SHARP CORNER (2025)

Genre: Drama
Director: Jason Buxton
Cast: Ben Foster, Cobie Smulders, Gavin Drea, William Kosovic
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 31 July 2025

Synopsis: Sharp Corner is the story of a man's spiral as he tries to find greater purpose in his life. It follows Josh, a hapless family man who is drawn into saving the lives of the car crash victims at the sharp corner in front of his house. As Josh's obsession takes hold, he places his wife and son in jeopardy, setting in motion a series of events that threaten to break his family apart.

Movie Review:

Sharp Corner starts with a bang—literally.

Josh (Ben Foster), his therapist wife Rachel (Cobie Smulders) and their young son Max (William Kosovic) have just moved into a new house far from the city. But on their very first night, a car driven by an intoxicated teenager crashes onto their front lawn, sending a tire flying through their living room window.

As it turns out, the property sits on the edge of a dangerously sharp bend in the road explaining the suspiciously low price. This is just the beginning of many similar accidents to come and Josh slowly develops a morbid obsession with saving potential crash victims. As his fixation grows, his marriage with Rachel begins to unravel. Josh resists selling the house, gradually withdrawing from his family and work and instead pours all his energy into CPR training, plastic dummies and racing to accident scenes trying to be the first on site before emergency services arrive.

Canadian writer-director Jason Buxton adapts Sharp Corner from Russell Wangersky’s 2012 short story and the film is certainly not for the impatient or those seeking cheap thrills. In many ways, it feels like a story pulled from the pages of a Stephen King novella—rich in character study and layered with slow-burning psychological dread.

In fact, Sharp Corner carries more than a few of King’s hallmarks. We watch with unease as Josh’s obsession becomes increasingly unhinged and disturbing. Why does he show up at a stranger’s funeral pretending to be the dead man’s golf buddy? Why is he less concerned about his own son, Max who is clearly traumatized by the steady stream of accidents at their doorstep? Josh is spiraling, consumed by a dark compulsion he can neither explain nor control.

Ben Foster is phenomenal. A master at playing emotionally complex characters, Foster brings quiet intensity to Josh without veering into melodrama. Known for portraying unstable and volatile roles, Foster keeps Josh restrained and internalized never exploding but always teetering on the edge. He remains awkward, insecure and deeply human throughout. The only thing that changes is his grip on reality.

That said, Sharp Corner is not for everyone. It’s deliberately paced, eerily quiet (despite the frequent crashes), and entirely devoid of jump scares or dramatic twists. Some may even find it frustrating or pointless. But for those open to something different, the film offers a haunting meditation on trauma, mid-life disillusionment and the fraying threads of a once-stable marriage.

It’s not a comfortable watch but that’s exactly the point.

Movie Rating:

(A morally complex human drama worth checking out)

Review by Linus Tee