There’s no getting around it: “The Beast” is a beast of a film. A cinematic journey that demands as much from the viewer as it does the vast vision of the director. Teaming with complex ideas, contrasting themes, and a plethora of genre mashups, “The Beast” is an amalgamation of inspiration pulled from some of the most auteur filmmakers to ever make films. And yet, for all its complexities its core is a rather simple story of love, longing, and Léa Seydoux (“Dune Part Two,” “Death Stranding“), who turns in a tour de force performance that carries the film from start to finish. It requires an incredible amount of patience and thoughtfulness, and it’s not that “The Beast” is difficult to understand as much as it is difficult to access. It is the kind of the film that leaves you with a sort of “WTF did I just watch?” and then festers in your mind, getting better upon reflection. If you’re willing to embark on the journey, then “The Beast” rewards you with a payoff that will haunt your mind for years. It’s that willingness that will ultimately determine whether or not this film is for you.
Written and directed by Bertrand Bonello, “The Beast” is loosely based on Henry James‘ 1903 novel “The Beast of the Jungle.” In the near future (2044), AI has all but taken over every facet of human existence, relegating humanity to an afterthought in their own world. Strong emotions are deemed dangerous, creating a sort automaton dystopian future both in technology and humans themselves. Individuals can purge themselves of strong emotions through a DNA procedure that takes you through your past lives and essentially eradicates anything that could be triggering your emotions in the present. Gabrielle (Seydoux) is plagued by an overwhelming sense of anxiety and fear that something terrible is going to happen, and with reservation decides to undergo the procedure. In each life (1910, 2014, and in 2044) she continually encounters Louis (George Mackay) who, in every life are drawn together in different iterations of themselves, leading both to question if they have always known each other and whether or not they are each others’ destruction or completion. The film also stars Guslagie Malanda, Dasha Nekrasova and Elina Löwensohn.
There is a lot to unpack in “The Beast,” all of which feel like Bonello took the kitchen sink approach to conceptual and thematically rich filmmaking. There is a strong Lynchian inspiration that permeates the film, drawing heavily from the obsurity and ambiguity of “Mulholland Drive” and “Tree of Life.” Bonello attempts to explore everything together at once rather than parse them out into more clear pieces of examination, leaving viewers with an overwhelmingly rich text to dissect and ponder or at times, dismiss altogether. There are so many readings of the work (much like the aforementioned inspired works) that it would be impossible to capture them all here in a single piece. In a sort of surface reading, “The Beast” has its intentions on exploring the idea that opposing themes are often two sides of the same coin. Fear and love, calm and chaos, anxiety and peace, loneliness and relationships, etc. Each time period is defined by how it relates to emotions, with Bonello stating in a press release that this film is a “history of feelings…You could say that in 1910, feelings were expressed. In 2014, they are repressed. In 2044, they are suppressed.”
All of this is before we even begin to get into the sci-fi elements and discussions about AI and technology, Bonello’s commentary on religion and the rather overt commentary on humanity today and the sense of impending doom we live with every day. And all of this is before we even get into what the beast is and what it is suppose to represent. Again, we can draw parallels to “Mulholland Drive” and the dumpster monster, a physical manifestation of deeper thematic commentaries that have a clear purpose to the creator but a multitude of conclusions and meanings for the viewers. Case in point, “The Beast” is dense, juxtaposed by an almost meandering pacing and drastic tonal shifts as we watch Gabrielle and Louis embody different lives in their own past. The slow pacing and jolting shifts in tone from say 1910 to 2014 often times overshadow the love story that is supposed to be the anchor of each time period. It is once again that push and pull between understanding and accessibility, but it does become easier and easier to grasp as a narrative but less and less to dial into over its rather long runtime.
Thankfully we have Seydoux and Mackay at the center of it all, both of whom are magnetic and mesmerizing with their mere screen presence. “The Beast” doesn’t work with any other leads, with Seydoux in particular showcasing her vast range as she constantly battered with increasing anxiety and fear as she searches for the very emotions she’s seemingly trying to eradicate. Their off the charts chemistry is what lands the proverbial plane in the film’s final moments, and Bonello would leave us completely lost in a sea of philosophy were it not for the grounded work of his lead performers. Also, Mackay seamlessly switching from French to English is pretty marvelous, and continues to solidify himself as one of the best up and coming performers of the last 10 years. He is the perfect support to a mostly Seydoux vehicle, and “The Beast” is real standout of performance from a woman who doesn’t really have a bad performance in her entire career.
Admittedly, I wasn’t fully sold on “The Beast” after my first watch, with my initial reaction being rather tepid and somewhat confused by the ambitious, wild swings Bonello takes. I found the tonal lulls to be extremely hard to engage with, but the high highs with Seydoux and Mackay reeling me back in fascinating. Even with its stylish composition and gorgeous scenery, I was still finding times to check out. But upon reflection, which I believe “The Beast” requires, I find myself wrestling with a lot of the ideas the film itself proposes more than I anticipated. And the final moments become more and more satisfying the longer I ponder the film’s vast amount of themes and philosophical quandaries. “The Beast” is a film that may require another round or two of watching to win me over completely, and given its obvious inspirations that shouldn’t be all that surprising. It is a rare class of film where ambition is a catalyst for success rather than a folly for destruction. Bonello may swing for the fences with “The Beast,” but the longer I sit with it all the less I feel that it got away from him.
It doesn’t all work, but as the layers are peeled back and the vision and viewing begin to align, it becomes more and more clear that “The Beast” will have some cinematic staying power. There will be some revisiting and revisionist history here, and “The Beast” may find the time it belongs in later in the future. Or maybe the past lives it is reliving to comment on the present will become a self full-filling prophecy of its own existence.
Ok, my head hurts now.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
“The Beast” is in select theaters April 5th. You can watch the trailer below.
