Synopsis
Tracey Berkowitz, 15, a self-described normal girl, loses her 9-year old brother, Sonny. In flashbacks and fragments, we meet her overbearing parents and the sweet, clueless Sonny. We watch Tracey navigate high school, friendless, picked on and teased. She develops a thing for Billy Zero, a new student, imagining he's her boyfriend. We see the day she loses Sonny and we watch her try to find him.
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Cast
- Elliot PageTracey Berkowitz
- Ari CohenMr. Berkowitz
- Erin McMurtryMrs. Berkowitz
- Maxwell McCabe-LokosLance
- Zie SouwandSonny Berkowitz
- Stephen AmellDetective
- Kate ToddThat Knockout Bitch Debbie Dodge
- Ryan CooleyDavid Goldberg
- Daniel FathersElegant Pimp Daddy
- Curtis FletcherMan in Fur
Recommendations
- 80
The New York Times
In the hands of a more literal-minded filmmaker The Tracey Fragments might well have been dreary and unbearable, a chronicle of florid self-pity justified by arbitrary cruelty. Instead it is fierce, enigmatic and affecting. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
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. - 75
New York Post
I have a feeling that this is the last time we'll see a down-and-dirty Ellen Page. Her handlers have too much wrapped up in her mainstream persona to ever again allow her to do anything as daring and out of the loop as The Tracey Fragments. And that's a shame. - 70
Village Voice
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. - 50
Variety
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. - 50
Boston Globe
Formally, the effect is like watching really cinematic confetti. - 42
Christian Science Monitor
It's all a bit like "Girl Interrupted" shattered into a thousand shards, but Page somehow manages to come through with a performance despite the director's distracting technique. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
A failed cinematic experiment mainly notable for its fine starring performance by a pre-"Juno" Ellen Page, The Tracey Fragments provides more evidence (not that any was needed) that an extensive use of split-screen visuals is far more irritating than arresting.
