Movie Review: Sasquatch Sunset

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A mostly successful experiment. 

One can never say that this film lacks originality. This is a movie that is completely unlike anything I have ever seen before. However to say it is not for everyone would also be a great understatement. This is a very strange and experimental movie. This is the type of film that would have probably not been given a wide release if it had not been produced by Jesse Eisenberg (who also stars in it) and Ari Aster (director of Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), and Beau Is Afraid (2023)). There is no real story here. Instead, we watch a small group of sasquatches (not animated but actors in costumes and prosthetics) live their lives out in the wild. Most of the picture seems to focus on them, peeing, pooping and having sex. The characters never speak any actual dialogue instead the simply make animal sounds. While this film will appeal only to a certain audience, it does have a real charm to it. I especially enjoyed the sense of atmosphere throughout this film. The sasquatches in many ways feel like prehistoric humans. This gives the movie a feeling of taking place in the distant past, even though the setting is more recent. This combination gives this film a strange other worldly feel that I found irresistible. On the other hand, the way this movie is filmed makes it feel almost like a nature documentary at times. This helps give it a nice and relaxed feel, even as it delves fully into absurdist humor. Also, as strange as this film is we grow to surprisingly connect with and care about these characters. This gives us some surprisingly effective emotional moments that really work. This movie also delves into such themes as isolation, the inevitability of change and environmentalism in a very intelligent and thought-provoking way. The mixture of this intelligence of the message and the immaturity of the humor adds a lot of charm to this film. 

This movie does have one huge flaw though. That is that it is simply too repetitive at times. Much of the humor is rather juvenile revolving around pee, poop and sex. Sometimes though this humor is still very funny. The audience I saw it with certainly laughed a lot. However, there are times when these jokes simply get too repetitive and aren't as funny as they were at the start of the film. The repetitive nature of the movie can also make it drag at times and seem longer than the hour and a half it is. 

While flawed, there is a lot I really liked about this very strange movie. While not for everyone, hopefully it will find an audience that appreciates it for the weird gem it is.