SASQUATCH SUNSET is a crazy, creatively ambitious, charming, and ultimately not that exciting movie.
The movie follows a family of four creatures–mythical or merely obscure, depending on where you stand on Bigfoot–as they roam around a Pacific Northwest rain forest. We see them eating, experimenting, amusing themselves, copulating.
And that’s kind of it, aside from a few tragedies. If slow and absurd with plenty of anatomical and frequently gross humor is your thing, stop reading this right now and go watch the movie, you’ll dig it.
The habits of the Sasquatch are based on popular lore–their strange calls, stink, tree whacking, and so on–and portrayed in a loving and sometimes charming way, set among natural beauty. It’s almost like Wes Anderson decided to make a nature documentary about apes. The prosthetics and makeup are pretty good–it’s hard to believe that’s Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough under there–and with a little willing suspension of disbelief, you’re inside the Sasquatch world, sometimes seeing the human through their eyes.
The problem is that it’s not terribly interesting. There aren’t so much characters we can relate to as creatures we’re simply observing. With no real central conflict or story, it gets old fast, and it’s hard to tell what point the film is making except maybe producer Ari Aster and Zellner and Jesse Eisenberg got super high one night and decided on a dare to make the movie.
The result is an experience that is just that. I don’t regret seeing it, and I didn’t think it was bad. I just didn’t get it, and it felt like its creative ambition way exceeded what they were able to accomplish.
Seeing it made me think of CHIMP EMPIRE, which actually culled a compelling and dramatic story from the lives of African chimpanzees, and made me want to watch it again.
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