhakar S 2012-05-19 14:26:03

Splitting into fragments..

Recently saw this film on net. Story is a simple one liner. A teenagegirl suffering with anxiety, depression dwells in deeply into herimaginary dream world creating her own characters inside and livingwith them and her younger brother. The end twist is a bit awkward..butlooks like no other go to make it to end.The movie is an odd visual effort playing with the screen slices. i.e.Almost 95% of the scenes have split screens on the screen. The titleitself says about Tracey's 'fragments'. Mostly different angles of thesame scene are played on the split screens. The pattern of the splitsis like one half is the main scene and the other half of the screenwill be split into sub squares. The film was shot in 14 days and wasedited for nine months. You'll know why when you watch the film. In myview the effort was overdone to some extent that disturbed the movie'sconcentration.But at two specific scenes(her-interview-with-doctor and the-final-run)and some minor scenes, I could see the real use of such images. Thefinal scene in fact simulated the exact shocking mental mind-images ofthe girl in panic and the meaning they derive by the (male)images. Thistype of video-editing, in my view, is 'convenient' to the eyes atcertain combinations. Naturally our mind is set to concentrateprimarily on the bigger image among a collection of images...and ifminute details related to the bigger image run in the smaller imagesour 'eyes' could follow them. All other combinations would 'distract'the viewer's viewing patience. This distraction happens at many placesthroughout the movie.About the acting, photography and music; They all good and watchable.The girl who is the center of the movie did really good in her part.And other supporting casts too. It is not scary or thrilling or pullingthe edge of the seat suspense. Just a psychological view. But surelyyou'll get something out of it.I liked this film for some of its aspects. If you are not allergic tovideo-edit kind of split screen viewing for a long time then you mayeven enjoy it.

tonymurphylee 2012-05-19 10:40:47

Starts off extremely slow, but eventually it picks up and comes off strong with it's unique concept and it's performances

The plot of 'The Tracey Fragments' involves a girl named TraceyBurkowitz running away from home in search of her younger brother, whoappears to be lost. The story is told in non-chronological order whileseparate segments eluding to the scenes of the film appear on screen togive the viewer a somewhat disjointed and fragmented narrative in orderto allow us to better understand the mind of Tracey. Try to imagineTodd Solondz's 'Welcome to the Dollhouse' crossed with the look of aLars Von Trier film with a script similar to the style of HarmonyKorine's 'julien donkey-boy' and edited like a Peter Greenaway filmmade in the 90s and onward. I'd say 'The Tracey Fragments' is aboutwhat the end result of that is, but without all the blood, guts,torture, and grotesque sexual content. The style works, but it is notwithout a couple of serious flaws.For starters, the film does not have a strong opening. Instead ofquickly establishing what the film is about or setting any kind of toneor mood, it just drops us into the middle of the story without any sortof indication of what is going on. For the first fifteen to twentyminutes of the film, what is depicted is basically just a bunch ofstuff happening. The audience feels immediately disconnected from thefilm and the result is extremely frustrating. It was so frustrating forme when I first watched it that I had to keep shutting the film offover and over. It took me four separate times to be able to make itpast the opening. I'm not sure how most people would be able to handle the way the filmopens. Honestly, it's not a narrative problem, it's an editing problem.I felt that Canadian director Bruce Mcdonald, who I think it verytalented by the way, should have looked for a stronger way for hisaudience to digest the style. The style to which this is filmed in caneasily be made gimmicky if not handled properly, and for the opening ofthis film it is not handled properly. Most viewers, if they are notreally open-minded, will either leave the theater/room, or they willcompletely tune out of the film and will not even pay attention whenthe film's actual narrative comes into play.Once the film does pick up, things move much more smoothly. We are ableto understand the plight of the Tracey Burkowitz and we feel for her.We watch her get bullied around at school, we witness her disturbingfamily situation, and we get to like her. We understand that she is anaive girl who has a tendency to get in way over her head in things andwe understand how her warped psyche affects and damages her ability tofunction normally to the people around her. These particular momentsare when the editing style really helps lend itself to the plot and thecharacter. The editing technique comes off spectacularly well at times and helpsto also create a strong sense of paranoia and unpredictability in theplot through it's depiction of warped perspective. There are some trulyhaunting scenes such as the scene in which her drunk father tells her,as a young little girl, the story of how they found her younger brotherin Alaska. I found many of these moments to be quite touching and alltoo effective particularly one in which Tracey receives a necklace fromher brother on her birthday. The performance of Ellen Page is also incredibly realistic. Ellen Pagehas played the role of the creepy teenage girl four times now(HardCandy, The Tracey Fragments, Juno, and Smart People), and each timeit's a completely different character and each time she really is ableto lend a lot of personality and depth to the character. I've alwaysbeen impressed with her performances. Her character here is realisticand, at times, frightening in her naive nature. She has the perfectamount of weird awkwardness that the role requires of her character.I did, however, still have problems. I wasn't fond of the rest of thecharacters in this film. I understand that with this film's style andwith a 77 minute runtime that there isn't exactly much room forcharacter development, but I would have liked it if even one of thecharacters did something unexpected. As a result of this the film getsintensely predictable when it really shouldn't be. I like it when thesekinds of films have more realism to them, but this film takes thecharacter stereotypes of an almost sickening extreme, such as the scenewhere she has to hide from a thug behind a curtain. I saw the outcomeof that scene coming within minutes. So because of all this, thecharacters surrounding Tracey are all cartoon characters practicallyand the film feels cold and far too simplistic than it really is.Despite the slow start and the one-dimensional characters, I stillrecommend 'The Tracey Fragments'. Ellen Page's performance is powerful,the style of the films comes off strong, and there are enough strongmoments throughout that make the film worth seeing. It's certainly notanywhere near as bad as most people seem to be saying. There's morethan enough worthwhile material here to make the film work. The film isshort, effective, and to the point. It's a very powerful little filmthat I quite enjoyed. That's about all I can about my feelings towardit.

2012-05-15 19:12:10

It could have been a good movie

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (DVD) If the director has not used the dreadfull split screens this could be a very good movie. Ellen Page is extremely good, pity that you must force yourself to go to the end as the split screens make it almost mandatory to stop and throw it away. I disliked the lack of continuity but that is a minor problem compared to the multiple little screens.

2012-05-15 15:09:06

Bad movie layout!

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (DVD) This might have been a good movie. I don't know why the directer decided to split the movie into devided boxes throughout the whole movie, that ruined the whole movie. I was very disappointed and would not reccomend this movie!!

2012-05-11 05:17:37

A Multi-picture Loser

I think the best description I've seen of this movie is that it is like trying to watch a movie in the pieces of a broken mirror. Neither my wife or I liked much about it. There is a lot of teen smoking, sex, violence and incessant use of the 'F-word.' The story of guilt by a sibling for the loss of a younger sibling could have been a great story. However the bad language and the 'cutsiness' of multiple, constantly changing pictures makes it not worth the effort. There are many, much better movies out there to waste one's time on this loser.

TxMike 2012-05-10 18:41:18

"I like crows. 'Chicken of the Tree.'"

I watched this on my computer monitor, a streaming movie from Netflix.Ellen Page was 18 or 19 when this was filmed, playing 15-year-oldTracey Berkowitz who gets teased at school constantly because she isunderdeveloped, while the other girls her age are buxom. She hasstrange parents, and a little brother who barks like a dog and wags histongue. When dad insists that someone tell him why the boy is barkingTracey says she hypnotized him.In much of the movie Tracey is trying to find her little brother. Wenever know quite why he is lost, except maybe as a "dog" he haswandered away.At one point Tracey is sent to a psychiatrist, played by a man dressedup as a woman and with a wig.There really isn't much of a story here, and it is told in fragments.Maybe that is why it is called "Tracey Fragments", maybe it is aglimpse into the fragmented mind of a teenager trying to figure outwhat life is like.Her mind fabricates all kinds of stories. A girl may die in a swamp, noone knows where the body is, it decays and flowers grow from it. Beesmake love to the flowers to produce honey, and eventually the parentsof the dead girl buy the honey and eat it, so in the cycle they eat thegirl. She also does one about horses, glue factory, kids making thingsin school, eat the glue, eat the horse.If this had been edited in a conventional fashion it would have beenperhaps the most boring movie of the year. But the editor had a newtoy, and the film is presented in multiple fragments, sometimes with asmany as 12, or even more, different segments on the screen. This addsconfusion at times, and after a while it becomes more annoying thaninteresting, but still makes the movie a visual experiment not quitelike any other.Interesting to view, but not greatly interesting. Ellen Page is good.

annasophiarobbfan1 2012-05-10 18:27:21

a unique, thrilling film experience.

I am very much at a loss for what to say about this film. It's unique,definitely, and I believe that's what people find so intriguing aboutit. Of course, with Tracey's frequent display of apparent rage, thisalso gives the film a turbulent quality. This is a look into the mindof a girl who is somewhat mentally deranged and confused, a probableproduct of her loneliness, neglect, and overall mistreatment. We followTracey on her journey to find her brother Sonny, who supposedly hasbeen hypnotized into thinking he is a dog. On this journey, we figureout just how Tracey got where she is, in the back of a bus, wrapped innothing but a shower curtain. Ellen Page does an absolutely amazing jobin this role; not many actors her age could act the way she did. Suchpower and emotion was packed into the role, and there could not havebeen a better choice for it. Overall, this film is gritty, real, andpowerful. A worthwhile film experience.

MBunge 2012-05-10 06:28:33

Ocular frenzy

This movie is like a film school editing project that got exposed togamma rays and turned into a raging behemoth. It's hard not to beimpressed by the tremendous level of skill and effort put forth here. Ijust wish it been for a more worthwhile purpose.Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page) is a 15 year old Canadian girl with awhole lot going on. So much so, the screen can barely contain it alland becomes a crazy quilt of individual image boxes, sometimes a dozenor more at a time. It's a visual bombardment clearly meant to overwhelmthe viewer. For myself, I just got eye strain. That's because for allthe multiplicity of sights and iteration of sounds, for all thenon-liner digressions and monologues spoken directed into the camera,neither the story nor the dialog nor the performances here are anythingto write home about. The Tracey Fragments has to be evaluated like agourmet meal. No matter how marvelously prepared or splendidlypresented, what ultimately matters is how it tastes and this film israther bland and unsurprising.Caught up in a stream of Tracey's consciousness, we're flashed back andforth amongst her dysfunctional parents, torments at school, imaginedhipster boyfriend, runaway life on the street, cross-dressingtherapist, a guy named Lance from Toronto and the disappearance ofTracey's barking younger brother. Sometimes it's reality, sometimesit's fantasy and sometimes it's a mix of the two. But all of thecinematic prestidigitation in the world, and this movie includes almostall of it, can't disguise that there's really nothing all thatinteresting about Tracey or her life.Maybe there could have been, if this motion picture had stopped runningin place long enough to catch its breath. If the barrage of imagery hadbeen limited to, for example, giving us Tracey's impressions andreactions to the things that happen to her or presenting her ownself-deluded view of the world next to how things really are, it mighthave been quite effective. Translating every little thing through akaleidoscope, however, prevents any individual element of Tracey or herstory from shining through. It's impossible to enjoy or be touched byanything about this tale except the exceedingly complicated way it'stold. Emphasizing style so totally over substance is not something thatconnects with me.It's not fun to be negative about something so well made, but sittingthrough The Tracey Fragments is a chore. I can't call it a bad filmbecause nothing about it has a chance to be either good or bad.Everything is simply overpowered by the ocular frenzy of director BruceMcDonald.

2012-05-05 18:05:31

Don't Bother

Pretentious, pointless, tedious, depressing, unintelligible - those are the first few adjectives that pop into my mind, after seeing this straight-to-film-festival movie. Ellen Page is a great actress, but she still needs a script to act with.

2012-05-05 15:58:24

Awesome, but hard to follow

This review is from: Tracey Fragments (Amazon Instant Video) This is a very good movie, but it is very hard to follow. If you like movies that mess with your mind then I suggest this movie. Ellen Page is phenomenal as always and she shows her talent. I strongly suggest atleast renting this movie.

2012-05-05 06:28:16

Excellent film, fantastic performance, wonderful editing

This is a brilliant film, visually captivating and with a magnificent performance from Ellen Page. Perhaps most interesting is how the mood of the film, helped tremendously by the lighting and color choices for the scenes, perfectly captures the feeling of being a teenager caught up in the intertwined mess of school bullying and family dysfunction, thrust into their own head to fantasize about a way out. Maybe it's too stark and bleak for some viewers. To express the trauma that Tracey is dealing with and reacting to, and how her mind is processing all of it and struggling to assert a self in the midst of it... to present this on screen with such raw feeling is a beautiful, albeit brutal, achievement. I feel very strongly that the artistic choices in how the film is presented, it's broken sense of chronology, the collage and fragmented visuals, the narrative slipping through different forms of memory and blurring between 'fact' and 'fiction', all of it brings the spectator into the psyche of our protagonist, to break down the third person perspective close to experience the story as it unfolds in the mind of Tracey. It probably succeeds as this more than any film I have seen. It is fantastically well done and very stunning.

Nighthawk1 2012-05-04 20:15:46

A tedious exercise in experimental film

An exercise in experimental cinema. The director is too busyexperimenting with nifty editing techniques and an unusual visual stylerather than focusing on telling a cohesive and interesting narrative.The director's visual tricks aren't even as effective as the directorprobably wants them to be. At the beginning the movie the visuals arecome off as genuinely unique. By the end of the visual tricks becomerepetitive, annoying and irritating.I'm usually fine with abstract, indirect, non-linear storytelling, butto keep my attention it has to be at least mildly interesting. EllenPage is decent, but she isn't given enough to do.My patience was tested while watching this tedious production.

Demiurgen 2012-04-30 07:49:53

10 for look and feel of it.

This is my first review ever on IMDb - and iv been here since itstarted. But after seeing this film yesterday i just had to leave mycomments.This movie isn't for everyone. A lot of people will actually hate it -dismiss it to the garbage cage in a heartbeat...but for those who trulyenjoy the art of movies, this is a gold piece.At first i didn't think this movies was going to be anything else thenjust another "split screen" movie... but as we soon realize, this is somuch more, and its brilliant executed. As the main character (excellentperformance from Ellen page there) gets more and more emotions, theyare presented to us in a way of past, present, future and fantasy - allin different small squares on the screens. It made at least me reallyfeel all her struggling with being a teenager who hasn't found herplace yet.Thumbs up for this - it should be a must see, in ever movie class thereare - for its visual.

fabulousmatt 2012-04-29 17:40:53

Original, Dark, and Canadian

There is so much I could say about The Tracey Fragments, it is almostlike a really big and scary looking roller coaster, its definitely notfor everyone, but those that like it, love it.I will start with what i noticed first: the "fragments", the splitscreen, super impositions, whatever you want to call it, the editing.Its original, but there is a reason for that, all of these constant,different visuals at the same time is exhausting, at first. 10 minutesinto the movie all i wanted was a complete shot with none of thoseextras that you eventually get used to. 45 minutes into the moviethough, i was completely engrossed in the story and totally understoodthe director's reason for all of that stuff. And the reason is simple:it allows the audience to get inside the head of this alone andsuffering teenager.I am a teen myself and I thought that the bullying and the family lifeand the emotions Tracey experiences are pretty realistic, andflawlessly portrayed by Ellen Page. This is what life is like for someteens, sadly.The script was, I thought, perfect. It is dark and disturbing andmostly pretty realistic, and most importantly (or annoyingly), it isvery disjointed, you watch the story unfold but you don't figure outwhat is real and what isn't and how it all happened and why until theend.The soundtrack is amazing, I loved it and it fits perfectly, I am not afan of Broken Social Scene (who scored the film), but I am definitelygoing to be looking for the soundtrack when i get some time.This movie is Canadian, and that makes me proud. This was shot inToronto, and it was beautiful, they seemed to find the perfect locationfor every shot, and the director is Canadian, and Ellen Page isCanadian, and etc.Finally, Ellen Page. I have saved this for the end because she is thebest part of this movie. She is one of my favorite actors and thereason why I decided to see this movie in the first place. She isfantastic, portraying the life of this 15 year old Tracey perfectly.her performance was flawless and there was not a moment in the filmwhere I wasn't totally believing her, or cheering on Tracey as we asthe audience learn more about her. I could go on forever but simplyput, she is so great, so talented.

2012-04-27 18:46:41

Waste of time

I ordered this movie through netflix... good thing i dont pay per movie!!... this was HORRIBLE! its interesting the way they do the camera, its alot of little boxes of things going on, sometimes they combine together.... but after about 40 mins, it just makes you want to throw up because the camera moves so much. The trailor for this film makes it look outstanding, but in reality, there is no point to the movie. it goes NO WHERE for the entire hour and a half. NOTHING happends, and usually, it wasnt until a scene was over did i SOMEWHAT understand what was going on during it. it was just horrible. Ellen page was outstanding per usual, but the writting was just shameful.

2012-04-26 23:29:55

The Tracey Fragments

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (DVD) At first I thought that it was just a stylized opening but was wrong. The entire film is segmented into small boxes that show different perspectives, random images, or some kind of contrasting pictures to, I assume, add depth to a seemingly simple and very short story.This film is frustratingly dull and all the fragmented images made it worse. I wanted to slap common sense into all the characters. Granted, some of the characters had potential but it was never fully realized. If you removed some of the "artsy" gimmicks there would be a story that could have made a great short. But it's drug out into this long, confusing ride that will bore you to death. Getting a big name actor like Page tricks you into thinking that something great might happen, but in the back of your mind you'll know that- No, it will not be good. The characters will not develop and the movie is just a drug out 5 minute short story in disguise.Throughout the viewing I wanted to turn off the movie which is not like me at all. This is hardly worth your time unless you're into completely un-entertaining cinema.