Beast (Michael Pearce, 2018)

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DarkImbecile
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Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
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Beast (Michael Pearce, 2018)

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat May 26, 2018 6:12 pm

Michael Pearce's Beast was a pleasant surprise, an unexpectedly sexy, transgressive adult answer to the YA romantic fantasies so prevalent in recent years; more than once, this film struck me as an interesting thematic partner to Cory Finley's Thoroughbreds from earlier this year, though where that film's style is cool, controlled, and tightly constructed, Beast is hot-blooded, jittery, and shaggier. The less said about the plot, the better - I really appreciated not having seen the trailer or heard much about this from US critics after its Sundance appearance - but could basically summed up as
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girl meets boy while audience tries to figure out which one is crazier.
Jessica Buckley, an Irish actress who has mostly done TV work up to now, makes a strong impression with an unpredictable lead performance - alternately strong-willed and brittle, sensual and alienating, and her co-lead Johnny Flynn plays well to the harder edge of the 'alluring bad boy' spectrum. The often-hand-held camera pushes uncomfortably close to both lovers and corpses, scenes of overflowing exuberance and intense anxiety, but quite handsomely frames Jersey's forests, cliffs, and beaches while the score (by Jim Williams, who has worked regularly with Ben Wheatley and composed for Julia Ducournau's superb Raw) thrums menacingly underneath. All the supporting performances are dialed to a slightly higher pitch, which suits Pearce's desire to keep the audience unsettled and unclear exactly where its sympathies should lie until the final moments.
SpoilerShow
Speaking of those final moments, for a second I thought the film was going to end on a particularly dark note, with a fade to black on a walk by the ocean; while that surely would have been the more provocative ending, the next few minutes give the audience plenty to chew over in their own right - slightly undermined in my case by the theater lights coming up right as the climactic action occurs. Nothing like the convenience and reliability of automation in the movie theater industry.

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brundlefly
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:55 pm

Beast (Michael Pearce, 2018)

#2 Post by brundlefly » Sat Jul 20, 2019 10:58 am

DarkImbecile wrote:
Sat May 26, 2018 6:12 pm
Michael Pearce's Beast was a pleasant surprise, an unexpectedly sexy, transgressive adult answer to the YA romantic fantasies so prevalent in recent years; more than once, this film struck me as an interesting thematic partner to Cory Finley's Thoroughbreds from earlier this year, though where that film's style is cool, controlled, and tightly constructed, Beast is hot-blooded, jittery, and shaggier. The less said about the plot, the better - I really appreciated not having seen the trailer or heard much about this from US critics after its Sundance appearance - but could basically summed up as
SpoilerShow
girl meets boy while audience tries to figure out which one is crazier.
Jessica Buckley, an Irish actress who has mostly done TV work up to now, makes a strong impression with an unpredictable lead performance - alternately strong-willed and brittle, sensual and alienating, and her co-lead Johnny Flynn plays well to the harder edge of the 'alluring bad boy' spectrum. The often-hand-held camera pushes uncomfortably close to both lovers and corpses, scenes of overflowing exuberance and intense anxiety, but quite handsomely frames Jersey's forests, cliffs, and beaches while the score (by Jim Williams, who has worked regularly with Ben Wheatley and composed for Julia Ducournau's superb Raw) thrums menacingly underneath. All the supporting performances are dialed to a slightly higher pitch, which suits Pearce's desire to keep the audience unsettled and unclear exactly where its sympathies should lie until the final moments.
SpoilerShow
Speaking of those final moments, for a second I thought the film was going to end on a particularly dark note, with a fade to black on a walk by the ocean; while that surely would have been the more provocative ending, the next few minutes give the audience plenty to chew over in their own right - slightly undermined in my case by the theater lights coming up right as the climactic action occurs. Nothing like the convenience and reliability of automation in the movie theater industry.
Gosh I liked this. As you said, I think it helps knowing nothing going in; all I think I’d heard beforehand was that it was an “adult fairy tale,” a tag that nearly always sets me up for disappointment. And luckily one of film’s strengths is that it doesn’t feel the need to hew to the rules of any of the styles it entertains, just throws what it needs from each into its pot.
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What it does worst and wisely mostly ignores is the police procedural. And no one needs another serial killer film. I was made angry the EPK on the DVD described this as a psychological thriller, though it may well be. For me it was a romance above all, and it kept me off-balance the right way, by making the characters and their relationships complex.
And I did not know Jessie Buckley as I’ve missed the moment she’s having right now. She’s captivating here; every time the film stumbles or starts to tread water she amazes it back to life. Has a killer half-smile that allows her character to have a moment both ways. There’s a scene where screams, the scream exhausts itself, and after a beat of inaction she re-screams. Eyes open, the whole time, darting about to gauge reaction. Could have been risible. But because it’s such an unexpected defense mechanism where it’s employed, and because the desperation is so pure, it’s terrifying. I wondered if it was written or rehearsed that way, but would like to believe it wound up in there because everyone was too stunned to cut.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Films of 2018

#3 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:14 am

DarkImbecile wrote:
Sat May 26, 2018 6:12 pm
Michael Pearce's Beast was a pleasant surprise, an unexpectedly sexy, transgressive adult answer to the YA romantic fantasies so prevalent in recent years; more than once, this film struck me as an interesting thematic partner to Cory Finley's Thoroughbreds from earlier this year, though where that film's style is cool, controlled, and tightly constructed, Beast is hot-blooded, jittery, and shaggier. The less said about the plot, the better - I really appreciated not having seen the trailer or heard much about this from US critics after its Sundance appearance - but could basically summed up as
SpoilerShow
girl meets boy while audience tries to figure out which one is crazier.
Jessica Buckley, an Irish actress who has mostly done TV work up to now, makes a strong impression with an unpredictable lead performance - alternately strong-willed and brittle, sensual and alienating, and her co-lead Johnny Flynn plays well to the harder edge of the 'alluring bad boy' spectrum. The often-hand-held camera pushes uncomfortably close to both lovers and corpses, scenes of overflowing exuberance and intense anxiety, but quite handsomely frames Jersey's forests, cliffs, and beaches while the score (by Jim Williams, who has worked regularly with Ben Wheatley and composed for Julia Ducournau's superb Raw) thrums menacingly underneath. All the supporting performances are dialed to a slightly higher pitch, which suits Pearce's desire to keep the audience unsettled and unclear exactly where its sympathies should lie until the final moments.
SpoilerShow
Speaking of those final moments, for a second I thought the film was going to end on a particularly dark note, with a fade to black on a walk by the ocean; while that surely would have been the more provocative ending, the next few minutes give the audience plenty to chew over in their own right - slightly undermined in my case by the theater lights coming up right as the climactic action occurs. Nothing like the convenience and reliability of automation in the movie theater industry.
Alright DI, here's your threadsplit- Beast is a peculiar kind of film because it postures at horror from the first frames with how we're introduced to Buckley with impending doom in style, though whether this signifies her own instability or the terror that will be thrust upon her is the mystery that isn't so simple even in the revealing threads that venture more into offbeat romance and family drama with a dose of thriller for much of the runtime. To respond first to your question of the genre-qualifications, I'd say this is certainly in the wheelhouse of horror, mainly because it tows that difficult line between offering us a subjective perspective that we cannot penetrate, so we are asked to align with a character we do not wholly trust, and this is used effectively to increase our sense of dread.
SpoilerShow
Her nightmares are intense and only later do we find out they are rooted in her own suppression of her actual intent behind her past assault. In a strange way, facing that Pascal is the killer allows her to overcome her defense mechanisms and confront her own personality through identification, providing a novel catharsis (or is it?) So when she decides to kill him, we are presented with an interesting curiosity of motive: Is she killing him because it's the moral thing to do, because she cannot bear to sit with this part of herself that she has finally confronted, as a way of self-destruction through displaced violence, an inability to allow herself the catharsis she's just experienced, or some deep-seated antisocial mental health issue where she's actually a sociopath? If the latter, has this happened before- was the stabbing the result of her coming to terms with, or perhaps being provoked to notice, her sociopathy? This finale is so distancing from our surrogate experience of Buckley that this alone, along with how the ending is presented, should turn it into a horror, both in how what happens is played out and in our disengagement from a character we have grown to think we know and see parts of ourselves in (romantic interest, empowerment to confront oppressive family, ethical dilemmas between love and morals) as we become completely lost as to what is driving her actions, and thus naked in our own vulnerability of sharing our empathy with a potential psychopath.
Also, Jessie Buckley is a revelation. I've been meaning to see Wild Rose but now I think it'll get prioritized higher on my list, and I'm glad to see she has a starring role in Charlie Kaufman's next. This won't make my own horror list for the project but it was a very good film, and a good one to analyze along the "does this count, and more interestingly, why?" framework.

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domino harvey
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The Films of 2018

#4 Post by domino harvey » Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:19 am

I thought Buckley was a great Miranda in the Globe Theatre’s Tempest adaptation

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Films of 2018

#5 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:29 am

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:19 am
I thought Buckley was a great Miranda in the Globe Theatre’s Tempest adaptation
Ohh I could see that!

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