Sharp Corner

This was waaayyyy too long. It would've been better as a short film, not the 110 min runtime that felt like four hours. It just dragged on and on with the same exact premise and predictable outcomes. When you're a salesman but was born a first responder. Ya, we get it.

And as a fan of Ben Foster, not sure why all the critics are praising his performance (or the film for that matter)... it was flaccid and any actor - even inexperienced, could've pulled off his character and stale demeanor.

It's a generous 5/10, mostly all going to the smoking hot Cobie Smulders for her excellent and convincing performance.

It just moves along at a snails pace. I like the setting, the idea/story but it's just so slow. I like the direction the story goes but it's an agonizingly slow journey getting there. There are literally scenes of nothing for minutes at a time and you start yelling at the screen "C'mon something happen!" There are I believe three brief exciting scenes in the nearly two hour runtime. Several times throughout the movie I zoned out from boredom. A fairly original idea is what got me through to the end. I will say all the acting was top notch but as I said before it was just too slow. So was I entertained? Well, yes... for about 1\4 of the movie. Which is not nearly enough.

Greetings again from the darkness. Purchasing a home is often called 'The American Dream.' For Josh and Rachel, it's even more special when their son, 6-year-old Max, refers to their new place as "a mansion". Sometimes (especially in movies) dreams turn into nightmares, and that's exactly what happens in this film from writer-director Jason Buxton (his first feature since his debut BLACKBIRD, 2012). Adapted from the short story by Russell Wangersky, this film is billed as a psychological thriller - which it is, yet it's also an enigmatic character study.

Ben Foster (HELL OR HIGH WATER, 2018) plays Josh. Only this isn't the Ben Foster we've come to expect. His usual high-intensity and simmering danger-on-edge is replaced by a mild-mannered man who is even a bit meek whether dealing with his wife or the new manager he once trained at work. Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill in the Marvel Universe) plays his wife Rachel, and their first night in the new house leads to one of the worst cases of coitus-interruptus in history. A car tire comes flying through the living room window just after the loud crash of a car hitting the tree in their front yard. The horrific wreck leaves a young man dead, and the family stunned.

As you might have guessed from the film's title, their new home is located on a dangerous curve. The only warning sign for drivers is mostly blocked by overgrown vegetation. Josh's reaction to the wreck amplifies his struggles at work, while also creating tension with Rachel. He wants to talk about it, and she wants to ignore it. A second wreck has Josh trying to comfort the driver. The wreck convinces Rachel it's time to move, while it simultaneously convinces Josh he could have saved the man's life. Clandestine CPR lessons follow, while family therapy exposes all we need to know.

Rather than a curve, Josh and Rachel come to a fork in the road ... and take different paths. While Josh becomes obsessed with waiting for the next wreck so he can save a life. Rachel simply wants to protect herself and her son, and avoid the obsessed Josh. He's a man who desperately wants to be a savior to strangers, when the best thing he could be is a father/husband. Foster's performance is unlike anything we have seen from him, and it can't help but make us feel uneasy. Director Buxton gives us an early sneak peek at the curve, but mostly we are confused as to why a speed bump or protective/reflective barrier hasn't been installed. Sometimes a movie leaves us feeling like it should have been more interesting, more entertaining, ... more something ... than it was. Foster keeps us watching, yet the whole thing feels a bit hollow.

Opens in select theaters and VOD on May 9, 2025.

I first heard about Sharp Corner in one of those "upcoming trailers" things you see on YouTube and it stood out as something unique, so I kept a note to watch it. The trailer was somewhat misleading, as there's not a whole lot of action to the movie, but it is an extremely tense psychological "thriller", a word people will debate. I was actually impressed! Ben Foster has gotten very good at playing weirdos.

There are a lot of moments of just someone standing around, looking around, sitting and thinking, but it never actually felt boring to me. There was always a building tension, the feeling that something might happen at any moment, because that's what the family was feeling. I was impressed with how well they did with a very minimal movie. I have a few complaints. The major standout was the CGI, which was only for a five second scene but it just didn't hold up to modern film standards. I also felt like the couple just...never felt like a couple. I also get annoyed by kids in movies, they rarely ever feel authentic, but that's a personal gripe.

Maybe I'm being a little generous, but I'm giving the movie an 8. It's much better than I was expecting.

I liked the story and the trailer. A family man moves to a new suspicious house with his wife and child. They seem to be going through problems and trying to adapt. The father discovers that the road in front of the house has a problem that causes accidents and he starts to obsess over it. His obsession gradually turns into a pathological desire to be the hero and savior, but circumstances are not suitable for him. The cinematography is excellent, it conveyed the idea to the viewer, but the accident scenes are of poor quality. The performance of the actors is great, you get to enjoy them and feel their emotions, especially the father. The ending of the movie is open and gives the feeling that you don't understand why what happened happened. I think I like a closed ending or at least a clear message being conveyed, which is something I didn't feel in this movie. Thanks to everyone.