Who is popular today?

Jay Baruchel writes and stars in a finger-waggingly pious and pointless story about violence in entertainment
The Canadian actor Jay Baruchel – a Judd Apatow regular and the voice of Hiccup in the family animation How to Train Your Dragon – has directed an exasperating serial killer-slasher. He brings to the genre a script with brain cells spilling out of its victims’ smashed skulls and the acting is a cut above – performed in an easy improvy naturalistic style that feels very Apatow. But inexplicably Baruchel and his co-writer Jesse Chabot staple on a finger-waggingly pious and pointless message about violence in entertainment.
Jesse Williams stars as Toronto comic book artist Todd, who’s struggling with the final issue of his mega successful R-rated franchise Slasherman. The series is based on actual events, half a dozen grisly unsolved murders that took place along a stretch of Interstate 90 in the late 80s. To get his creative juices flowing, Todd takes a road trip along the highway, slumming it in scummy motels with his girlfriend, personal assistant and goofy business partner (nicely played by Baruchel). Todd, a left-leaning liberal who would no doubt describe himself as a feminist, is unnerved by fanboys at a comic bookstore signing. While he has intellectualised the gut-wrenchingly horrible images of tortured and disembowelled women in his comics, to the creepy guys dressed up like his protagonist in welders masks, Slasherman is a hero. Continue reading...