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Best of Boston 2009

Review: Pontypool

Bruce McDonald deserves some credit for trying
By PETER KEOUGH  |  April 15, 2009
2.5 2.5 Stars

090417_pontypool_main

Bruce McDonald's ambitious shaggy-dog story combining elements of Talk Radio, William Burroughs, and Night of the Living Dead succeeds about as well as could be expected. Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), a poor man's Don Imus, shows up for his morning broadcast at the local radio station in the snowbound Ontario title boondock and finds that the routine of traffic conditions and weather forecasts is being interrupted by reports of inexplicable mob violence and other bizarre behavior. Shots of projectile-vomited blood and eyewitness accounts of cannibalism punctuate musings quoting Norman Mailer and Roland Barthes. McDonald's limiting the action to the radio studio induces claustrophobia and then devolves into staginess. He deserves credit for trying, but he's no David Cronenberg.

BRATTLE THEATRE: APRIL 24 at MIDNIGHT

Related: Review: Crude, Review: That Evening Sun, Review: Children of Invention, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Brattle Theatre, Bruce McDonald, David Cronenberg,  More more >
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