The Beast Review
The Beast (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Bertrand Bonello, written by Benjamin Charbit, Guillaume Bréaud and Bertrand Bonello and starring Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda, Dasha Nekrasova, Elina Lowensohn, Marta Hoskins, Julia Faure, Kester Lovelace, Pauline Jacquard, Alice Barnoleand Laurent Lacotte.
Léa Seydoux has the most intense role of her career in the brilliantly conceived Bertrand Bonello picture, The Beast. Very loosely based on Henry James’s novella, The Beast in the Jungle and probably inspired by David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive in more ways than one, The Beast is a tremendous achievement in film-making. Set during at least three different time periods, there is a scene from the early portion of the film, set in 1910, that rivals many major scenes from Titanic. Then, the movie spins out of control from there into one of the most electrifying and bizarre movies ever made. It’s hard not to be reminded of the greats while watching this film. With dashes of Scorsese, Lynch and maybe even Kubrick, The Beast still stands as director Bonello’s own unique creation which places the director towards the top of the list as one of the most distinguished filmmakers working today.
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This film opens in fairly modern times (2014) with Léa Seydoux’s Gabrielle Monnier getting ready to perform through bodily motions while no other actors are around her. The person auditioning her is asking her to react to imaginary props and scenarios and Gabrielle does what she can to give him what he wants. As the film takes us back to France in 1910, another version of Gabrielle is married but not necessarily happily when she meets a man, Louis Lewanski (George MacKay). A party-going woman asks Gabrielle (who is looking for her husband), “Why do we always search for the people we come with when we go to parties?” These early scenes are perfectly conveyed and set the stage for a movie to come which will flip this section of the film upside down.
There is a futuristic portion of the picture set in 2044 where Artificial Intelligence has dominated society. Gabrielle wants to work and thinks she is intelligent but she’s not intelligent enough because she’s, alas, human. The piece de resistance of the first hour or so of The Beast, however, is when dolls are burning up in flames and there are only two ways for Gabrielle and Louis to escape the situation – by going through the fire or going down into water in which there could be no sure way to safety. It’s either that they must take that risk by going into the water or otherwise, most likely, burn to death. The eventual underwater scene is frightening, and fascinating and undeniably the most harrowing scene in the whole entire picture. The characters take a huge risk which leads to a devastating outcome.
The movie lightens up a bit in California, 2014, as another variation of Gabrielle shoots the breeze with a friend as one of them wonders if earning $10 an hour is more or making $1000 per month is. Now, when we meet Louis, he’s a maniac. A sociopath and a loner who wants to make women “pay” for not giving him attention, Louis drives a jeep, wears nice clothes and tries hard but gets nowhere with the women he pursues. MacKay delivers the best dialogue in the film in a monologue where the Louis of 2014 expresses his frustrations with women.
Gabrielle (2014) calls a psychic (Marta Hoskins) up on a video call on the web and she warns him to steer clear of a man but Gabrielle thinks the psychic isn’t making sense. Louis is following Gabrielle to a mansion-type home where an earthquake soon takes place. Afterwards, Gabrielle invites Louis in and starts to engage in steamy romance with him but he turns into an older man which means something else really happened than what Gabrielle thought had happened. Remember David Lynch’s Lost Highway, anyone? The Beast has that high level of creepiness in these scenes.
Scenes interspersed into the movie which are set in a nightclub feature Gabrielle finding herself with some drugs which help escalate the situation to one of high tensions as Gabrielle makes her way to a table of women who won’t give her the time of day. She’s lost and needs to find her Louis but he’s a psycho this time around who will stalk her to kingdom come. In fact, he’s made a pact to kill women — blonde women like Gabrielle in particular.
There is no reason to keep revealing plot threads because that would spoil the masterclass in film-making that is The Beast. The fear of finding happiness can lead to never finding it. That is a thread which finds its way into the movie but there is a lot to cherish about this picture besides its thought-provoking themes. It works as a genre picture too, just one with a little more complexity. Pick your poison – old-fashioned romance, futuristic woes or just a good stalker thriller. They’re all here in one of the most complex labyrinths of a movie ever made.
The Beast is quite simply a brilliant picture. The scenes set in the mansion-type home in California which Gabrielle (2014) is occupying make for scenes that rival the classic horror film, When a Stranger Calls. But, to compare this to that picture would undermine the integrity of the depth that is found in The Beast.
Léa Seydoux and George MacKay have scenes towards the end of The Beast which are going to be destined to be crowd-pleasers at midnight movie shows or independent film screenings throughout the coming years. These performers are well-matched and play their roles with precision and plenty of underlying intensity. It’s the best recent screen-pairing that I can recall. Seydoux has never been better in what is a performance that will finally make her the movie star she has always been destined to be. MacKay is creepy, and bone-chilling, to be certain, but there’s also some earnestness in his earlier scenes that will make the viewer intrigued in the character(s) MacKay plays.
However one wants to analyze The Beast is fine but remember this is a movie that could require multiple viewings to fully grasp every plot detail. But, the best way to watch the film is to just sit back and enjoy what is the most bizarre intensity you will see at the movies this year and, perhaps, all decade. The Beast is relentless, powerful and full of nerve-wracking suspense. It’s a must-see.
Rating: 10/10
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