beast movie review reddit

Idris Elba recoils against the interior of a shattered car, staring at the camera in fear in Beast.

Filed under:

Beast brings back the short, sharp, well-crafted creature feature

Idris Elba versus a rogue lion turns out to be one of 2022’s better small-scale showdowns

If you buy something from a Polygon link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement .

Share this story

Share this on Facebook
Share this on Reddit
Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Beast brings back the short, sharp, well-crafted creature feature

Early in the man-versus-nature horror movie Beast , one of the characters wears a faux-vintage Jurassic Park T-shirt — a choice that scans as clear homage, from one Universal summer nature-from-hell creature feature to another. Beast even features that classic Jurassic movie trope, a pair of siblings struggling to stay out of view as a large animal circles the vehicle where they’re trapped. But in spite of the parallels, in spite of a surprising level of craft for a late-August release in a summer where an actual Jurassic Park sequel got a prime June slot, Beast ultimately isn’t gunning for status as a Jurassic upstart or companion piece. The movie is assured as it stakes out its own smaller territory.

Beast ’s most noticeable departure from the Jurassic series is its intimacy; only four members of the human cast really register as significant. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) is a doctor returning to South Africa for a vacation with his daughters Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries) following the death of the girls’ mother, who was separating from Nate when she got sick. They meet up with Uncle Martin (Sharlto Copley), though his title is an honorific; he’s a friend of the family who now works as an “anti-poacher” on an African preserve, protecting lions and other animals. Martin takes them out to see some lions and visit a local village. They find the village has been torn apart, and soon enough, a single vengeful lion is stalking all of them.

Yes, a vengeful lion. As near as Martin can tell, this lion has “gone rogue” (his words) following the death of his pack. Typically, female lions do the hunting and males protect the pride, but this fearsome beast has moved from protection to sheer revenge. (Call him Lion Neeson.) It’s very much in the tradition of another Spielberg summer creature movie: Like Jaws , Beast heightens basic human fears about a sharp-toothed predator into something impossible, even ridiculous, yet weirdly plausible for most people.

Idris Elba stands against a locked, rusty exterior door, nervously looking over his shoulder in Beast

Repeatedly evoking Spielberg doesn’t necessarily do Beast any favors. The film doesn’t have the distinctive characters of Jaws , the stunning effects of Jurassic Park , or the sweaty-palmed, clenched-fist sequences of either movie. (Or for that matter, of The Lost World. ) At the same time, director Baltasar Kormákur, who’s focused his American career on survival stories like Everest and Adrift , obviously put some effort into staging the lion attacks, the downtime in between, and the exposition that leads there.

Kormákur uses long takes — some showy and possibly computer-assisted, but plenty that are more matter-of-fact — to turn the audience into tourists. First we’re following along as the Samuels kids look through Martin’s house and see the South African wilderness for the first time. Later, we’re stuck in their car, or underneath it, as the lion circles, swipes, and gnashes its teeth. The camera keeps catching the lion through windows or in the distance, a second or two before the characters notice. Half the fun of the movie is watching Kormákur move through his limited spaces. It’s a skillful tight-spot thriller.

The camerawork offers stronger human storytelling than the obligatory talk about Nate letting his kids down, or about stepping up mid-crisis to protect them in a way he couldn’t shelter them from their mom’s death. These aren’t the most egregiously shoehorned-in emotions ever seen in a 93-minute survival/creature thriller; Halley and Jeffries have a naturally awkward, believable rapport with their on-screen dad Elba, and they’re all easy to like. Even more surprising: Overactor extraordinaire Sharlto Copley turns in a restrained, no-nonsense performance!

Idris Elba, Iyana Halley, and Leah Jeffries look frightened in a car at night in Beast

But it’s easy to wonder whether producer Will Packer had a hand in the movie’s family dynamics. Packer-produced comedies like What Men Want and Night School are sometimes marred with teachable-moment piety, and in this case, the lessons are a little cracked. Meredith resents Nate because her mother died of cancer, which spurs him to protect his remaining family at any cost. But is Nate, a doctor who should be familiar with extraordinary life-saving measures and the inevitability of losing some patients, really supposed to learn that it’s his personal responsibility to battle death hand-to-hand? In this context, the standard-issue survival-movie tenacity feels almost like denial, with Nate seeking redemption for something that was truly impossible to control. For a movie addressing the unknowable ferocity of nature, Beast has a daft, even simple-minded conviction about what can keep chaos and murder at bay.

This is a minor complaint for an enjoyably minor movie. For much of its slim running time, Beast does what it’s supposed to do, right down to the buzzy moments of silliness where it bravely, too briefly heads over the top. (Yes, a human challenges a lion to a one-on-one fight.) It even forms an accidental trilogy with two other recent August releases: Prey , Fall , and Beast comprise a miniature revival of the stripped-down, well-crafted thriller, summer movies more like The Shallows or Don’t Breathe (or, reaching further back, Breakdown or Red Eye ) than wannabe blockbusters bloated out to epic length. At a time when Jurassic World keeps trying to expand its reach, here’s another reminder of just how much less can actually look like more.

Beast is now streaming on Peacock Plus .

Five Nights at Freddy 2 hitting the big screen next year

Horror fishing game dredge being adapted for live-action movie, american horror story: delicate is back to do what ahs does best.

'Beast' review: Good dad Idris Elba battles ticked-off CGI lion for a tolerable mane event

Rule of the movie jungle: It’s harmful to one’s health to square up with a vengeful and ridiculously dangerous lion – computer-generated image or real – even if you’re Idris Elba .

Elba’s signature cool gets tossed around a bit, though the British actor does get to throw haymakers at a roaring creature in the mane event of “Beast” (★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday). The over-the-top survival thriller definitely fits into the aesthetic of Hollywood’s August burn-off period, where bad (and so-bad-they’re-good) movies reign, though Elba’s charisma goes a long way in terms of enjoyability as do some hair-raising animal attacks.

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (“ Everest ,” “2 Guns”), the film begins with recently widowed Nate Samuels (Elba) taking his teenage daughters Mare (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries) on a trip to the South African savanna where Nate met their mom. The three are still reeling following her death from cancer when they meet up with old friend Martin (Sharlto Copley), a wildlife biologist who shows the visitors around his reserve – including a family of lions.

'Beast': Idris Elba has Leonardo DiCaprio to thank for his 'realistic' lion fight

Another pride, however, was just slaughtered by poachers, all except for one huge male lion that escaped. Ticked off and out for blood – any human’s will do – the rogue beast attacks the group, savagely injuring Martin and turning their van into the one thing keeping them alive. It’s not even good at that, as the lion pushes the vehicle and comes flying through the window, and Nate fights to keep everyone safe from this monster.

“Beast” is lean and mean at 93 minutes, but still the movie takes its time to get to the good stuff. Once the vicious lion starts stalking its prey – and claustrophobic attacks lead to an epic face-off between man and nature – the film finds its way and offers up some decent jump scares before the story begins to dip toward far-fetched fantasy. You will have to endure some forgettable B-movie dialogue: “We’re in his territory now,” Copley somehow says with a straight face as the movie’s four-legged villain makes his presence felt.

For a digital critter, the main lion’s not bad and feels real, especially in the night scenes where it comes off as a horror villain on a bloody paw-ful killing spree. (Is there enough CGI lion? Never.) Logic takes a nosedive later on, as the lion becomes an obsessive combination of Cujo, the Terminator and the shark from “Jaws.” What’s interesting, be it a conscious choice or a budgetary one, is that while the primary antagonist is a ripping, biting, tearing terror on people, the camera looks away when there’s creature-on-creature carnage – a decision that plays well for the animal lovers in the audience.

Knuckles up: Why Idris Elba's furious critter is the very best thing about 'Sonic the Hedgehog 2'

But “Beast” tends to force human emotion: The narrative hints at a cultural exploration around Nate’s late wife and her village but it’s fleeting. Plus, when you have children in danger, you don’t have to do a lot to imagine a guy going into super-dad mode, and the film leans conveniently with its story choices. (People tend to be wounded in the path of an out-of-control big cat, so good thing Nate’s a doctor!)

It isn’t Elba’s “Sharknado” but also not exactly his “Out of Africa,” so just enjoy this late-summer flick for what it does well: a primal fight between man and very mad lion that brings unhinged beauty to a rousing “Beast.”

From 'Top Gun' to 'Nope': 10 magical movie moments we can't stop talking about this summer

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Civil War Link to Civil War
Monkey Man Link to Monkey Man
Scoop Link to Scoop

New TV Tonight

Under the Bridge: Season 1
The Sympathizer: Season 1
Conan O'Brien Must Go: Season 1
Our Living World: Season 1
The Spiderwick Chronicles: Season 1
Orlando Bloom: To the Edge: Season 1
The Circle: Season 6
Dinner with the Parents: Season 1
Jane: Season 2

Beast Reviews

An intriguing and atmospheric gem.

Full Review | Aug 6, 2021

Silver bullet of dark erotica, fertile pathology, a sunlit and soiled mystical union of shadows and light.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 29, 2021

Beast's unfiltered tactility can alternate between warm and painful. Oh, and there's plenty of cinematic rainfall to boot.

Full Review | Dec 10, 2020

It was in these initial moments of the film that I first found myself mumbling the words 'Who is this Jessie Buckley?'

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 2, 2020

Pearce's work here demonstrates a cultural intention that largely redeems it of its shortcomings. It's not something to swoon over, but the allure of it all can be hard to shake.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 24, 2020

The leads deliver affecting, nuanced performances, which gives heft to the psychological insights.

Full Review | Mar 5, 2020

Beast offers such a striking cast of characters, and such an involving, twisting narrative, that it will have you on tenterhooks well before the intense, pitch-perfect climax.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2019

All is manifestly not well on the manicured island of Jersey where tour-coach hostess Moll lives at home with her domineering, "best-friend" mother and her Alzheimer's-afflicted father.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 7, 2019

Buckley gets under the skin of her character as Moll finds herself caught between two worlds.

Full Review | May 21, 2019

Beast has some good performances and an interesting story, but there just isn't enough there to justify an entire movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | May 16, 2019

The powerful performances of Buckley and Flynn keep us engrossed in this tale as it unfolds, although the ending is a bit of a let- down.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 24, 2019

Buckley's performance at least helps maintain attention, but all else is essentially a wash.

Full Review | Apr 20, 2019

Beast ends up playing things a lot straighter than its twisty, sometimes hallucinatory narrative structure might lead you to believe.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 20, 2019

A juxtaposition of serial killer mystery and genre romance, the film boasts an absorbing tonal shift from drama to psychological thriller.

Full Review | Feb 28, 2019

Although its not always effective, Beast is an interesting thriller. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 25, 2019

Violence, drinking, and sex in suspenseful thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2019

Extraordinarily restrained pacing, a tantalizing merge between imagination and reality, and Buckley's and Flynn's engrossing performances make this tale truly beastly.

The film doesn't reach the perturbing level that it thinks it does. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Feb 8, 2019

Thus, between clichés about false culprits and true detectives pushing the story... seek refuge in the gestural intuition of [actor Jessie] Buckley, the true motor of the film, to find any animality. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 4, 2019

Beast isn't just one of the most unsettling movies you'll ever watch; it practically drips menace from every frame, every moment.

Full Review | Feb 4, 2019

Beast (I) (2022)

User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

User Ratings
External Reviews
Metacritic Reviews
Full Cast and Crew
Release Dates
Official Sites
Company Credits
Filming & Production
Technical Specs
Plot Summary
Plot Keywords
Parents Guide

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits
Alternate Versions
Connections
Soundtracks

Photo & Video

Photo Gallery
Trailers and Videos

The Reflector News

Featured stories, ‘beast’ movie review.

“Beast,” released in theaters on Aug. 19, follows recently widowed father Nate Samuels (Idris Elba), and his two daughters, Meredith (Lyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries) throughout their South African vacation to visit their late mother’s home. However, the family is faced with a vengeful lion that seeks to kill anyone in its path after local poachers killed its pride.

I felt like the storyline was similar to the movie “The Shallows,” released in June 2016. It had a very similar message when it came to the plot and how an animal was out to get the main characters. I think that this plot line is very overdone, which is why I personally did not enjoy “Beast.” Nowadays, there are a lot more ideas for genres and plot. I felt as if they copied similar movies, but changed the animal and setting.

Throughout the movie, there are a lot of intense moments where the viewer knows something bad is about to happen. Although the plot is very predictable, the viewer has a sense of excitement when anything thrilling happens in the movie. It is action-packed with some moments of grief from the recently widowed father. “Beast” has moments where you realize that sometimes you need to forgive people because you are never sure how long you have with the people in your life.

The director, Baltasar Kormákur , shows how killing a lion’s whole pride can ultimately turn into a fight for your life. The location for the movie was perfect for the storyline, as well as the lighting when it was nighttime.The director did a good job of capturing fear and making the audience feel what the actors were feeling. While the movie is 93 minutes long, I think if it were any longer, it would have been too long and drawn out. Elba did an excellent job for his part, but I think that Jeffries could have played her part better than she did. I found myself annoyed with her acting at certain points because of the lack of emotion she showed during the intense scenes.

This action/adventure movie truly shows how far you will go for people you love and this is shown in the last ten minutes of the movie, which I think was the best scene. Although I usually like action/adventure movies, this one was not as good as I was expecting. I felt at some points the scenes were too long and in certain scenes, I felt like I knew what was coming next because things started to get crazy early on. The acting of Jeffries’ emotions and delivery of her lines could have been much better. I had high hopes for the movie because I enjoy Elba as an actor. He did a phenomenal job for his part, but the rest of the movie could have been better if different actresses were chosen to play the daughters. The movie shows how you will fight for your life and go to any length just to make sure your family will survive.

Overall, the movie plot was very predictable when it came to what was going to happen at the end of the movie, as well as what each character was going to do.

Recommended for You

‘Civil War’ is Both Timely and Prescient

“Happy Customers”: A Branch of 2010s Nostalgia

From Yoncé to Yeehaw: Beyoncé Rides Past Her Competition with New Album...

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine Shine in Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Conclusion to Maas’ ‘Crescent City’ Trilogy Underwhelms

Country Roads Beyoncé Take Me Home: A Review of “Texas Hold ‘Em”...

The Piano Man Sings Another Melody in 2024, and It’s Everything I...

The Last Dinner Party’s ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’: Emily Dickinson with an Electric...

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

Moll, a young redheaded woman, puts on a yellow sundress and stares at herself in the mirror. Downstairs, guests gather for her birthday party. Moll's shoulders hunch inwards, her arms are tense. It is as though her body revolts against taking up space, being visible. She stands on the sidelines of her own party like a wraith, sadness seeping out in moments when she thinks no one is looking. In an early voiceover, she states she has always been obsessed with killer whales, those huge creatures who are "always smiling." It's hard to associate this obsession with such a frail-looking put-upon young woman. By the end of "Beast," Michael Pearce's remarkable first feature, we more than understand.

The aforementioned birthday party sets up Moll's home life: She lives with her parents on the island of Jersey. She has a nothing job as a tour guide. Her father is descending into dementia, and Moll is required to do her part and take care of him. Her mother ( Geraldine James , in a truly chilling performance) keeps Moll on the shortest of possible leashes, for reasons which aren't entirely clear at first. After Moll's sister hijacks the birthday party by announcing she's pregnant with twins, Moll flees into the night, looking for ... she doesn't know what. She heads to a nearby bar, where she meets a guy and they dance til dawn, but afterwards, on the beach, he won't take "No" for an answer. They tussle. This potentially violent situation is broken up by a rifle-wielding mysterious stranger, who threatens the guy off and then offers to drive Moll home. This is Pascal ( Johnny Flynn ), a charismatic soft-faced guy with dirt under his fingernails and a thick crop of blonde hair.

Moll looks at Pascal as though he is oxygen. He's a kind of grubby White Rabbit, leading Alice away from the social and civilized world. (The fact that he's an illegal poacher, with a bucket of rabbit pelts in the back seat of his jeep, helps land the metaphor.) Into her narrow life has stepped this gorgeous and wild figure, who - for reasons mysterious - has chosen her . She flings herself into the experience so wholeheartedly you worry for her. Pascal lights up a cigarette indoors, he tracks dirt on the carpet, he shatters social niceties, saying to Moll in front of her mother, "Let's go out and get shit-faced." It's a world so strict that Pascal wearing black jeans to the country club is almost as scandalous as Bette Davis wearing a red ballgown in "Jezebel". To Moll, he is life itself. And yet ... from the jump, we have our doubts about him. For some time, girls have been going missing all over the island. A dead girl is found buried in a field. Locals go on search parties. Hysterical updates dominate the news.

One of the strengths of the film, also written by Pearce, is how much it is willing to withhold, without descending into "Gotcha!" manipulation. A key revelation about Moll doesn't come out until nearly the end of the film. Information about Pascal is also slow to arrive. What we hear is not good, but we are left in an uncertain state, with only our suspicions and speculations, adding to the generally paranoid atmosphere. Jersey, gorgeously shot by Benjamin Kračun, is a place of crashing surf, towering rock cliffs, impenetrable dark forests: in "Beast" civilization is a paper-thin layer over pure chaos.

Jessie Buckley gives what can only be called a breakout performance as Moll. She is a revelation. Perhaps because she is an unknown, it is never completely clear what she is going to do from one moment to the next. She is thrillingly alive, with waves of feeling erupting over her face, whether she's struggling against the shame spiral her mother puts her through, or feverishly reaching for Pascal's fly as they tryst in an empty forest glade. Sometimes she subsides into a strange blankness, or bursts forth in tremulous quivering need. When the film opens, Moll is already in a devastated state. Her family life is claustrophobic. Her mother is unpredictable, and yet so in control Moll cannot wriggle free. In an argument, her mother's goal is to crush Moll's sense of self and agency. Once she accomplishes that (and it's not hard), she shifts abruptly, saying, "Let's be friends again." With all of the terrors in "Beast," the most frightening thing may be the mother-daughter relationship.

Pascal and Moll hold within them the potential of many deadly lover-duos in cinema, Kit and Holly in " Badlands ," or Bonnie and Clyde. For a while, it seems like they might be on the road to going the outlaw route, but "Beast" has other things up its sleeve. The police-procedural aspect of the film is pretty stock stuff, with the cops circling Pascal, closing in on him. "Whodunit" is important, but it's not the really the true engine of the film. The engine of the film is the gradual transformation of Moll, masterfully tracked by Buckley in such a gradual arc you might miss what's happening at first. The delicate sad girl in a yellow sundress gets dirtier and dirtier, as though retreating to her proper and mostly uncivilized state. It is who she wants to be, and eventually she is so feral it makes you wonder uneasily if her mother kept her on a short leash for a reason. Once out of the confines of her family, Moll is dangerously unmoored. In this, the film reminded me of Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" (which also, incidentally, features a rabbit as a central motif), where Catherine Deneuve gives a great performance as a dissociated young woman, so dominated and bossed by her older sister she completely falls apart once left to her own devices.

Buckley goes as far as the material requires her to go, and then goes even further than that. Flynn, too, gives a terrifically suggestive performance. The two are amazing onscreen together. You don't know which one to look at, their dynamic is so strange and alive. Who's the predator and who's the prey here?

"Beast" doesn't entirely hold together, but it's never less than fascinating to watch, mainly because it keeps so close to Moll's point of view, trapping us in her belljar. This is an extremely strong first feature from Pearce, and Buckley is riveting. You can't look away.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

Simon Abrams

Peyton Robinson

The Synanon Fix

Brian tallerico.

Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces

Matt Zoller Seitz

Film credits.

Beast (2018)

107 minutes

Jessie Buckley as Moll

Johnny Flynn as Pascal

Geraldine James as Hilary

Charley Palmer Rothwell as Leigh

Hattie Gotobed as Jade

Shannon Tarbet as Polly

Michael Pearce

Cinematographer

Benjamin Kracun
Maya Maffioli
Jim Williams

Latest blog posts

Ebertfest 2024 Announces Full Lineup, With Guests Including Eric Roberts, Mariel Hemingway, Larry Karaszewski, and More

How Do You Live: On the Power of Edson Oda’s Nine Days

Eleanor Coppola Was the Guardian Angel of Apocalypse Now

The Overlook Film Festival 2024 Highlights, Part 1: Fasterpiece Theater, Exhuma, All You Need is Death, Me

an image, when javascript is unavailable

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘beast beast’: film review | sundance 2020.

In the somber drama 'Beast Beast' from writer-director Danny Madden, the lives of three young people in a suburban town in the South intersect.

By Beandrea July

Beandrea July

Share this article on Facebook
Share this article on Twitter
Share this article on Flipboard
Share this article on Email
Show additional share options
Share this article on Linkedin
Share this article on Pinit
Share this article on Reddit
Share this article on Tumblr
Share this article on Whatsapp
Share this article on Print
Share this article on Comment

Part psychodrama, part tale of existential high-school angst, Beast Beast , from writer-director Danny Madden, follows three young people in a Southern suburb as their lives intersect. Based on a 2018 short film called Krista , the film is a commentary on the predominance of internet culture in the lives of today’s teenagers — and on the ways it breeds extreme isolation.

Krista (Shirley Chen) is a theater kid who sends out audition tapes and makes iPhone videos of herself performing. Adam (Will Madden) is her next-door neighbor who used to make those videos alongside Krista when they were younger, but in recent years has become a gun-rights fanatic with a YouTube channel. Nito (Jose Angeles) is the athletic skateboarder and new kid in town at Krista’s high school, and they eventually start dating.

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Sundance institute opens exploratory process for potential host cities for festival in 2027 and beyond, henry cavill james bond trailer gets 2.3m views despite being an ai fake, critic’s notebook: on its 50th anniversary, francis ford coppola’s ‘the conversation’ offers a searing vision of then, and now, mubi picks up elizabeth sankey’s ‘witches’ worldwide (exclusive), ‘nowhere special’ review: james norton brings raw feeling to intimate father-son drama, studio ghibli to receive honorary cannes palme d’or.

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

For Parents
For Educators
Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Beast beast, common sense media reviewers.

Meaningful teen drama has gun violence, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Teenagers' internal lives are worthy of exploratio

Krista is a fun-loving girl who excels in high sch

Shooting, including scenes with shooting practice/

Mention of having "company over," as in a person c

Swear words/phrases include "ass," "f--k," "f--k y

Smoking cigarettes; a bong. Mentions of vaping and

Positive Messages

Teenagers' internal lives are worthy of exploration. A high level of integrity can help you make decisions that benefit you and others. Having integrity can influence your desire not to harm others. It takes courage to fight for justice. Storyline offers commentary on difference in how White men and men of color are treated by society and law enforcement in the U.S.

Positive Role Models

Krista is a fun-loving girl who excels in high school acting class. After a devastating moment, she seeks justice to help those who are hurt -- and to gain closure for herself. She puts her life on the line to achieve justice, and her integrity helps her gain courage to see her goal through. Diverse representations in the cast.

Violence & Scariness

Shooting, including scenes with shooting practice/maintenance and murder. Joke about shooting a mother-in-law; mention of violent criminal activity. A character punches a wall; another character hits a table with their foot. A character is choked.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Mention of having "company over," as in a person coming over for sex. A brief scene with two characters asleep after sex. Kissing. A character asking another if they want to "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Swear words/phrases include "ass," "f--k," "f--k you," "f--king," "a--hole," "d--k," "bitching," "bitch," "f--k off," "f--k me," "motherf----r," "bulls--t," "p---ies," "sissy," and "hells yeah."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Smoking cigarettes; a bong. Mentions of vaping and smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Beast Beast is a drama about three teens (Shirley Chen, Jose Angeles, and Will Madden) in a small town whose lives interact in a traumatic way. It has many scenes with smoking and a bong and strong language (including "f--k," "d--k," and more). Characters kiss, and sex is implied. The film has a strong focus on guns, including scenes with shooting and murder. Other violence, such as choking, is shown. But the movie also promotes integrity and courage, especially in the interests of fighting for justice, and the cast includes diverse representations. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say
Kids say (1)

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

BEAST BEAST follows three teenagers from the same town whose lives are changed by one of the teen's irreversible actions. Krista (Shirley Chen) is her school's leading actress and is popular with everyone, including Nito (Jose Angeles), a wayward teen who develops a relationship with Krista. But Nito hangs out with a crowd that leads him to a life-altering moment with Adam (Will Madden), who was once friends with Krista and wants to make it big on the internet with his gun maintenance videos.

Is It Any Good?

This drama starts out quietly, but it slowly simmers until it's at a full boil of angst and trauma related to issues affecting teens today. Danny Madden wrote and directed Beast Beast , which is a heartfelt, timely drama that brings together various social problems facing young people -- gun culture, online popularity, and veiled racism -- into a creative, haunting film. And stars Chen, Angeles, and Madden give standout performances as Krista, Nito, and Adam.

The film is notable for casting Chen and Angeles, both actors of color, as teen romantic leads Krista and Nito; unfortunately, that's still unusual enough to warrant a mention. And it goes further by examining the allure of the online cult of personality and rampant American gun culture in Adam, who devolves from wanting to teach responsible gun ownership and maintenance to being willing to do anything -- and use anything -- to find online success. His turn from troubled teen to villain is frightening, but, sadly, it's expected after we see his violent streak increase the more he gets ridiculed by viewers. It makes his trajectory even more heartrending. The fact that Adam gets the success he craves through violent actions, without being arrested, is a jab at how White men, young and old, are often treated as if they're above the law, while people of color, like Nito, can get arrested even when they're trying to do the right thing. Krista's journey for justice cements her as the heroine of her real life, not just on the stage, and many viewers will want to live vicariously through her. Overall, Beast Beast is a film that will move viewers of all ages.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Beast Beast . How did gun violence impact the characters in the film?

How does social media 's cult of personality negatively influence teenagers like Adam in Beast Beast ?

Nito makes friends that get him into trouble. Why is it important to make friends who empower you instead of lead you toward making poor decisions?

Is Krista's fight for justice admirable? Is there something you would have done differently? Do you think she demonstrates courage and/or integrity ?

How do America's gun culture and racial culture affect how Adam is or isn't disciplined?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 13, 2021
On DVD or streaming : May 4, 2021
Cast : Shirley Chen , Will Madden , Jose Angeles
Director : Danny Madden
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Vanishing Angle
Genre : Drama
Topics : High School
Character Strengths : Courage , Integrity
Run time : 86 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 12, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Sophie Jones

Shoplifters of the World

Concrete Cowboy

Giants Being Lonely

Best high school movies, coming-of-age movies, related topics.

High School

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

There’s Really Nothing Else Like The Beast

Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play thwarted lovers over three different lifetimes in The Beast , but I wouldn’t describe Bertrand Bonello’s unsettling feature as a romance. It tries out different genres, from period drama to science fiction, but it’s closest in spirit to a horror movie. This is acknowledged by the opening scene, in which Seydoux steps out onto a green-screen set to enact being threatened by a monster that will be added in post. An off-screen voice guides her through the blocking and directs her to her mark. Can she pretend to be afraid of something that isn’t there? She can, and she does, producing a show of animal panic as an ominous score strikes up and the camera closes in to capture her wild eyes. The power of her fear makes it an eerie sight, even knowing there’s no actual threat — an idea that The Beast echoes and remixes as it leaps from period to period and mode to mode, flinging its characters together in different doomed scenarios.

Seydoux’s character, Gabrielle, is a model and aspiring actor in 2014 Los Angeles, which explains the green screen — she’ll later book a gig on a similar set to shoot a grotesque safety video in which she’s flung around on wires in a simulation of a car accident. In Paris in 1910, Gabrielle is the aristocratic wife of a doll-factory owner, while in the hollowed-out future of 2044, she’s a dissatisfied worker in a world dominated by AI, where professional advancement requires submitting to a procedure that rids you of strong emotions by regressing you through your past lives. That last scenario is, in theory, the film’s present day and the point from which The Beast starts. But there’s a case to be made for each timeline being the dominant one, which keeps a viewer off-balance. The earliest story line is most directly related to the film’s loosely cited source material, the 1903 Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle , about a man who refuses to marry or allow anyone into his life because he’s convinced that some unspecified doom is coming his way. For me, though, the 2014-set scenes exert the greatest pull, because of a daredevil bold choice: They draw inspiration from a real, and recent, mass shooter.

In each of the entwined segments, Gabrielle encounters MacKay’s character, Louis, and is inexorably drawn to him despite it always leading to her destruction. In 1910, he’s an Englishman she reencounters at a party after meeting him at a dinner years before, and in 2044, he’s another candidate questioning whether the “purification” process is right for him. But in 2014, he’s an incel with violent intentions who stalks Gabrielle back to the sprawling place where she’s house-sitting, representing a direct threat to her life rather than one to her stability or to her heart. The paralyzing fear in James’s book becomes a specifically masculine one in the movie — a fear of vulnerability and getting hurt. In flooded Paris, Louis pursues the now happily married Gabrielle, having been too intimidated to express interest in her when they first met. In the future, where everyone wears gas masks to walk through city streets so desolate that wildlife freely roams, Louis looks like a fellow holdout against the numbing bargain offered by AI but can’t be relied upon to hold strong.

In 2014, he’s channeled his apprehension about rejection into rage, which he expresses in misogynistic video rants that draw from Elliot Rodger. When Gabrielle approaches Louis in the wake of an earthquake that brings everyone outdoors, he’s stiff and unreceptive to her advances, unwilling to accept that she might genuinely be interested. This Louis is significantly more extreme than the others, and The Beast flounders a bit in trying to link the fears holding all three back. But that’s also what’s so engaging about the movie — it overflows with intriguing ideas, even if they aren’t all fully explored. Different elements recur like rhymes: The doll factory in 1910 is mirrored by an animatronic toy that keeps Gabrielle company in 2014 and by the gynoid, played memorably by Saint Omer ’s Guslagie Malanda, assigned to watch over her in 2044. Gabrielle is rejected by a trio of women at a Hollywood Boulevard nightclub in Los Angeles, only for the exact same encounter to happen at a retro disco in the future. There are repeat run-ins with clairvoyants, bodies floating in water, and admiring touches of hands. Throughout all this, Seydoux, an absurdly watchable actor who came close to stealing last month’s Dune: Part Two with only a handful of scenes, shifts seamlessly between corseted melodrama and dystopian sci-fi.

Still, it’s in the period closest to the present day where she’s most impressive. Bonello cribs heavily from David Lynch for the 2014 segment, which is suffused with dreamlike dread as the lonely Gabrielle haunts dance spots and drifts around the fish tank of a mansion she’s been living in, her desire for human connection overcoming her sense of self-preservation. It’s difficult to make a character feel tangible and human while also allowing them to do inexplicable things. But even when Gabrielle is in the grip of forces she seems hopeless to control, Seydoux finds warmth and a kamikaze openness that allows room for hope even amid several existences’ worth of pain. Better to be contradictory and messy and feel too much than to be dully consistent — praise that also applies to The Beast as a whole.

More Movie Reviews

Dune: Part Two Is Zendaya’s Movie
Drive-Away Dolls Is Just Fizzy Enough
Pedro Almodóvar’s Queer Cowboy Short Is Too Sumptuous for Its Own Good
vulture section lede
vulture homepage lede
movie review
george mackay
léa seydoux
bertrand bonello

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

Lower case letters (a-z)
Upper case letters (A-Z)
Numbers (0-9)
Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

‘The Beast’ review: In 2044, AI takes care of business, while Léa Seydoux takes care of the movie

T ruly this is the month for future shock — darkly compelling visions of a near-future that humankind can only interpret as a rejection letter, or a comeuppance for its determined lack of disaster prevention and preparedness.

The narratively straightforward “Civil War” has some far-out company, in other words. Now in limited theatrical release, co-writer-director Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast” imagines a world 20 years hence. Climate change, and presumed corporate and political resistance to changing with it, have led to ruinous air quality, unlivable for humans without enormous masks and sealed buglike visors. Human unemployment hovers around 67%, thanks to the workforce dominance of artificial intelligence. The world has been saved by AI, we’re told in passing, and is run with reliable calm by humanoid dolls calling the shots, unburdened by the pesky brain chemistry and volatility of human “affects.”

In the 2044 Paris sequences of “The Beast,” the protagonist, Gabrielle — one of three Gabrielles we come to know, two of them past incarnations from 1910 and 2014 — seeks something more fulfilling than simple (and by the movie, undefined) drudgery work, the kind of thing humans used to believe AI would handle. Gabrielle’s emotions prevent her viability for better-paying jobs. She faces a decision point: Should she undergo “purification,” a zeroing-out of the psychic residue of her past lives? Or is a life of real feeling, even if surrounded by a sea of neutral faces and frictionless blank spirits, the better option?

In her previous selves Gabrielle was a celebrated pianist in the time of the momentous Paris flood (1910), then a struggling actress adrift in Los Angeles (2014). In each of the film’s three intertwined eras, her passionate artist’s heart belongs to the same man, Louis (George MacKay). Like Gabrielle, he undergoes wholesale personality and destiny makeovers in each time frame. Yet a pervasive fear of imminent catastrophe prevents Gabrielle from seizing the day, and the life she truly wants. She’s the gender-switched equivalent to the male character of the screenplay’s origin, the 1903 Henry James novella “The Beast in the Jungle,” though Bonello and co-writers Guillaume Bréaud and Benjamin Charbit pile their own fabulations atop fabulations, with imaginative impunity.

It all might’ve sunk under the weight of itself — if not for Léa Seydoux. No one in contemporary film expresses so much with eyes, voice, silence, small talk, whatever the moment requires, while repressing or hinting at so much more. Seydoux makes this trio of Gabrielles specific, droll and very moving, even when “The Beast” wanders a bit, or pulls from its various literary and cinematic influences — a little David Lynch, a little David Fincher, a lot of slightly curdled romanticism — to occasionally uncertain effect. MacKay’s good; Seydoux is excellent.

Bonello treats his layer cake of a movie as an occasion for a layering of genres. I found the 2014 L.A. narrative the least interesting, though certainly tension-building, since MacKay’s 2014 Louis is modeled after serial killer Elliot Rodger. For roughly 40 minutes of “The Beast,” we’re watching a virtual stand-alone thriller, with Gabrielle housesitting in a swank, cold glass domicile just begging for voyeurs, or worse. The dread that has dogged past versions of Gabrielle becomes manifest here, as MacKay’s incel stalker directs his lonely rage on women everywhere, anywhere.

This unbalances the movie, I think. And yet “The Beast” is an elegant cinematic achievement. Its devotion to the untamed territory of the human heart, its artfully discombobulating time and locale shifts, the shifting personae handled with marvelous fluidity by Seydoux; it takes you somewhere, and more than one somewhere.

“AI has become responsible and fair,” the 2044 Gabrielle is told by her unseen job interviewer, not human. Then, he adds: “And so human .” “The Beast” doesn’t need much in the way of digital imagery to create a strange new world; it’s enough to make Gabrielle audition for a phone commercial in a green-screen sound stage at the beginning (and later), where she pretends to see things she can only imagine. Later, Seydoux’s wearily reincarnated Gabrielle wanders the near-empty streets of the formerly beguiling City of Light, with only a stray deer for company. The sight is grimly amusing: tragicomedy. So is the telltale throwaway line early on, referencing Gabrielle’s childhood in America and her family’s abrupt return to France.

Why flee? Two words, which happen to be the title of the Alex Garland movie also in theaters: civil war.

Is our civic, political and democratic collapse as dead certain as the movies are making it right now?

'THE BEAST'

(In French and English with English subtitles)

3 stars (out of 4)

No MPA rating (violence, some nudity, language)

Running time: 2:26

How to watch: Now in theaters

Spanning three different eras, “The Beast” stars George MacKay, left, and Lea Seydoux as lovers searching for fulfillment.

A Rideshare Driver and Her Tiny Dog Battle a Stalker in ‘The Stranger’

KILLER INSTINCT

“The Killing” creator Veena Sud’s Quibi series turned Hulu horror movie pits scream queen Maika Monroe and a Yorkie against a very creepy Dane DeHaan.

Laura Bradley

Senior Entertainment Reporter

Veena Sud’s goal in making The Stranger might’ve been to tell a story about toxic masculinity, but this horror movie also doubles as a cautionary tale about the perils of a tech-driven gig economy. Played by the modern scream queen Maika Monroe , our poor protagonist, Clare, is a rideshare driver and L.A. transplant who is just trying to earn enough money to stay afloat while she reaches for her dreams of becoming a writer. Then, she picks up a pale little freak named Carl E.—played by the ever-creepy Dane DeHaan —and gets way more than she bargained for.

The Stranger first premiered in 2020 as a Quibi series. After the “quick-bite” platform imploded, Sud—best known as the creator of AMC’s The Killing adaptation—re-cut her original work into a feature film, which hits Hulu on Monday for its second act. Throughout the film, Carl E. uses his hacker skills to stalk Clare through the cloud, tracking her through devices and predicting her next moves using an algorithm he’s developed through previous “experiments” he’s run with other female victims. Things get even more serious when Carl E. starts targeting not only Clare and her human allies, but also her precious dog, Pebbles. Is nothing sacred to this troubled young man?!

In some moments, The Stranger feels like a Hitchcockian thriller for an increasingly algorithm-atized America. Its beautifully framed visuals and ominous, shadowy lighting are enough to make you forget that this movie was once a vertically oriented TV series meant to be consumed in 9-minute intervals while waiting in line for your Starbucks order or sitting on the toilet. In other scenes, however, the film veers into goofier territory, suddenly reminding us that this project was once developed to live beside Quibis like, say, “ The Golden Arm ” . (Remember that time The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ’s Rachel Brosnahan starred in a horror short about a woman with a golden arm? Man, 2020 was a weird time!)

How did it play as a Quibi series? RogerEbert.com hated the format, saying , “It’s remarkably difficult to build tension and create suspense in ‘bite-sized’ segments,” while Film School Rejects praised , “The first three Quibis—roughly the opening 24 minutes—deliver thrills, suspense, and something more akin to The Hitcher (1986) than even that film’s remake managed.”

Maika Monroe

DeHaan’s performance is as menacing as ever. With each misogynistic comment and every brooding stare, he finds new ways to underscore his character’s basement-born, incel-adjacent isolation. Then again, it’s hard not to chuckle at some of the Reddit-coded drivel that spills out of Carl E.’s mouth.

Case in point: When Carl E. tells Clare a horror story in the car and she begins crying, he growls, “You are sitting next to a sociopath who has by definition zero human empathy, so how does caterwauling fit into your survival plan here?” ( Caterwauling ?) He continues: “If it’s male chivalry those puppy-dog eyes are meant to appeal to, newsflash, it’s 2020, Nancy Pelosi. Time to put your big-girl pants on. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t expect the men to open the door for you cunts and then whine that we don’t treat you like equals.” With each passing word from this MRA forum rant, you can practically hear the computer keys clacking.

Carl E. is obviously a villain with a capital “V,” but Sud complicates her story by planting seeds of doubt about Clare as well. Throughout the film, there are hints that she might have a history of making things up. Or was she telling the truth and simply not believed at the time? Regardless, she only recently moved to Los Angeles, so apart from her beloved pooch, it seems like Clare has basically no one in the city to help her. The one person who does believe her story is a 7-Eleven cashier named JJ (Avan Jogia) who heroically decides to stay by her side through a truly horrific night, even despite getting chased down by both a psychopath and, at one point, a pack of subway-dwelling coyotes.

As serious as its sources of inspiration may be—the rise of disaffected, woman-hating young men; technologies that encroach on our privacy while predicting our every move; crumbling, forgotten public transit infrastructures…— The Stranger is best approached as a light-hearted horror romp designed, above all, to entertain. Carl E.’s technologically based stalking techniques can feel almost supernatural, rather than grounded in reality, and the film’s finale can only be described as unforgettably bonkers in the best way possible. That said, it’ll definitely make Uber drivers think twice before letting Dane DeHaan (or anyone with weird vibes) into their cars.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here .

READ THIS LIST

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn in Beast, Michael Pearce’s ‘game of psychological cat and mouse’.

Beast review – a dangerous liaison to get your teeth into

Fairytale meets psycho thriller as rising stars Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn find that opposites attract

A fter the whimsy of last week’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the real-life dramas of 2017’s Another Mother’s Son , the Channel Islands become home to something altogether more eerie in this Jersey-set debut feature from writer-director Michael Pearce. Charting a turbulent relationship between a cloistered young woman and the vagabond man who turns her world upside down, Pearce’s increasingly intense psychological thriller deftly overturns expectations as it dances between timeless fable, modern romance and murder mystery. Superb central performances from rising stars Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn provide the visceral spark that fires the story – a game of psychological cat and mouse in which desire and danger, innocence and guilt, are intriguingly intertwined.

Buckley is on phosphorescent form as flame-haired islander Moll, a twentysomething misfit who is still firmly under the thumb of her domineering mother. While her siblings have long since spread their wings, Moll remains trapped within the family home, helping to care for her ageing father, rigidly controlled by her choir-mistress mum, Hilary (Geraldine James). When Moll meets gun-toting woodsman Pascal (Flynn), his Heathcliff-like charms awaken passionate responses, encouraging Moll to break away from her suffocating home life.

Meanwhile, a spate of killings has cast a cloud over this picturesque isle, with the finger of suspicion pointing toward Pascal. Yet Moll has secrets of her own, is haunted by the spectre of a violent childhood assault, and the whispered warning that “Moll’s a wild one…”

Although the narrative may contain a distant echo of a grisly real-life case from the 1960s, Beast owes a greater debt to the traditions of the fairytale, and is cut from the same inspirational cloth as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread , with a touch of the stranded desperation of Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago . The title, which is deliberately ambiguous, seems to allude to Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s beloved Beauty and the Beast , but there’s also a whiff of Walerian Borowczyk’s controversially erotic (and once-banned) La Bête .

Certainly, there’s a subversive European flavour to Pearce’s ambitious Brit-pic that keeps us guessing about its characters’ motives as it slides between genres (melodrama, crime thriller, beastly chiller) with ease. Tonally, I was reminded at times of François Ozon’s deeply unsettling Regarde la mer , with its sharp juxtaposition of sensual island sunshine and murderously dark deception.

Crucially, Pearce, who made a splash with shorts such as Rite and Keeping Up With the Joneses, steers clear of identifying any specific character as the “Beast” of the title – of which there may be more than one. Like Rachel Weisz’s anti-heroine in Roger Michell’s recent remake of My Cousin Rachel , Flynn plays Pascal’s guilt or innocence close to his chest, conjuring an enigma who simultaneously attracts and repels. Yet Buckley’s Moll is just as slippery, seeing a kindred spirit in her outcast lover, finding parallels with her past in his predicament. (At one point, Moll compares herself to a captive killer whale – smiling but deranged.) “You’re wounded,” says Pascal pointedly on their first meeting. “I can fix that.” Perhaps this is why she defends him even in the face of supposedly damning evidence. Or maybe she’s just blinded by passion, unable to see her lover for what he really is.

While Beast pulses with sweeping primal themes, it’s the details that ensure that it gets its claws into an audience. An early scene in which Moll is casually sidelined at her own birthday party speaks volumes about her family history and the yoke under which she now struggles. Later, she digs her muddy nails into the family sofa – a powerful image of lusty defiance. As Hilary, Geraldine James is impressively oppressive, but there’s a hint of terror behind her authoritarian manner. She may be a scary mum, but Hilary is also clearly frightened of her daughter – of what she might do, what she might become.

Contrasting the breathtaking vistas of the Jersey exteriors with the conservative confines of Moll’s home-life interiors (the latter were shot in Surrey), Pearce and cinematographer Benjamin Kračun conjure an archetypal landscape in which disparate worlds collide. As Moll moves from one environment to the other, so the form of the film itself shifts, with elegantly orchestrated compositions giving way to more free-form, handheld sequences. The result is a smart and sinewy psychodrama that maintains a delicate balance between its warring elements right through to the final frames.

The furniture on this review was amended on 29 April 2018 to correct a description of Irish actor Jessie Buckley as British.

Drama films
Mark Kermode's film of the week
Jessie Buckley

More on this story

Jessie Buckley: ‘I think it's in the Irish blood to have that musicality, that wildness’

The Woman in White review – the Victorian classic updated for the #MeToo era

Johnny Flynn: ‘We’re waking up to uncomfortable truths about ourselves’

Jessie Buckley on playing outcasts – and hitting the big time

Beast review – serial killer mystery offers a masterclass in slow-burn chills

Taboo finale recap – thank you for the mayhem, Tom Hardy

War and Peace recap: episode six – bows out with a bonkers beard

Amadeus review – Rupert Everett impresses as the seething Salieri

Venice Preserv'd review – immersive drama that's more of an aimless wander

Comments (…), most viewed.

'Sasquatch Sunset' a surreal showcase for bigfoot bodily functions

In fur and makeup, jesse eisenberg and riley keough spend most of the movie scratching, sneezing and worse..

Jesse Eisenberg never says a word while playing one of the hairy beasts in “Sasquatch Sunset.”

Bleecker Street

With sincere and true respect for the talents of all those individuals who climb inside mascot costumes and become Gritty or Mr. Met or Benny the Bull or Bucky Badger or Paydirt Pete or Brutus Buckeye, you wouldn’t know it if an equally skilled person took over mid-game, right? I mean, how could you?

The Mascot Conundrum, as the experts call it — all right, I just made that up — came to mind when I was making the difficult slog through the admittedly ambitious but quite disgusting and weirdly inconsistent bigfoot drama/satire “Sasquatch Sunset.”

One must give props to the talented actors Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough for disappearing under the Sasquatch costumes and makeup and throwing themselves into their respective roles, and I have no doubt they worked hard on their movements and their grunts and their growls and such. But given that there’s not a line of dialogue in this surreal, docudrama-style adventure story, there are long stretches of time when it could be just about anybody under the cryptid outfit. Yes, there’s room for facial expressions, and there are some closeups when we can see the eyes of one of the Sasquatches, but on balance: Mascot Conundrum.

Directed by the undeniably talented duo of Nathan Zellner and David Zellner (“Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter,” 2018’s “Damsel”), with David penning the script, “Sasquatch Sunset” takes place in the 1980s (the clues are admittedly fun) and chronicles a year in the lives of a family of Sasquatches. Jesse Eisenberg and Nathan Zellner portray adult males, while Riley Keough is an adult female and Christophe Zajac-Denek is a young ‘un.

They comport themselves almost like aliens who have been dropped onto the planet, as they’re unfamiliar with nearly every creature they encounter, from a turtle to a mountain lion. Also, they’re not the least bit ferocious and seem quite small, i.e., Jesse Eisenberg’s Sasquatch appears to be about 5-foot-7, which is the height of Jesse Eisenberg. I suppose that’s the point — that while humankind has long thought of the Sasquatch as a ferocious and mighty beast, they’re more like us than we thought, and perhaps more afraid of us than we are of them.

Review of Hulu’s ‘Sasquatch’: Nosy man doesn’t find Bigfoot, but other beasts turn up

A great deal of “Sasquatch Sunset” — and when I say a great deal, I mean most of the friggin’ movie — is preoccupied with showing us various bodily functions of the Squatchers in graphic and nauseating detail. Peeing, pooping, sneezing, scratching, rutting, fondling themselves, smelling their own fingers after fondling themselves, hurling excrement … it never ends, until the movie ends. (That the practical effects are so impressively rendered doesn’t make it better.) One Sasquatch is so randy it considers sexual congress with a couple of different options, none of them promising. Keough’s Sasquatch gets pregnant.

The group sometimes displays a growing collective intelligence, and yet it still seems as if this is somehow their first year of existence, or they have zero sense memory. A few attempts at poignancy seem half-hearted and deeply cynical, given all the crap (literally) we’ve experienced along the way.

“Sasquatch Sunset” is the kind of film that seems almost pre-ordained to reach some level of cult status. Godspeed to those who will embrace its epic-level gross-out factor. I guess I’m just more of a Bucky Badger guy.

Ex-prosecutors: Trump already touched the "third rail" in hush-money trial — and it could cost him

Trump's outburst toward a prospective juror shows he's learned nothing from the e. jean carroll case, experts say, by charles r. davis.

You can tell that Donald Trump’s criminal trial is not going well for him by the simple fact that it is actually happening. His alleged co-conspirator, former fixer Michael Cohen , has already served a year in prison for his role in paying off an adult film star to influence the 2016 election – and now he will be testifying that the former president told him to do it.

Trump’s best hope is perhaps that a single juror sympathizes with him and prevents a unanimous verdict. That could happen even with the most stringent vetting. But what if a juror voted to acquit based not on their honest judgment of the facts, or even their own previously concealed bias, but because they feared the consequences, for them personally, of a guilty verdict?

That’s something that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan says he won’t stand for. On Tuesday, he admonished Trump for “ audibly uttering something ” and gesturing toward a prospective juror – located about 12 feet from the former president at the time of the outburst – who had been questioned about having shared a video on Facebook of celebratory crowds on the day of the 2020 election. The juror, a woman who was ultimately dismissed, had argued she could still be impartial, maintaining that the video was not intended to be a partisan statement.

“I won’t tolerate that,” Merchan told Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear.”

Whether Trump has the ability to comport himself with dignity has been a major concern – not just for the judge, but for his own defense team. It is of course unprecedented for a criminal defendant to be a former U.S. president, and good reason to bar anyone from hectoring a potential juror, no competent legal counsel would suggest in-court bullying is an effective means of achieving a desired outcome. What Tuesday’s episode suggests is that no, of course Trump can’t behave like a responsible adult.

Appearing on MSNBC , Catherine A. Christian, a trial lawyer who previously served in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, was asked by anchor Chris Hayes whether she had ever seen a defendant try to engage a prospective juror who could ultimate decide their fate.

“No – and I’m not making light of this – only the mentally unwell ones,” Christian said. “That’s the only time you see criminal defendants acting out, literally, and then you sort of understand it.”

There’s a reason it’s considered the “third rail” of criminal proceedings, Karen Agnifilo, a former assistant Manhattan district attorney, told CNN .

"The third rail is if anyone starts to make the jury feel any kind of intimidation whatsoever,” she said, noting that “the jury has to be protected at all costs and not just for safety reasons.” That is, jurors should only ever have to think about the facts of the case, not a personal interaction with a defendant – and that’s why no judge will tolerate it, she explained.

"Trump can make comments about the judge, about the court, about the D.A., but you do anything involving the jurors you're going to see a very swift reaction,” she said.

We need your help to stay independent

While Trump was reportedly “ furious ” after he was scolded, the judge he accuses of being “corrupt” and “conflicted” actually did him a favor, according to legal experts.

Lisa Rubin, a legal correspondent at MSNBC, noted that Trump violated courtroom decorum during the first E. Jean Carroll case, pounding the table and making other physical gestures to communicate his displeasure.

“And we all know how that story ended,” Rubin said. “None of the jurors were positively impacted by that performance.” They concluded, in fact, that he was sexual predator.

Trump’s behavior is more likely a product of poor impulse control than a cynical or indeed nefarious strategy – because, again, no good lawyer would recommend it.

“His conduct in the courtroom – it's very demonstrative and it’s very emotional at times,” conservative attorney George Conway commented Wednesday on “ Morning Joe .” Conway said he doesn’t think Trump “has a complete ability to control himself,” a fact that will cost him.

Again, just look at the last time he did it in the Carroll case, Conway said.

“He basically sat in front of the jury and just showed contempt for the entire process and contempt for the jury,” he said, “which dovetailed nicely with what the other side was trying to prove, which was: This is a bad guy who doesn’t respect anybody and anything, including the law."

Trump, who has appeared to doze off each day of the trial so far, should consider remaining unconscious, former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance commented on her blog . “Trump would do well to sleep more in court if this is the best he can manage when he’s awake,” she wrote.

about this topic

Sleepy Don's dilemma: Napping in court could help Trump win the case, but it hurts him with his base
A "deeply uncomfortable" Trump stares down journalist who reported that he fell asleep in court
Prosecutors file Trump contempt motion over "thugs" post on Truth Social

Charles R. Davis is Salon's deputy news editor. His work has aired on public radio and been published by outlets such as The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The New Republic and Columbia Journalism Review.

site categories

Jewish streamer chaiflicks snaps up oscar-winning pawlikowski movie ‘ida’ & other titles, breaking news.

Damien Chazelle Sets Next Film At Paramount For 2025 – CinemaCon

By Justin Kroll

Justin Kroll

Film Editor

Glen Powell To Star In Edgar Wright’s ‘The Running Man’ Reimagining At Paramount – CinemaCon

‘Gladiator II’ First Look Gets Thumbs Up & Loud Cheers From Exhibs At CinemaCon

Chazelle signed his overall deal with Paramount at the end of 2022 after working with the studio on his most recent film, last year’s Babylon, and while he and Hamilton are producing a number of films at the studio like Heart of the Beast — which just added David Ayer as its director — this marks the first film Chazelle would direct since signing the deal.

Chazelle has become the type of writer-director who, when word gets out he has a new script on the market, sees top-tier talent pushing to get a meeting. He also has proved capable of directing any type of film — whether its a modern-day musical like the 14-time Oscar-nominated La La Land , a thrilling biopic about the first moon landing like First Man , or a gripping drama like Whiplash which earned him an Oscar nom for Adapted Screenplay. He has the talents to handle any genre, and prison drama is sure to excite fans of what his version could look like.

He is repped by WME.

Must Read Stories

Park chan-wook adapting action pic for english-language lionsgate series.

Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith & Phoebe Waller-Bridge Join ‘Big Bold Beautiful Journey’

Jenna ortega & kristen stewart premieres, parker-stone doc, more on slate, ‘crazy rich asians’ broadway musical in works with jon m. chu directing.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

How does the WBNA Draft work?

Where to watch wnba draft: live stream to see caitlin clark, angel reese, and more tonight.

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Following an unprecedented women's March Madness tournament that saw viewership highs, the 2024 WNBA Draft is shaping up to be a can't-miss event as numerous NCAA women's basketball stars become eligible to go pro when the regular season starts on May 14. We'll show you everything you need to know about tonight's event, including where to watch the WNBA Draft live stream and how the draft works.

Caitlin Clark, the Iowa star who made waves earlier this year when she shattered the NCAA career points record across both men's and women's basketball, is projected to be the no. 1 pick of the WNBA Draft. The Indiana Fever has tonight's first pick, so many are assuming that she will join the Fever for the upcoming WNBA season. Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, and Kamilla Cardoso are also slated to enter the draft, with the latter fresh off of leading her South Carolina team to win the National Championships in the finals against Iowa earlier this month.

Whether you're a WNBA devotee or a college hoops fan hoping to get into the professional side of women's basketball, we've got you covered on all of the details surrounding the WNBA Draft. Keep reading to learn how to tune in, whether you have cable or are seeking a live streaming alternative.

See also: How to watch NBA live streams | Where to watch free Champions League live streams | Where to watch free MotoGP live streams

How to watch the WNBA Draft in the US

The WNBA Draft will air on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. ET. Pre-coverage will start on the network at 7 p.m. If you don't have cable, there are a couple of live TV packages that will be able to help you out, like Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV.

At $40 a month, Sling TV will be the cheaper of the two options today. And right now, you can get your first month for $20. You'll need to select the Sling Orange plan to get ESPN access.

For just the essentials without any extra fluff, Sling TV is the streaming service you're looking for. It's more customizable than other plans, with three options you can choose from, so you pay for only what you need. New members get their first month for $10 off.

You can also catch ESPN live with Hulu + Live TV . Subscriptions start at $76.99 a month. While this is the more expensive of the two options (and doesn't have any sort of new user discount), this bundle includes more than 90 live channels, regular Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+.

Hulu + Live TV includes over 90 channels, along with Hulu's on-demand library and access to Disney Plus and ESPN Plus. Adding live TV drives up the price significantly, but it's a rolling one-month contract that you're free to cancel at any time. As live TV services go, though, this is one of the best.

How to watch the WNBA Draft from anywhere

If you're going to be traveling outside the US during the WNBA Draft, you can still access your streaming subscriptions with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are handy ways to alter your electronic device's location so that you can still access websites and apps that might not be available in other countries. Both of the live TV packages we've highlighted require US forms of payment, so this recommendation is best for Americans who are simply out of the country at the moment and hoping to access their existing subscriptions.

Our go-to recommendation is ExpressVPN , an easy-to-use VPN with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you want to learn more, you can check out our ExpressVPN review , where we have all of the details. Keep reading to learn how to use a VPN.

How to watch the WNBA Draft with a VPN

Sign up for a VPN if you don't already have one.
Install it on the device you plan to watch on.
Turn it on and set it to a US location.
Sign up for one of the streaming packages with a US form of payment.
Log in and navigate to ESPN.

With its consistent performance, reliable security, and expansive global streaming features, ExpressVPN is the best VPN out there, excelling in every spec and offering many advanced features that makes it exceptional. Better yet, you can save up to 49% and get an extra three months for free today.

The WNBA Draft is split into three rounds featuring 12 picks each, so 36 players in total will be selected. This may seem small compared to the NBA's 60-person draft, but it makes sense due to the fact that there are only 12 teams in the WNBA. Only some of these 36 players (probably less than half) will actually make it onto the roster when the season starts since WNBA teams have a hard cap of 12 players per team.

The first four picks of each round are determined by a lottery system of the four teams who didn't make it to the playoffs the prior year, with greater weight given to the teams with the worst two-year cumulative records. In this case, Indiana Fever will get the first pick. After the lottery is decided among the four worst teams, the remaining eight teams will get to pick in order from worst to best. Traded picks are allowed in all rounds, which is why you'll see Chicago get the third pick tonight despite not being in the bottom four.

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

Main content

IMAGES

Beast (2022)
Beast Movie Cast, First Look, Teaser, Trailer, Song, Images (2021
Everything You Need to Know About Beast Movie (2022)
‘Beast’ Review: An Angry Lion, but More Bore Than Roar
Beast movie review & film summary (2018)
BEAST

VIDEO

Filmkritik Beast
BEAST Movie Review Malayalam
Beast Movie Review
BEAST Movie Review Malayalam
Beast
Beast Movie Review

COMMENTS

Official Discussion
A father and his two teenage daughters find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the Savanna has but one apex predator. Director: Baltasar Kormákur. Writers: Ryan Engle, Jaime Primak Sullivan. Cast:
2 years since Beast release what's your opinion? : r/kollywood
Beast is a better movie than Leo. I think, as a very commercial Vijay movie, everything was done right in Beast. I was able to handle the cringe/hyped mass scenes of Beast. Whereas, with Leo, I found it extremely difficult to sit throughout the film.
r/movies on Reddit: Why did Beast (2022) get such mixed reviews? It's
Because of the mixed reviews, I went in expecting a bunch of silly action-hero heroics as Idris Elba fights a lion. Instead, it's full of believable characters in a thoughtful script doing realistic things (and avoiding dumb horror tropes along the way) in order to survive. Also, I'm going on a monster movie / animal attack movie binge right now.
Beast movie review & film summary (2022)
Beast. Director Baltasar Kormákur 's "Beast" is better than most mid-August releases. It executes its wild-animal-gone-rogue premise in just under 90 minutes. Veteran cinematographer Philippe Rousselot shoots some gorgeous views of the South African wilderness. There's a formidable foe that seems omniscient and indestructible, not to ...
Beast review: Idris Elba fights a lion in a short, effective creature
In yet another riff on Jaws, Beast sets a family headed by Idris Elba on a collision course with a killer lion, in a taut 93-minute thriller that pairs well with the new Predator movie Prey. Now ...
Beast movie review & film summary (2022)
Advertisement. "Beast," a Kollywood (Tamil) star vehicle for Vijay, still feels different, if only for how vigorously its creators try to sell their lead as a 21st century renaissance man. Vijay ("Master") can dance a little, drive a car through various glass surfaces, and also behead a terrorist and then chuck that guy's disembodied ...
Beast
Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive ...
Beast
Dr. Nate Daniels (Idris Elba), a recently widowed husband, returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers ...
'Beast' Review: Idris Elba Tackles a Lion in Tense Thriller
Beast. The Bottom Line Preposterous but suspenseful. Release date: Friday, Aug. 19. Cast: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, Leah Jeffries. Director: Baltasar Kormákur. Screenwriter: Ryan ...
'Beast' review: Idris Elba fights a CGI lion in over-the-top thriller
"Beast" is lean and mean at 93 minutes, but still the movie takes its time to get to the good stuff. Once the vicious lion starts stalking its prey - and claustrophobic attacks lead to an ...
Beast (2022)
Beast: Directed by Baltasar Kormákur. With Liyabuya Gongo, Martin Munro, Daniel Hadebe, Thapelo Sebogodi. A father and his two teenage daughters find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the Savanna has but one apex predator.
Beast
Extraordinarily restrained pacing, a tantalizing merge between imagination and reality, and Buckley's and Flynn's engrossing performances make this tale truly beastly. Full Review | Original Score ...
'Beast' Review Thread : r/boxoffice
Better than Beast. Versus a 5.8/10 on IMDb and 2.8 on Letterboxd. It is too early to tell, but it probably won't stay at 80 on RT. A shame if the movie is bad, because Idris Elba is a fine actor and deserves much better movies.
Beast (2022)
movieman6-413-929510 14 August 2022. Beast is a new survival thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the director of 2 Guns and Everest. The film is about Dr. Nate Daniels (Idris Elba), who, after the death of his ex-wife, takes his daughters to the South African savannah to the place where he met his ex.
'Beast' Movie Review
The location for the movie was perfect for the storyline, as well as the lighting when it was nighttime.The director did a good job of capturing fear and making the audience feel what the actors were feeling. While the movie is 93 minutes long, I think if it were any longer, it would have been too long and drawn out.
Beast movie review & film summary (2018)
Jersey, gorgeously shot by Benjamin Kračun, is a place of crashing surf, towering rock cliffs, impenetrable dark forests: in "Beast" civilization is a paper-thin layer over pure chaos. Jessie Buckley gives what can only be called a breakout performance as Moll. She is a revelation.
'Beast Beast' Review
Share this article on Reddit; Share this article on Tumblr; ... 'Beast Beast': Film Review | Sundance 2020. In the somber drama 'Beast Beast' from writer-director Danny Madden, the lives of ...
Beast Beast Movie Review
Our review: Parents say Not yet rated Add your rating. Kids say ( 1 ): This drama starts out quietly, but it slowly simmers until it's at a full boil of angst and trauma related to issues affecting teens today. Danny Madden wrote and directed Beast Beast, which is a heartfelt, timely drama that brings together various social problems facing ...
'The Beast' Review: There's Really Nothing Else Like It
The earliest story line is most directly related to the film's loosely cited source material, the 1903 Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle, about a man who refuses to marry or allow ...
'The Beast' review: In 2044, AI takes care of business, while Léa
Bonello treats his layer cake of a movie as an occasion for a layering of genres. I found the 2014 L.A. narrative the least interesting, though certainly tension-building, since MacKay's 2014 ...
Beast movie review thread
The movie is avg. The screen time of vijay felt little short. There were some side charcters in which some were not needed and slows the movie down. Action sequences was really good and shot in style also the jet scene was a highlight of the movie they did not mess it up. Screen presence of vijay was really great.
The Kooky Horror Movie About a Rideshare Driver and Her Dog
Carl E. is obviously a villain with a capital "V," but Sud complicates her story by planting seeds of doubt about Clare as well. Throughout the film, there are hints that she might have a ...
Beast review
When Moll meets gun-toting woodsman Pascal (Flynn), his Heathcliff-like charms awaken passionate responses, encouraging Moll to break away from her suffocating home life. Meanwhile, a spate of ...
'Sasquatch Sunset' review: A surreal showcase for bigfoot bodily
'Sasquatch Sunset' a surreal showcase for bigfoot bodily functions In fur and makeup, Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough spend most of the movie scratching, sneezing and worse.
Ex-prosecutors: Trump already touched the "third rail" in hush-money
Charles R. Davis is Salon's deputy news editor. His work has aired on public radio and been published by outlets such as The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The New Republic and Columbia Journalism Review.
Beast
A panicking teenager and inexperienced driver, pumped full of adrenaline, driving an off-road vehicle in unfamiliar territory being pursued by a monstrous predator is liable to make mistakes. Not every character should be Tom Cruise. This actually looks really good.
Damien Chazelle To Direct Prison Movie For Paramount
Chazelle signed his overall deal with Paramount at the end of 2022 after working with the studio on his most recent film, last year's Babylon, and while he and Hamilton are producing a number of ...
Beast. An honest review. : r/Chennai
After being a Vijay fan for so long, Beast has truly disappointed. Let's be honest, Beast wasnt a great movie. If you have seen the movie you know I am right. 1st and foremost, if you have read any extremely good reviews to Beast online, trust me they are either die hard thalapathy fans or by PAID reviewers.
Where to watch WNBA Draft: Live stream to see Caitlin Clark, Angel
How does the WBNA Draft work? The WNBA Draft is split into three rounds featuring 12 picks each, so 36 players in total will be selected. This may seem small compared to the NBA's 60-person draft ...
Beast
Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. Or check it out in the app stores ... While we primarily focus on movie discussion, we are also open to discussions about television series, Netflix originals, celebrity gossip, and music. ... Members Online • ClamChowdaMan . Beast - Movie Review Locked post. New comments cannot be ...

Beast brings back the short, sharp, well-crafted creature feature

Share this story

Share All sharing options for: Beast brings back the short, sharp, well-crafted creature feature

Five Nights at Freddy 2 hitting the big screen next year

'Beast' review: Good dad Idris Elba battles ticked-off CGI lion for a tolerable mane event

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

Beast Reviews

Beast (I) (2022)

Did You Know?

Photo & Video

Related Items

Recently Viewed

The Reflector News

Recommended for You

‘Civil War’ is Both Timely and Prescient

“Happy Customers”: A Branch of 2010s Nostalgia

From Yoncé to Yeehaw: Beyoncé Rides Past Her Competition with New Album...

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine Shine in Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Conclusion to Maas’ ‘Crescent City’ Trilogy Underwhelms

Country Roads Beyoncé Take Me Home: A Review of “Texas Hold ‘Em”...

The Piano Man Sings Another Melody in 2024, and It’s Everything I...

The Last Dinner Party’s ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’: Emily Dickinson with an Electric...

Advertisement

Movie Reviews

Sheila O'Malley

Now playing

Simon Abrams

Peyton Robinson

The Synanon Fix

Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces

Matt Zoller Seitz

Beast (2018)

Cinematographer

Latest blog posts

Ebertfest 2024 Announces Full Lineup, With Guests Including Eric Roberts, Mariel Hemingway, Larry Karaszewski, and More

How Do You Live: On the Power of Edson Oda’s Nine Days

Eleanor Coppola Was the Guardian Angel of Apocalypse Now

The Overlook Film Festival 2024 Highlights, Part 1: Fasterpiece Theater, Exhuma, All You Need is Death, Me

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

site categories

Beandrea July

Related Stories

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Or browse by category:

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Common Sense Selections for Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

A Lot or a Little?

Positive Messages

Positive Role Models

Violence & Scariness

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Parents Need to Know

Where to Watch

Community Reviews

What's the Story?

Is It Any Good?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Movie Details