Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Beast Blu-ray Movie Review

Moll's gangster?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 5, 2018

As most any film lover worth his or her salt will know, the central conceit of Akira Kurosawa’s legendary Rashomon is that something happened, but differing versions presented in the film, as related by various people involved in the fracas, leave the viewer wondering exactly what went down in an isolated Japanese forest. There’s a really fascinating scene toward the end of Beast that features the film's two central characters, twenty-something Moll (Jessie Buckley) and her boyfriend Pascal (Johnny Flynn), having a discussion which weighs mightily on the plot proceedings, but which is open to two very different interpretations, interpretations which in fact send the whole “whodunit” aspect of a plot at least tangentially concerned with a serial killer off into a netherworld of uncertainty. Beast offers three pretty amazing feature film debuts (or close to it, anyway), two of which are the aforementioned Buckley and Flynn as a pair of perhaps starcrossed lovers, and the third being writer-director Michael Pearce, who will probably find himself compared at least in some ways to both Terrence Malick and Malick’s early film Badlands. Much as with that 1973 film, an underlying sense of menace and even outright violence is countered by stunning scenes of sylvan glades and other lush environments, though in this case it’s the isolated English Channel island of Jersey, rather than the redolent open vistas of the American midwest. It may be unfair to compare Pearce to either Malick or Badlands, since the aims of Beast are probably noticeably different than Badlands, but Beast manages to weave a fairly hypnotic “Malick-ian” spell as it details the burgeoning relationship between Moll, a seemingly passive woman who often comes off as a teenager, and Pascal, a rough and tumble sort with a long criminal history.

Moll’s voiceover informs the opening sequence, with a little rant about whales who always seem to smiling, but who tend to go crazy when kept in captivity. It’s a suitable metaphor for Moll’s own existence, in a cloistered community where it appears she is well under the thumb of her domineering mother Hilary (Geraldine James), while also having to compete with attention grabbing siblings. That rivalry extends to Moll’s own birthday party, which her sister usurps with a little announcement of her own, leading to Moll taking off for what amounts to a rave. She dances the night away, and is soon in a seemingly dangerous situation with a guy who won’t take “no” for an answer, when suddenly Pascal shows up and scares the living daylights out of the guy. Moll seems to be almost hypnotized by Pascal, a rough and rowdy type who carries a rifle and is far from kempt.

There are a couple of passing allusions to a killing spree on the Isle of Jersey, and Moll herself suffers from a nightmare early in the film where she dreams of an intruder breaking into her room and assaulting her. Weirdly, the dream ends with Moll impaling herself with a pair of scissors, a plot point which turns out to have some startling revelations later in the story. Much of the middle part of the film details the disconnect between Moll’s extremely uptight family (which includes a father suffering from dementia) and the kind of “balls to the wall” approach of Pascal. Moll is also being kind of jointly counseled and courted by local policeman Cliff (Trystan Gravelle), a guy who obviously wants a relationship with her and who repeatedly tries to warn her about Pascal’s shadowy past. Of course the subtext soon develops as to whether Pascal is responsible for the bodies of dead girls that have been discovered around the island.

The central duo in Beast provides the film with abundant energy and a decidedly unsettling feeling, but some of the supporting characters are a bit on the cartoonish side, despite excellent efforts on the part of the performers bringing them to life. Moll’s “desperate straits” are therefore perhaps not quite as melodramatic as they might have seemed, and in fact some may feel the character comes off as almost as privileged in her own way as, say, Cliff, despite the fact that she’s in a family that has a number of dysfunctions. However, things are sent at least a bit asunder late in the film with a bit of a reveal as to why Moll’s mother is such a harridan toward her daughter, and that revelation in turn colors the climax of the film, at least for those who pay attention to interpretation of supposedly banal dialogue.

It’s in the almost feral interchanges between Moll and Pascal that Beast attains its true creepiness, even as Michael Pearce at least occasionally attempts to add some sociopolitical tidbits (there’s a telling moment at the family dinner table where Pascal informs the Britishers that they’re on “his land”, a reference to Jersey’s French past). The film may seem to be a kind of thriller, then, when really it may resonate more convincingly as a character (or characters) study. Buckley and Flynn are like a match flame meeting a stick of dynamite, with an appropriately explosive result.

Beast Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Beast is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb doesn't have much technical data online, but the making of featurette has a couple of brief shots of cameras that I think are Alexa models, and I'm assuming this was finished at a 2K DI (if anyone has authoritative data to the contrary, let me know and I'll happily update the review). There's an intentional gauziness to quite a bit of this presentation, with an almost misty ambience that gives the impression that cinematographer Benjamin Kracun may have covered his lenses with silk or petroleum jelly, per techniques of yore. That gives a lot of the presentation a kind of dewy softness, though quite commendably, fine detail levels tend to be very good to excellent, at least in better lighting conditions. There are a number of darker moments on hand, including a couple of parties and other nighttime sequences, and there is a bit of what I've termed "digital murk" that tends to mask fine detail at times. This is also another recent Lionsgate release that has at least brief moments of banding. I've tried to offer one such moment in screenshot 19, where the most eagle eyed may be able to discern the "ridges" in light gradations behind Moll's bed, though the anomaly was much more noticeable on my various televisions than it may appear to be on the screenshot itself.

Beast Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Beast features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that really springs to life in the rave sequence as well as the placement of appealing ambient environmental sounds in several outdoor sequences. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly, and all elements are prioritized smartly on this problem free track.

Beast Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Beast (1080p; 7:29) is a decent EPK with some good interviews.


• A Look at Beast (1080p; 5:46) is a slideshow of production stills.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:28)

Beast Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had a moment when I first opened the package containing the screener and saw the cover, and asked, "What is Carrot Top doing in drag?" Buckley's bright orange hair is perhaps a little reminiscent of the famed comedian, and some may also feel that Johnny Flynn bears more than a passing resemblance to actors like Heath Ledger and/or Charlie Hunnam, while the film itself may remind some of efforts like Badlands. All of that said, this is a really unique and actually kind of startlingly audacious feature which pays some unexpected dividends for those who pay attention to subtext. There are few niggling qualms I had with the presentation of some of the supporting characters, but the star duo here is really amazing, both viscerally powerful and at times completely unsettling. I will say Pascal's poaching "career" may mean this is not a film for PETA members. Technical merits are generally solid, and Beast comes Recommended.