There’s no way you can effectively, logically or rationally critique a movie like Sasquatch Sunset. It doesn’t know if it intends to be an absurdist comedy or a dramedy after survival by showing four sasquatch beings trying to make it day to day in the northern California wilderness.
The movie features Jesse Eisenberg as one of the adult males and Riley Keough as the lone female who is the object of desire between the adult male and the alpha male (Nathan Zellner), a brutish creature. There’s also a child (Christophe Zajac-Denek), that we assume is the child of the female. How the adult male and alpha fit together is anyone’s guess.
David Zellner wrote the script that he co-directed with Nathan. The two seem to be inspired by Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Quest for Fire which focused on prehistoric cavemen. They were probably also influenced by the opening Dawn of Man Sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. There’s a lot of grunting and growling. It’s like the opening of The Star Wars Holiday Special where the Wookies talk with no subtitles. However, it’s not as bad.
Whereas Rob Perlman and Everett McGill were cast because of their unique rugged facial features, Eisenberg and Keough are hidden behind a lot of make-up, you can’t tell who they are. There’s also no dialogue so most of their communication is from body moments and grunts. It’s a good concept. But even for an hour and a half, it’s a little long.
Set in more modern times with scenes involving a campsite and a paved roadway, the movie has the actors scratch and sniff themselves and each other. They urinate here and there. And in one scene that is played for comedy, the female gives birth to a baby that is obviously an animatronic.
Yet, I really wasn’t intrigued as much. Mainly because not a lot happens. However, the Zellners are on to something with how the sasquatch mourn one of their own and dig a grave that they line with markings made from leaves and twigs. It shows that the sasquatch may be primitive but they do have emotions and compassion.
Like I said, it’s hard to review mainly because I don’t think the Zellners care if it’s good or bad and the actors themselves see this as a way to experiment with their acting. I’ve often said reviewing a Troma Entertainment movie is like trying to explain a Jackson Pollock to someone who’s been blind-deaf-mute since birth and from a different country where they were taught a different language. This is kind of the same because those movies are intended for a certain audience as well as this one.
You’ll either like it or not.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 