'COMPULSUS' REVIEW: Playful, Feminist Vigilante Justice [3/5]
'Til It Hurts
[Rating 3/5] - dir. Tara Thorne - Canada - 14A - 1h 21m - Social Commentary Comedy/Revenge/Action/Thriller
Writer-director Tara Thorne focuses her debut on a woman who decides to enact vigilante justice on the men in her local town guilty of sexual abuse.
Whenever Compulsus tries to do something, it does it very well, but some of its objectives seem opposed, and the tonal and tangible shifts necessary to successfully meet those opposed objectives make it somewhat hard to settle in as a viewer.
One example of this is its use of genres that aren’t in unison together, or even in harmony. They are distinctly, impactfully different. In one we read certain moments as sharply humorous, tongue-in-cheek revenge fantasy (I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen more in the last six years), where men are the big bad, nameless and faceless. In another we read moments as romantic (least comfortable here), and in a third we read moments as sincerely frightening.
I got a little whiplash.
But there is way more good about Compulsus than bad.
It’s funny. The poetry/spoken word is thrilling to my untrained ear. The right situations inspire a sweaty panic. The acting is self-aware and pitch perfect for the film’s aforementioned nimble sense of tone.
Actor Lesley Smith is a star.
Sooner or later Thorne, Smith, and co. will land on a perfect, most potent balance of their powers.
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‘Compulsus’ is out now. Read our Brief Interview with Tara Thorne.
Best Line: “If it was a ‘man’ or a ‘men’ here, they would want the credit.”
[Rating 3/5] - dir. Tara Thorne - Canada - 14A - 1h 21m - Social Commentary Comedy/Revenge/Action/Thriller