By Tatiana Hullender
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Based on a short story by Russell Wangersky, Sharp Corner is a psychological drama that premiered at Toronto International Film Festival on September 6. Jason Buxton adapted the story into a screenplay and made it his second feature film directorial effort, building on his already exciting repertoire. The movie follows Josh, who recently moved into his dream Nova Scotia home with his wife Rachel and son Max only to see that dream turn into a nightmare after a traumatic car crash.
Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) captivates the audience with his portrayal of Josh's slow descent into madness as his attempts to save the next victim overtake all aspects of his life. Rather than taking steps to ensure that the tight turn on their street is fixed or made safer in some way, he loses himself in CPR lessons and other efforts to turn himself into a hero. Soon enough, Rachel (played by How I Met Your Mother's Cobie Smulders) cannot accept either her house or her husband if the latter won't change.
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Screen Rant's Toronto International Film Festival 2024 Awards
Screen Rant covered the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. We saw so many films and had to hand out some awards for the best films of the fest.
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Screen Rant interviewed Buxton prior to the film's TIFF 2024 premiere about how he approached his adaptation of Sharp Corner, why Smulders and Foster were right for the roles, and just how the fabled corner came into existence on set.
How Sharp Corner Went From Short Story To Feature Film
“It demanded and needed a deeper exploration, and it became a hundred-page script.”
Screen Rant: Sharp Corner is based on a short story, but was it brought to you in order to try out, or did you stumble on it yourself and decide to adapt it?
Jason Buxton: I was looking for material to adapt after my first feature, Blackbird. I would go to chapters every twice a week and roam the aisles looking for Canadian work, and I came across Russell Wangersky's collection Whirl Away, which I think had been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize just a year or two before. I consumed four stories standing there in the store, and my original idea was to do a Magnolia type story where there were multiple storylines that would converge at the end, and Sharp Corner was one of those stories.
But as I developed Sharp Corner, it became more than a third of a movie or a half of a movie. It demanded and needed a deeper exploration, and it became a hundred-page script.
Screen Rant: The corner is obviously integral to the project, but so is the way that the accidents affect the house and therefore the entire look of the movie as we chart Josh's progress - or regression. How did you collaborate with the production design team to achieve your vision?
Jason Buxton: We brought on Jennifer Stewart, my production designer, quite early in the process. We did some scouting, and we were looking for A) a corner, B) a corner and a house, or C) a house. If we found a house, maybe we could build a road. If we found a corner, maybe we could build a house. We couldn't find a house on a corner, because people wisely don't do that very often, but we also needed a road that we could control for logistics because we were spending so much time on the road with the camera.
So, we ended up building a house on location. It was a set on location that functioned inside and out, and it essentially looked like a regular house. We found the perfect strip of land that we were able to lease from the government of Nova Scotia, and we created what I call this wonderful sandbox in which we could play for about a month and a half.
The house design was amazing. It's what I call threshold photography, where you can have your character go inside and outside. You're not stuck in a studio with your exterior somewhere else. We were able to exploit the full range of one scene, with the character being outside on the back deck, then run through the house, run out onto the front lawn, and onto the main road in a single shot. We had the privilege of being able to do that because we had built it on location.
Ben Foster & Cobie Smulders’ Performances Are Crucial To Sharp Corner’s Twisty Narrative
“They're going to suspect where this is going, and hope he doesn't, but also maybe hope he does.”
Screen Rant: It's tough to watch Josh's descent into obsession, especially as his actions slide from heroic to negligent to actually harmful. How do you approach such a character arc without judgment?
Jason Buxton: I think it's because I'm interested in what lies within this shadow content that people have. We all feel like we're capable of doing bad deeds, but I think we have a personal responsibility to do the best we can in our lives and not to harm other people. The cautionary tales are important because I think Josh is a man who has not lived an examined life. I don't think he knows how to, and he's trying to learn how (in the context of the movie) in baby steps. We see him slowly descend.
My editor described it really well, "Josh is like a car crash in slow motion." And I think that's what's hopefully gripping for audiences that are going to see this. They're going to suspect where this is going, and hope he doesn't, but also maybe hope he does. It plays on that tension of exploring the dark side of humanity.
Screen Rant: Rachel is such a grounding force for the film, even if she can't save Josh from himself. What made Cobie Smulders right for that role?
Jason Buxton: Cobie's a very self-aware person who can tell it how it is, and I think Rachel needed to be that kind of person. She loves her husband, and she's going to try to get him on the right path. But when things are at risk, she's just going to make the tough decisions. She's going to make tough decisions in order to protect her son.
Cobie just brings warmth and intelligence, but she also brings a person who has expectations for their partner.
Screen Rant: This is your second feature film after Blackbird. Did you take away any lessons from that one that you were able to apply to Sharp Corner?
Jason Buxton: Yes, fighting for as many shooting days as possible. In our industry and with the way the unions are structured, you end up having very little money left over for the means of production. You have to find a way to preserve that and sometimes be willing to think outside of the box, in terms of how you structure the budget and how you spend the money.
Also, I think just the experience of having made a movie on a really tight budget helped. Each day, the key is to keep your head. It's so easy to listen to the noise and the fear and the panic, and to the anxiety about not making your day. There's a responsibility to make your day, but you also need to somehow find a way to block out the noise, which can actually slow you down and make it harder for you to make your day. I think having had experience allowed me to be able to say, "Okay, we're behind here, so let's speed up there."
More About Sharp Corner (2024)
On the night they move from the city into a sprawling suburban home, parents Josh (Ben Foster, Finestkind, TIFF ’23) and Rachel (Cobie Smulders, High School, TIFF ’22) are jolted by a car crashing into the tree on their front lawn, killing the driver and injuring his passengers. And once Josh discovers the accidents are a regular occurrence due to the design of the road, he becomes obsessed with being ready to save the next victims... to the exclusion of everything else.
Check out our other TIFF 2024 interviews here:
- Hyun Bin (Harbin)
- Andrew Garfield (We Live In Time)
- Grace VanderWaal (Megalopolis)
- Chris Sanders (The Wild Robot)
- Brandon Routh, Malina Weissman, Mena Suvari, and Joseph Kahn (Ick)
- Annalise Basso (The Life of Chuck)
Sharp Corner premiered on September 6 at the Toronto International Film Festival and is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
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Sharp Corner (2024)
Thriller
Comedy
A family man's obsession with saving car accident victims at a nearby sharp turn endangers everything he holds dear.
- Director
- Jason Buxton
- Release Date
- September 6, 2024
- Writers
- Jason Buxton , Russell Wangersky
- Cast
- Ben Foster , Cobie Smulders , William Kosovic , Gavin Drea , Alexandra Castillo , Jonathan Watton , Reid Price , Andrew Shaver , Mark A. Owen , Dan Lett , Julia Dyan-Porter , Leah Johnston , Allison Wilson-Forbes , Wayne Burns , Bob Mann
- Character(s)
- Josh McCall , Rachel Davis-McCall , Max McCall , Erikson , Tamara Jones-Reed , Dr. Peter Murphy , Drew , Ben , CPR Instructor , David Chapman , Melissa , Kate , Eva , Tim , Stephen
- Runtime
- 110 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Thriller
- Movies
- Interviews
- Toronto International Film Festival
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