TRACEY FRAGMENTS, THE : DVD

SYNOPSIS:
She's just an ordinary girl who hates herself, says Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page) as she shivers, naked, under a shower curtain at the back of a bus. She's out looking for her little brother Sonny (Zie Souwand), who is missing after she hypnotized him into thinking he is a dog.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
An exploration of the heightened, extreme emotional sensations of adolescence, The Tracey Fragments is demanding and relentless, an image overload in search of resolution. All the pain and anguish of puberty is harnessed as explosive screen energy - and it's a bravura piece of filmmaking. It may not be everyone's cup of broiling cyanide, but you can't deny its infectious, addictive allure, with its multi screen bombardment, exceptional music and some manipulated sound.

The cumulative effect is exhausting yet exhilarating, the images fusing into sensations and mood. It's like an expansive, cleverly constructed, extra long music video, extended by dramatic content and definite character - not music-driven ciphers. The dramatic tension is largely driven by Tracey's search for her little brother, Sonny (Zie Souwand), who is missing, after Tracey turned him into a dog - by hypnosis.

Ellen Page is ideal as Tracey, the edgy teenager on the brink ... of, well, everything from life, adulthood, womanhood, matricide and eternity, to happiness. So much in her world to absorb, so much coming at her, both real and subliminal, physical and emotional. For all its brave and brilliant inventions, the film doesn't sustain the intense interest it generates, right through to the end. The form overtakes function and our attention and interest sags.

Published October 9, 2008