Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
The Tracey Fragments
User Score
9.4 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 109 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 104 out of 109
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 109
  3. Negative: 5 out of 109

Review this movie

  1. Your Score
    10 out of 10
    Rate this:
    out of 10
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling

  3. Characters remaining: 5000 out of 5000

view
per page
  1. JayH.
    Jul 1, 2008
    3
    As much as I like Ellen Page, I did not like her in this, nor did I like the movie. The split screens is pretentious tripe in an effort to show originality and style, instead it is irritating and pointless. The gritty cinematography is no help. I didn't care about the characters nor what happened in the movie. I have to agree with the critics on this one.
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. DanielF.
    May 5, 2008
    9
    One of those films that is sure to change the landscape of filmmaking in the next few years. show in 2 weeks and edited over 7 months, this film takes the titular 'fragments' seriously. It's a mindfuck of a film that draws you in and plays will all kinds of preconceived notions of what you can get out of independent cinema. An exciting step forward for cinema in general, and shows the wondrous talents of Ellen Page and Canadian film stalwart Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, Highway 61). It's sure to rile some audiences, but it's a necessary viewing for anyone looking for something new.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. CalK.
    May 6, 2008
    10
    Page is incredible. See it just for her.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. SeanE.
    Jul 7, 2008
    8
    Not perfect but it is a visual storytelling experiment that succeeds. Get through some of the high school journal moments in the begining and you'll find a moving piece of work from Page and a McDonald. It's a movie that has stuck with me months after seeing it.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  5. JoeP.
    Jul 19, 2009
    10
    Great metaphors, story's deeper than it seems.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  6. PeteC.
    May 11, 2008
    9
    A mesmerising, bleak and stunningly executed mind fuck from start to finish with a beautiful score, and a blinding performance from Page, this is definately recommended, but be aware this is disturbing and affecting stuff.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  7. AlexZ.
    May 19, 2008
    10
    This was a great film that will turn many people off. But if you like independent cinema, give this a try.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  8. ChadS.
    Jul 9, 2008
    8
    Form and content vie for the viewer's scrutiny in "The Tracey Fragments", as Ellen Page, the poster child for propagandizing teen pregnancy, stars in this micro-indie from Canada about a runaway girl who combs the unforgiving city by twilight for her missing younger brother. Page, to her credit, never gets lost in the movie's anarchy in the frame, as the filmmaker treats the screen and film language like a mad semiotician. Picking up where Mike Figgis left off, this celluloidal offspring of "Time Code", forces the viewer to be a co-creator, a vicarious editor who chooses and orders the boxes in a sequential order of his own making. But rather than project four instances of simultaneous time like Figgis' groundbreaking film from 2000, "The Tracey Fragments" covers the same interior(or exterior space) of the moment from different angles, distances, and perspectives with sometimes one to five cameras, and sometimes more. If two characters are isolated in their own separate box, the viewer is given the agency to create his/her own shot/reverse shot editing strategy. If the person's filmic sensibilities lean more on the European side, the eyes train on the speaker and the listener in unbroken simultaneity. "The Tracey Fragments" transforms your living room into an editing bay. Sometimes the choices the film offers can also have an effect on the space-time continuum. As Tracey Berkowitz rides the bus in a box on the top half of the screen, her memory is visualized beneath her seated self in its own separate boxes. If your attention wanders from Tracey's argument with Lance(Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) to Tracey on the bus, the girl's time with the homeless drifter plays like a flashback. But if you disregard the top half of the screen, her fight with Lance remains in the present tense. Form wins in "The Tracey Fragments", but content is no slouch either. Page gives a brave performance as a young girl who wears her heart on her sleeve, and that sleeve is bleeding. She wants a functional family. She wants to fit in at school. She wants a boyfriend. She has none of these things. Her life is one big, festering wound. The black screen is like a skin, and under this skin is life, Tracey's life. The three boxes that puncture the black screen look like cuts. Tracey doesn't bleed, but the film does it for her. Her life is like one constant flow of blood, mermaid's blood.… Expand
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  9. peoplefightthegovernment
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    So good I peed my pants. Personally I thought the split screens were genius. You really felt what ellen pages character was feeling which was brilliantly acted.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  10. Gerbilfun
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Incredible. I prefer the screens not to be split. I'm sure thus movie would be much more like able if it went a traditional route on that decision bit I got past it. The dialogue is different and rough but I like it. Its very figurative and it definatly makes you think. I like the story about a girl hating herself trying to live and explain things in her negative eyes. Great movie, very unusual. Ellen page is the best actress I have ever seen.… Expand
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  11. lilbeep
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Ellen page was good in Juno and resly great in hard candy but in this, she was astonishingly incredible. She has so much range and I give this a ten on her performance alone. The movie itself was half as good so I would say its amazing.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  12. meikol
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Immensely impressive on all aspects of the movie. The acting=stupendous the directing=great the story=interesting the movie=like the best independent movie I have seen in years.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  13. fellonyou
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Amazing, startling, unlike anything I have seen in a movie. Truly on of the best.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  14. cornmayo
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Didn't expect want I saw. I was incredibly irritated with the split images but then it sunk in and it was invisible because I got caught in the movie. Dialogue is crazy, literally. Great movie, highly recommended.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  15. johnnys
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Risky but well worth it.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  16. hugecookie
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Really great. It really impressed me with the rawness of the whole film. Really felt intense and exhausted by the end but overrall very much worth it.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  17. abcdefgh
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Great. Amazing. Fantastic. Awesome. Superb. Complete bliss. Perfect. The best. Euphoric. My favorite.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  18. measleschip
    Jun 14, 2009
    10
    Totally awesome. I was in a bad mood but this weirdly negative movie cheered me up with its unusual world. Its def tubular.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  19. moviegrabbag
    Jun 12, 2011
    2
    This movie was clearly just the work of a director who thought he was better then he really is. The editing was just annoying, trying to be artsy and new but just ended up giving me a headache. Ellen Page is a far better actress then tis movie makes her out to be and I feel that again that falls on the director. If I hadn't seen other works by Ellen Page I would have put this on her. The fragmented scenes and the choppy story-line where clever at first but quickly made the movie confusing and weird. There were also a bunch of scenes that were not needed in the least and where obviously there for nothing more then padding. Please read some of my other reviews at http://moviegrabbag.blogspot.com/… Expand
prev next
Page:
  • 1

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 10
  3. Negative: 2 out of 10
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Russell Edwards
    50
    Page is generally commanding as the self-pitying teenager, but there are several moments when, let down by the text, the young thesp obviously does not believe what she is saying.
    Read full review
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    70
    Beyond its overarching aesthetic, The Tracey Fragments co-stars Toronto rockabilly punk Slim Twig as a Tim Burton caricature of Pretty in Pink's Duckie and boasts a score by Broken Social Scene; it would all swagger dangerously close into hipster-trash territory if not for Page's pathos and wit, honest to blog.
    Read full review
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    75
    Even though the screen is often divided into a Mondrian-like grid, each individual box containing its own discreet moving image, McDonald's film is surprisingly fluid and easy to follow.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »