Sasquatch Sunset: Sundance London Film Review
There is a select pool of people who will really like David and Nathan Zellner‘s bizarre movie Sasquatch Sunset but I am not one of them. In fact, I was not on its wavelength at all.
The dialogue-free film feels a bit like a nature documentary; it follows four sasquatches (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Nathan Zellner and Christophe Zajac-Denek) over the course of a year in the Northern California wilderness. We observe their daily lives – eating, foraging, exploring, having sex and encountering animals and unfamiliar human possessions.
Sasquatch Sunset is only 90 minutes but it feels so much longer. There are a couple of ‘big’ moments (like discovering a road and a campsite), but generally speaking, there isn’t much of a plot and we just watch them living their daily lives. It feels like a good short film that has been stretched into a feature. I struggled to engage with it, I only found it funny a handful of times and often felt bored and disgusted; there were a lot of gross-out moments involving various bodily fluids that I could not get on board with.
I enjoyed parts of the story – such as an encounter with a cougar and the discovery of a road – and there were elements I liked. I loved the stunning locations and cinematography, The Octopus Project’s score and the ending. Somehow, among the batshit goings-on, the film makes you think about our impact on the natural world and how civilization, hunting and deforestation all harm wild animals. I didn’t expect such poignancy from this weird film!
It’s hilarious to me that famous actors like Eisenberg and Keough signed up for this when you can’t see them. They wear sasquatch body suits and prosthetics and are covered head to toe in hair. You cannot recognise them at all. You have to respect their choice to star in something so bonkers. Perhaps they enjoyed the challenge of communicating through movements and grunts instead of words.
You have to have a particular sense of humour to vibe with Sasquatch Sunset and it did not work for me. However, I truly believe it will find its people in time.
Showing at Sundance London this weekend and cinemas from Friday 14th June