6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A troubled woman living in an isolated community finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider suspected of a series of brutal murders.
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Geraldine James, Hattie Gotobed, Charley Palmer RothwellPsychological thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
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 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.
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.
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