McDonald succeeds in capturing all the desperation, alienation, fantasies, and pain of a struggling adolescent, and the kaleidoscopic storytelling furthers his narrative instead of hindering it.

| Mar 30, 2020

While it's not completely the return to form we were hoping from this filmmaker, it is a strong indicator that he's back and willing to take creative risks at any cost.

| Original Score: B | Mar 13, 2020

Not for everybody, but relevant to everyone. There isn't a person alive who hasn't felt like the world was falling apart around them, and it is here that we can truly empathize with Tracey.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Mar 11, 2020

Bruce McDonald's adaptation of Maureen Medved's stream-of-consciousness teen novel The Tracey Fragments turns the screen into an ever-shifting mosaic, with anywhere from two to 20 separate images appearing at the same time.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 11, 2020

There are quite a few things to like about The Tracey Fragments, but the ultimate feeling I left with was one of contrivance - of difference for difference's sake.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 6, 2019

The first time I saw The Tracey Fragments, I felt as if I was seeing a revolution in film form, a new visual concept that made us process images in a fundamentally different way.

| Dec 13, 2017

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 24, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Even with the film's scant running time of 77 minutes, the unrelenting use of Mondrian splitscreen is bound to give anyone a headache.

| Original Score: 0.5/4 | Jul 24, 2009

An exploration of the heightened, extreme emotional sensations of adolescence, The Tracey Fragments is demanding and relentless, an image overload in search of resolution.

| Oct 4, 2008

To criticize a film called The Tracey Fragments for being too fragmented may sound a bit on-the-nose, but this experimental drama from Canadian director Bruce McDonald is interesting for a while and then goes to pieces.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 13, 2008

The split screen has never been used so purposefully or with such aesthetic care, capturing the multiple perspectives of a character who cannot separate reality from illusion because the whole world is inside her head.

| Original Score: B | Jun 13, 2008

I hated this movie. I really did.

Full Review | May 19, 2008

This audacious puzzlement is worth seeing, I guess, for some startling and innovative visual designs. But it doesn't amount to anything more substantial than a technical tour de force.

| May 14, 2008

[Page is] virtually the sole reason to see this duller-than-it-sounds experiment.

| May 13, 2008

Viewed as the sum of its sad incidents, The Tracey Fragments seems like the kind of adolescent melodrama that has become a staple of young-adult literature.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 9, 2008

But Tracey Berkowitz is the anti-Juno: Where Cody Diablo's heroine is insouciant and confidently nonchalant, Tracey is angry, insecure and filled with an unsettling self-loathing, which Page brings to life with a searing immediacy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 9, 2008

I have a feeling that this is the last time we'll see a down-and-dirty Ellen Page.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 9, 2008

The Tracey Fragments is a grating stunt that plays like a film-school project, cutting a bland story into a million tiny irritating pieces.

| Original Score: 1/5 | May 9, 2008

This angsty Canadian movie directed by Bruce McDonald takes its title all too literally: Every sequence is splintered into multiple split screens, which means that you can follow the dreary, semi-incomprehensible action from many viewpoints at once.

| Original Score: C- | May 9, 2008