SummaryMoll (Jessie Buckley) is 27 and still living at home, stifled by the small island community around her and too beholden to her family to break away. When she meets Pascal (Johnny Flynn), a free-spirited stranger, a whole new world opens up to her and she begins to feel alive for the first time, falling madly in love. Finally breaking fre...
SummaryMoll (Jessie Buckley) is 27 and still living at home, stifled by the small island community around her and too beholden to her family to break away. When she meets Pascal (Johnny Flynn), a free-spirited stranger, a whole new world opens up to her and she begins to feel alive for the first time, falling madly in love. Finally breaking fre...
Pearce takes his time laying out his sleeping-with-the-enemy tale, but his stinginess with plot lends the film an vice-tightening air of mystery that suits it.
Alfred Hitchcock created film experiences that, as the credits roll, both excite and depress me a bit knowing that they are near the peak of film mysteries in general. More than fifty years later, it is still a thrill to thrown on Rear Window or Psycho and become immersed in the always-clever "who done it" situations, whether they are confined to an apartment building or sprawled out over a national monument. It is incredibly rare to encounter a murder mystery that even belongs in the same sentence as one of Hitchcock's seminal works, and it is even more special to see one of these high quality films when the director's last name is not "Fincher." 2018 now has its great murder mystery in Beast.
In the vein of Hitchcock's thrillers, Beast quietly introduces Moll, a disengaged young woman living unwillingly in British aristocracy on an island. Similar to Titanic's Rose, Moll enjoys a luxurious but ultimately empty existence. Her family is not a unit to be admired; her sister is kind enough to announce her pregnancy in the middle of Moll's birthday party. Moll has had enough and decides to seek adventure via night clubs and island adventures. She soon meets Pascal, a mysterious young man who marches to his own drum and seems to lack any connection with society. Moll's family predictably rejects Pascal, causing increasing tension between Moll and her family and heightening her desire to simply run away and live the simple life with Pascal. Everything becomes far more complicated, however, when the police announce a connection between a string of murders that have occurred on the island in the past couple of years. The film then launches into a tense mystery where the audience and police race to figure out who could have committed these crimes. Beast is shockingly grounded and does not get caught up in the silliness that plagues far too many mystery films. Its grounded nature causes Beast to function simultaneously as a study of psychology and sociology, avoiding cliches and allowing certain character motivations to remain as thrilling a mystery as the murders themselves. Moll and Pascal both have troubled pasts but are currently well-behaved and even submissive to authority; what caused them to act out in the past? The film is greatly rewarding and ties together all loose ends without any cheap tricks. Beast actually becomes more and more engaging as it moves along and never forces any grossly sentimental moments or suspension of disbelief. Its small and grounded nature is what allows the film to achieve such a rewarding third act.
Comparing almost any film to the works of Hitchcock is a bit ridiculous, and Beast will certainly not be revered on the same level as Rear Window and Psycho. But not every mystery film needs to be a cinematic masterpiece, and Beast finds great success in its subdued nature. This strong mystery film is wholly engaging, shockingly deep, and full of enough twists and turns to provide a thrilling theater experience that is more reminiscent of film's greatest mystery installments than just about any other recent crime thriller.
Pearce, in his feature directing debut, proves himself a solid craftsman, with a gift for giving even derivative story elements a nerve-jangling tweak. He also has a shivery way with ambiguity, a knack for toying with our expectations and turning the power of suggestion to his advantage.
British thriller Beast takes a fistful of tired old tropes — like a hunt for a serial killer, and the ‘ol Joe Eszterhas-style is-he-or-isn’t-he-a-baddie tease — and manages to fashion something fresh, fierce and quite striking from them.
Beast sounds like a straightforward erotic mystery thriller, but that atmosphere is at times overshadowed by Pearce’s exploration of British classism, bullying and bigotry.
Beast takes a storytelling gamble, presenting itself as a psychological whodunit, before pivoting toward a more genre oriented plot. The risk doesn’t quite pay off, undercutting its thematic potential for thrills that aren’t quite that effective.
I expected this movie to be a slightly off-beat traditional horror film, but it is not. It’s better than that. It’s a fascinating and complex character study of a young couple who are “beasts” each in their own ways – one is a psychopath and the other has definite impulse control issues and has had them for a very long time. They meet, fall in love – and I won’t spoil the ending for you. The actors are fantastic and totally believable, and the script and direction are excellent. The suspense is in discovering exactly what kind of people they are since neither is unattractive, and in the end, when you understand the characters, the situation is tragic – and not just for their victims.
From arresting visuals to piercing dialogue, Michael Pearce’s Beast is a symphony of thrills and chills. Pearce’s vision is crystal-clear as he guides us through a web of red-hot passion and ice-cold abuse. This vision is only elevated by the spectacular performance of the lead, Jessie Buckley, who vividly embodies these two sentiments and proudly drives the film. It can be difficult for a film to remain so thoroughly mysterious but the unity of all its working parts makes Beast a firm victory.
While Beast may sometimes get bogged down in familiar plot-points, everything comes to fruition because the movie is ultimately playing a delicate game with our expectations. Greatly offsetting those familiar points are moments that turn everything upside. Displayed with expert craftsmanship (namely the scenic and cerebral cinematography), these moments create an air of true uncertainty. Authentic and raw, this twisted journey is one that will have viewers guessing until the very end. Brilliantly executed in a variety of measures, Beast is a ferocious yet gratifying ride.
Writing: 9/10
Direction: 8/10
Cinematography: 9/10
Acting: 9/10
Editing: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Score/Soundtrack: 8/10
Production Design: 7/10
Casting: 9/10
Effects: 7/10
Overall Score: 8.1/10
Original Article: ****
And No More Beauty.
Beast
Pearce has captured a real romance between the already explored debate of nature and nurture, with a result so stupendous, that the horror aspect of the film melts away as a cathartic release. There is a lot to admire and little to exhale for, and those bits is where Pearce relies upon old textbook methods, his execution on such dodgy sequences is what stabilizes the film. The first act that flirts wildly on the screen and draws its audience actually denses up the content by using the threat metaphorically and create a tense family drama.
After which the tone shifts into a love story crossing barriers through big antics and elements so clean and sharp that pierces through your heart as these lead characters blend. The last act, which is followed by, the horror drama, that pins down to the last point on mark, this is where Pearce swoops in and saves the day, to fluctuate the tone so fluently is sheer brilliance. Flynn as the beast, or so they say, mirrors the imagination of the outer world of our society, and just like it, the uneasiness and edginess that appeals the viewers is decently fabricated by him.
But he is barely the factor affecting the equation, all the money is on Buckley and no one leaving the screen is going to feel cheated. Her poised falseness plastered by the society and her family is too fake to stand alongside them in the room, so boundless and fearless in her journey, that she grows into one of our worries. Technically, Pearce's world takes much more than it gives to us, but maybe once a while we ought to give it to something, it is surely in safe hands. Beast is every bit of human and every bit of animal there should be, in us and in them.