'Sharp Corner' TIFF review: Ben Foster obsesses over car wrecks in quirky drama

Courtesy of NEON/Toronto International Film Festival

---

“Sharp Corner” starts with a very memorable and unique jump scare: where Josh and Rachel McCall (Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders), in the middle of having some much needed alone time, are startled when a tire smashes through the window and lands on their floor. Jason Buxton’s accessible, but, at times, frustrating movie isn’t a horror flick, rather, it’s a character study about one man’s unhealthy obsession with the recurring car accidents that keep happening in the front lawn of his new home. Some might describe it as a pseudo-cousin to Cronenberg’s “Crash,” though I'd be more apt to say this is Foster’s “Nightcrawler.” 

He plays Josh, a lowly tech executive who lives an average, boring life with no outlook on the future. His wife, Rachel, who is, ironically, a therapist, likes to say that “ambition is a dirty word” for him, and she’s not necessarily wrong. Josh was recently passed over for a major promotion at work (in favor of a young blood who he helped train two years prior) and doesn’t seem interested in the daily routines of life, including spending time with his young son Max (William Kosovic). So when their new home, which as the title suggests sits at an intersection with a very sharp curve, becomes the scene of numerous accidents, he weirdly finds pleasure and a newfound sense of purpose in the whole ordeal. 

It makes for some awkward dinner conversations, especially as Josh, in vivid, graphic detail, often recounts the severity of the collisions and the victims' livelihoods to the couple's friends. There’s even a point midway through the film where his infatuation leads him to a funeral of a man he watched die after he crashed into his yard. He’s also the type of person who says to his wife that “Maybe I have PTSD” after witnessing the events. 

It’s clear Josh sees the accidents as a way of taking control of his mundane life. He takes up CPR (because he feels the 10 minutes it takes the ambulance to arrive is not sufficient enough) and finds himself staring out the window in the hopes another vehicle comes crashing through. It’s a wonder, as strange and offbeat as Josh is with a non-stop vocal rhythm of an overworked preschool teacher, how he’s managed to stay married to Rachel, who is the exact opposite, for as long as he has. It’s a bit of character and plot development that gets lost in the shuffle as Buxton seems to keep the inner workings of Josh’s brain at an arm’s length. 

Usually known for his explosive bursts or rag-tag energy in supporting character roles, Foster is far from his comfort zone here and offers a drab, Ned Flander adjacent performance that’ll offer fans of his something they’ve never seen before. If only the movie around him had more discipline to explore various relationship and family dynamics (I really need to understand how Rachel and Josh met and fell in love), but Buxton enjoys tinkering with expectations. I’m not sure audiences want to spend almost two hours with someone of Josh’s narcissistic personality type, but the unpredictability certainly keeps “Sharp Corner” elevated, despite the premise running on fumes. 

Grade: B- 

SHARP CORNER world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.