'Sharp Corner': Ben Foster, Cobie Smulders Canadian movie is a 'cautionary tale' about obsession, narcissism
Following his film Blackbird, filmmaker Jason Buxton adapted the short story by Russell Wangersky for his latest film Sharp Corner (now in theatres). Filmed in Nova Scotia, starring Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders, the thriller is a disturbing, but incredibly captivating exploration of obsession.
In Sharp Corner, Josh (Foster) moves into a new home with his wife Rachel (Smulders) and their young son Max (Will Kosovic). While this seemed like their dream house, things take a dark turn when multiple drivers crash and die on the road just outside the home.
Josh develops an obsession with the fatalities, which becomes all consuming in his life.
While Buxton optioned four stories from Wangersky's collection, the filmmaker identified that this narrative felt like a great "jumping off point" to explore obsession.
"What Russell gave was this really incredible character who finds a sense of purpose in being front row to these accidents and has this fascination with the misery of others," Buxton told Yahoo Canada.
But to bring Wangersky's story to the screen, Buxton expanded the author's foundation into a three-act structure.
"I imposed on top of that this idea that [Josh] develops a saviour complex and I wanted to see to what length that character would go to see that through," Buxton said.
At the core of Buxton's desire to craft this story was an interest in exploring obsession, but specifically how that leads into a type of narcissism for Josh.
Beginning the process of making this movie more than a decade ago, putting it aside to work on other projects in between, Buxton also took note of his own perfectionism.
"Coming off of my first feature film and having a tendency to be a perfectionist with my writing, and ... my daughter was young at the time, and observing that even when I left the writing, put it down for the day, it was in my head, and I would be not present with my loved ones," Buxton said. "And I was observing that was a type of narcissism."
"So when the story came along, that's what I wanted to explore. I wanted to tell a cautionary tale about that type of narcissism. And for me, it was like chasing this perfection and, in a way, not feeling adequate enough. But ... there can be collateral damage to that when one isn't present for the people in their lives."
Throughout Sharp Corner, Buxton has a particularly impactful way of building tension, specifically with Foster's character, but there's an eerie feeling in the film that's really amplified through the sound design and Buxton's approach to camera movement.
"I wanted to draw people into the narrative and then identify with this main character and his goal, but then slowly sort of pull the rug out in terms of it feeling ... more and more uncomfortable, as we see this person spiral downward," Buxton explained. "We want him to achieve his goal and it becomes a little bit malicious, and so what does that say about us? That was what I was going after."
"Once the audience is introduced to an accident and then a second accident, we know there's another one coming and another one coming. And so using sound design, using patience with the camera to build that tension, was a lot of fun. ... The sound design, ... every time we would hear a car go around the corner, you don't know if this is going to be the next one that's going to end up in a crash. And I think the setup itself provided a great opportunity to sort of ratchet up that tension and keep it at that high level."
But going to the theatre to watch a movie from a Canadian filmmaker, with a largely Canadian cast and crew, filmed in Canada, has a specific impact at this time in 2025.
Sharp Corner is being released just as conversations about U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada are top of mind, with several movements to support Canadian industries.
Buxton highlighted that while this film is certainly a North American story, there was a "deliberate decision" to set the story in Halifax.
"The character in this, this man who's lost maybe a sense of purpose in his life and is disenfranchised. In a way, it speaks more to what's going on politically today than it did perhaps when I started writing it," he said. "The whole U.S., Canada tensions, it's really unfortunate that that's happening right now. And we are releasing in both countries, so we hope Canadians and Americans come out to see the movie."
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