Notable Cast: Idris Elba, Leah Jeffries, Iyana Halley,
Sharlto Copley
After watching the initial trailer for Beast, I
immediately told my significant other “we have to see this film.” I pulled out
my phone and purchased tickets. She looked at me perplexingly. “Babe, Idris
Elba punches a goddamn lion!” I proclaimed. It’s not often that silly action
thrillers find their way to theaters anymore. With the relative death of
mid-tier cinema that aims for a specific demographic rather than the
four-quadrant blockbuster, a film like Beast would normally be poached
off to the highest bidder in streaming. Beast could have easily been the
next Amazon Prime, Netflix, or (shudder) Peacock exclusive.
It is a relative blessing that Universal did not seemingly
pitch Beast to that market. Even though this 90-minute nature run amok
is just that - with the bonus of having Idris Elba playing a sad dad thrust
into a life-or-death situation for him to prove that he’s not fuckin’ around
when it comes to his daughters’ safety, Beast is the kind of B-movie
elevated to cinematic A-level experience that benefited wholly from its
theatrical experience. Not to mention, it also manages to fulfill its marketing
destiny by having Elba punch its titular killer repeatedly in the head.
Making Beast work is accomplished by understanding
the tropes of the nature-gone-foul survival action horror thriller concept and
then executing it in a manner that elevates the material. Yes, the themes
around a dad/lion protecting his family/pride in the face of threats like
lions/poachers is not one that is going to confuse a more general
movie-watching audience, but the film is approached with a seriousness that
it’s able to manage uplifting everything.
The script is tight, with no filler and all killer character
development and pacing throughout. Although it does lean heavily into the sad
dad tropes around family abandonment guilt and the dangers of poaching in
Africa for character beats and plot development respectfully, there is a ‘less
is more’ approach that keeps Beast moving in a way that supports its
well-oiled approach to thrills and spills. Idris Elba is the one that gets to
play around the most with his character, but it is notable that both Leah
Jeffries and Iyana Halley are playing off his work with admirable charisma to
keep the energy level up throughout its run. Copley comes in to do his usual
thing as the old friend, but the film smartly uses his character and sidelines
him in a way that comes off as both predictable and effective. It is not all
that original as it smoothly weaves its way through the formula, but it’s also
impressively fluid in getting through it without pandering or becoming
trite.
It helps that director Baltasar Kormákur, the man who
brought us the infinitely watchable and entertaining 2 Guns, handles the
material with the utmost confidence that he can add more than a level of
interest to the proceedings. He thrusts the camera into the dynamics of the
family and set in a way that makes the audience feel like they are walking
along with the characters through the heated African landscape. Long takes and
limited editing as the characters explore a ravaged village or abandoned
poacher fort drop the audience into the tension of being lost or experiencing
the events in “real-time.” It also allows Beast to toy with its audience
by teasing places or angles that the vicious rogue lion, the titular animal
stalking our protagonists as revenge for the loss of his pride. Many sequences,
including the cold open or the various attacks throughout the second and third
act, are shot like a slasher horror flick and it works stupidly well in
building the tension and thrills as the lion comes at our family like a big cat
version of Jason Vorhees.
Beast might be a film that many individuals wait to
watch on streaming because it lacks the spectacle of more traditional
blockbusters, but do not sleep on it. It’s cinematic enough that it works very
well in a theatrical setting (particularly its CGI lion which may not translate
to home video as well later) and the film is a brisk watch that never overstays
its welcome. It has some great performances and a strong sense of direction
that elevate its quick-paced script into one of the sleeper cinematic successes
of the year. If anything, the film is worth taking a swipe at if you get the
chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment