There’s a popular expression which describes how it’s impossible to look away from a car crash. No one wants to be the victim, and a combination of horror and genuine curiosity often lead to increased traffic around the site of an accident as drivers slow to see what could have happened to them but instead befell someone else. It’s considerably easier to hit the gas once you pass a wreck while driving on the road than it is if a frequent spot for violent crashes turns out to be your front yard. Sharp Corner looks at one man’s growing obsession with trying to save the people who keep dying right outside the window of his new home.

Josh (Ben Foster) and Rachel (Cobie Smulders) move to the suburbs with their son Max (William Kosovic). Their first night is going well until a car crashes into a tree in front of their house and sends glass flying through the window. The second such occurrence of a violent and deadly accident in the same place has Rachel very worried and ready to look for somewhere else to live, but Josh responds in a different way. After making sure that the sign indicating a sharp turn at the corner is more visible, Josh goes to increasingly dramatic lengths to make sure he’s well-equipped for the next inevitable crash, taking first aid classes, buying a dummy on which to practice, and watching attentively to see if the loud sound of brakes he hears will lead to another chance to be the hero he couldn’t be previously.

This film starts off with that disturbing first scene and continues to descend into darkness from there. Josh can’t seem to think about anything else, spending all his time at work reading up on the victims and crash prevention and ignoring his colleagues and supervisors when they come to check in with him about work projects. He recently lost a promotion to someone he originally trained, and while he says he’s not upset, Rachel clearly is since Josh doesn’t appear to be motivated to try hard and actually put effort into being selected for a position with more responsibility. That he throws himself so completely into this grim hobby only further cements his recusal from social contact, intent on being the one and only person capable of changing the way things work in the home where he wants to stay.

Foster is a terrific actor who has delivered many memorable performances, including in Hell or High Water and The Messenger. He’s able to be naturally creepy in the way he utters certain dialogue as thinly veiled threats, but he’s doing something very different here. Josh looks physically uncomfortable in his body, carrying himself in an awkward way that suggests that he’s putting on a show for those around him and doesn’t actually know how to act with other people. Rachel admonishes his smugness when he shares news of the crashes with friends that she’s avoided talking about in front of Max, and it does sound as if he’s trying to garner sympathy for what he and his family are going through every time he mentions it. But he also retreats within himself as this becomes his sole obsession and the only thing worthy of any of his attention.

Foster’s performance is both hard to read and unnerving, and he’s the core of this film. There are traces of Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler in the fascination he develops for being near death and the first one on the scene of an accident, though he doesn’t seek an audience the same way, merely personal redemption and glory. This solitary drama is smartly transformed into a slow-burn thriller where the main villain is chance with a Good Samaritan serving as both an accomplice and the man ready to step in to save the day when disaster strikes. That contradiction carries through the film, typically serving it well but also creating an experience that isn’t always accessible. Like passing by a car crash, it’s hard to look away even if this protagonist seems intent on running towards – and very often helping to cause or at least hoping for – danger.

Grade: B

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Sharp Corner makes its world premiere in the Special Presentations section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.