HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS
(directed by Mike Cheslik, 2024)
*** (out of 5)
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> Silly! Goofy! Wacky, surreal stuff! This movie is as loony as any film I’ve ever seen.
. An obvious acolyte of fellow Canadian imagemaker Guy Maddin, Mike Cheslik has fashioned something unlike anything you have ever seen- outside of a Guy Maddin feverdream of course. His indebtedness to the weird auteur is striking from the very first image: a scratchy black-and-white block of text resembling an intertitle from silent movie days. Wait. This is a (quasi)silent movie! Well, that’s different.
. Ryland Brickson Cole Tews clowns a hapless apple farmer who delights in the alcoholic applejack he makes from the annual crop. Life is great! It’s one long bacchanal excess. Until the beavers arrive. In short order, his whole world is obliterated and he is a man alone in the northern snowdrift, battling the elements for survival, and eying the rabbits and the eggs in bird’s nests hungrily. Before the adventure is over, he will find himself under the wing of a gifted hunter, learning how to trap animals for food, and beavers for their valuable fur. His goal: to deliver enough pelts to the ornery cuss at the trading post to buy the hand of his come-hither daughter in matrimony. Her dowry is considerable: he must come back with the hides of hundreds of beavers!
. So it’s a showdown: one man, alone in the snow- his adversary’s native turf, doing mortal combat with an army of industrious beavers, busily building an impressive fortress on the distant horizon. Did I mention that most of the animals- the beavers, the rabbits, the skunks and the menacing wolves are played by full-sized actors in furry costumes that make them look like rejects from a toddler’s nightmare? They are! It makes them much more formidable opponents in the fight scenes, which are surprisingly raw and brutal, like Winnie the Pooh meets John Wick. They all interact in a cartoon fantasy world that mixes live-action with animation in a delightfully fractured way.
. Slapstick routines repeat themselves for comic effect, in recurring motifs. The storytelling is almost entirely visual, having the effect of a Jacques Tati comedy. There is often a Rube Goldberg quality to the action, though the contraptions do not always function as planned, which is certainly part of the fun.
. Too bad HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS is a one trick pony, considering how much fun it is. Things get repetitive. Ultimately, it’s just a series of sight-gags that does not hang together well as a movie. At almost 2 hours, it goes on about 20 minutes too long. Still, 3-stars for creativity and audacity- plenty of both on display here. It does not take millions of dollars to make a fun movie. All you need is inspiration. Inspiration and chutzpah.
– Just check out that bizarro trailer! That is some zany shit, man.
*
© Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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