Sasquatch Sunset: Absurdist, Sad, Gross - That's the Way They Became the Bigfoot Bunch
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B
It goes without saying that any movie, even the most lauded, isn’t for everyone. But it feels especially worth saying up front about Sasquatch Sunset, written by David Zellnerand co- directed with his brother Nathan Zellner.
The film about a Sasquatch family - which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough - was controversial from the moment it debuted this past January at the Sundance FIlm Festival, with some praising the film, and reports of others walking out. I doubt you’ll see another movie like it this year.
It is unusual, and often, well, gross. But is that so bad? If you’re willing to go with it, the Zellner brothers and their cast have delivered something that is by turns funny, sad, and, in the end, surprisingly poignant.
The story is fairly simple. There are four Sasquatch, maybe a family, maybe a little tribe—given that there’s no dialogue it isn’t clear. The members are an alpha male, (Nathan Zellner), a female (Keough), and two younger males (Eisenberg) and (Christophe Zajac-Denek). They wander around in their home turf, a giant forested area, foraging for food, hanging out, and going about the daily business of building themselves a little structure to sleep in.
The movie is divided into four seasons, with each functioning as a little chapter posing its own challenge for this cryptozoological clan. Maybe you’ve never wondered about whether Sasquatch are real, or how they live, whether they’re apelike or hominids, further up the primate intellectual chain. But the filmmakers have thought about that, and made certain choices about who they are.
There’s no real dialogue, the four communicate physically and vocally in ways similar to our fellow primate relatives. They have also worked out a routine where they use sticks to pound on trees in a certain rhythm. Whether that’s for fun or communication, or both, is up to interpretation.
As the film goes on, we start to see different personalities emerging. The alpha is a selfish jerk. The female doesn’t take much guff from him. The older of the other two males is a teeny bit more whimsical. And the smallest, who I assume is the youngest, is more of a follower.
The actors are completely hidden under their Sasquatch costumes. The only tools they possess to convey emotions are body language and their eyes, although the latter is subtle. No one is aiming to be cute, or to show an intellectual “aha!” moment. This isn’t evolution in action.
They haven’t romanticized them in any way. The Sasquatch are depicted honestly as lower primates, they are not self-conscious. Body functions are just that. Poo is flung,
For a while, the film does seem like something absurdist, and, have I mentioned sometimes really gross?
But given all of this, what’s remarkable is that the film, if you stick with it, does start to connect, and leaves off with something that manages to be both absurd and resonant.
CLICK HERE to watch Bonnie Laufer’s interview with Riley Keough, Jesse Eisenberg and Christope Zajac-Denek.
CLICK HERE to watch Bonnie’s interview with David and Nathan Zellner.
Sasquatch Sunset. Written by David Zellner, Directed by David and Nathan Zellner. Stars Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Christope Zajac-Denek and Nathan Zellner. In theatres now.