Beast Beast

Beast Beast is a 2020 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Danny Madden. Based on a 2018 short film titled Krista, also directed by Danny Madden, the film stars Shirley Chen, Will Madden, and Jose Angeles as three young adults whose lives intersect in a suburban town.[2]

Beast Beast
Promotional release poster
Directed byDanny Madden
Produced by
Written byDanny Madden
Starring
  • Shirley Chen
  • Will Madden
  • Jose Angeles
CinematographyKristian Zuniga
Edited byDavid Brundige
Pete Ohs
Mari Walker
Production
company
Vanishing Angle
Arsonist's Films
El Dorado Pictures
Release date
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Beast Beast was executive produced by Alec Baldwin and Casey Bader,[3] and premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.[2][4][5]

Plot

In a suburban town in the Southern United States, a high school student named Krista is a member of her school's theater program. In her childhood, she produced short videos with her next-door neighbor, the recently graduated Adam. Adam has since started a YouTube channel to which he uploads videos of himself providing demonstrations on using various models of firearms that he owns. However, his videos are receiving little attention online, and his father disapproves of his focusing on his YouTube presence rather than finding a job elsewhere.

Nito, a skateboarder, attends the same school as Krista. One day, while idling outside the apartment where he and his apathetic guardian live, Nito meets a fellow tenant named Yoni, who invites Nito to a party that night after seeing him perform a kickflip.

The film tracks the characters Krista, Adam, and Nito in a series of vignettes that ultimately become intertwined. As the three stories converge we gain a visceral understanding of what it is to be a teenager in today's America.

Cast
  • Shirley Chen as Krista
  • Will Madden as Adam
  • Jose Angeles as Nito
  • Courtney Dietz as Johanna
  • Daniel Rashid as Yoni
  • Anissa Matlock as Lena
  • Stephen Ruffin as Jarrett
  • Chip Carriere as Lance
  • Kron Moore as Linney
  • Susan Gallagher as Mrs. Gunderson
  • Charles Green as Mr. Gunderson
  • Cynthia Barrett as Mabel

Release

Beast Beast premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020.[1]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10.[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on five critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]

Beandrea July of The Hollywood Reporter commended the film's lead performances, screenplay, cinematography, and sound editing, and wrote that, by the film's third act, "you realize what the movie is ultimately aiming to be: a cautionary tale about guns in America."[2] Variety's Amy Nicholson praised Angeles's performance and noted the film's humor, though she wrote that the film's third act "accelerates from reality to sensationalism, and trades humanity for pulp. Even in the noir climax, Beast Beast's ideas about validation and integrity are worth a grapple. If only the film's own self-identity was more grounded."[3] Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com wrote that the film "will either win you over with Shirley Chen's effervescent screen presence or will doom its goodwill with its third act twist", calling it "a conflicted work, but not without its merits".[8]

References
  1. "Sundance Film Festival 2020 Printable Program Guide" (PDF). Sundance Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  2. July, Beandrea (January 27, 2020). "'Beast Beast': Film Review | Sundance 2020". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  3. Nicholson, Amy (January 26, 2020). "'Beast Beast': Film Review". Variety. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  4. D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 25, 2020). "Alec Baldwin On "The Death Of Innocence" In The 24-Hour News Cycle: 'Beast Beast' Sundance Panel". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  5. Bucksbaum, Sydney (January 25, 2020). "Alec Baldwin talks debuting coming-of-age film Beast Beast in 'painful' time of 24-hour news cycle". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  6. "Beast Beast (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  7. "Beast Beast Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  8. Castillo, Monica (February 5, 2020). "Sundance 2020: Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia, La Leyenda Negra, Beast Beast, I Carry You With Me". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
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