Roadside Attractions
When indie thrillers come out, they can either be grim and boring, connected to real life visualizations, or aesthetically layered in a way that tries to get in your head. I clearly find the first sort poor, the second is really relying on the underlying performances and plot whether or not it works, and the third is always hit or miss. I’d say this movie is more like the second option.
Beast comes from first time feature film writer/director Michael Pearce, and it takes place in a small town in the UK near the island of Jersey. Moll is a young woman (Jessie Buckley) who lives at home with her parents, and feels herself in a difficult situation. She always feels compared to her sister, who’s now married and pregnant, and her brother, who is more a favorite.
Moll’s mother Hilary (Geraldine James) is overbearing and treats her daughter as though she’s still a child, incapable of handling herself. But Moll is meek and vulnerable, only showing her pain in private — until she meets Pascal (Johnny Flynn). Pascal saves Moll from a potentially violent encounter from another suitor one drunken evening, and Pascal is everything different Moll didn’t realize she wanted.
Pascal is a classic bad boy archetype, but despite his carefree manner towards casual violence and uncaring feeling towards societal norms, he seems to sincerely adore Moll. The normal sorts of dramatics happen as Moll’s family clashes with her about her new beau, and she begins to want to distance herself more and more from her oppressive home.
But then Moll is approached by the police — it seems that a serial killer (only seen so far in the background news) has struck again recently, and her Pascal is a prime suspect. So the movie changes into a new sort of drama, one where Moll is conflicted about her relationship and whether she wants to protect Pascal or throw him away — or perhaps something even darker.
This isn’t helped when her connection to him turns the town against her (seemingly unfairly), and the movie rushes toward an ending in terms shocking and sad, predictable yet unceasingly dark. The movie gives an impression of immersion in a world of reality, not really dipping into surrealism or unusual audio-visual artifacting to confuse the issue. The twists and turns are not particularly interesting for the most part, but there are levels to the secret darkness that serve to make the final act far stronger than the first two.
When I think about what works, the two leads do well here, with Johnny Flynn doing well to make the audience conflicted on his potential evil or not. And yet Jessie Buckley excels at a few moments that elevate everything else, although most of the time she is given very little to do.
I always find it difficult to consider whether or not to recommend this sort of movie, because it’s weird in a low-level sort of way, but not in a way that will turn off people. It’s slow though, and isn’t bloody enough for torture-porn fans. I’m not sure that this movie is really for anyone except experience for the next movie.
Beast has a run time of 1 hours 47 minutes and is rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some sexuality.
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