There is much that can be said about Sasquatch Sunset, the new film directed by David and Nathan Zellner, but very, very little of it can be positive. There are only two absolute certainties to be found within this film. It is absolutely dumbfounding, and it is utterly terrible.
A new slapstick/absurdist comedy starring Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg ought to be cause for celebration. Two talented comedic actors under the direction of the Zellner brothers (who recently worked with contemporary comedy genius Nathan Fielder on The Curse) should promise an innovative, interesting film. One could argue that Sasquatch Sunset is innovative… but there is a staggering amount that doesn't work here.
The film follows four Sasquatches (who never speak, instead grunting) through one year of their lives. The tight-knit group wander around their forest, one that is slowly being infringed upon more and more by people. The comedic potential for this idea is clear, but the execution is so deeply steeped in anti-comedic sentiment that barely any of the film functions. It opens with its most promising moments and ideas. There are some fun slapstick sequences and quietly satirical jokes about people and our evolution from animals. The repetition of certain ideas and gags paves the way for genuine character development, and the way that the film presents these animals at their primal extremes does make for some good laughs at first. The problems soon arrive, though, as the film swiftly finds itself with no other direction in which to move.
Once the viewer has gotten over the mild humour of seeing Jesse Eisenberg playing a horny Bigfoot, Sasquatch Sunset has nothing to offer. Realising this, it tries to pull itself into a multitude of directions, none of which feel right for the material. The comedy becomes more muted and dry, but not in the Nathan Fielder fashion that impressively pushes comedy to its boundaries while (crucially) remaining funny. Instead, one is left to sit, confused, while a Sasquatch defecates into its own hand or has sex. Its crude humour played completely straight, often revolting and rarely funny. The film tries, then, to lean into some environmentalist ideas and to show the impact of deforestation. But even then, the tone is so confusing and the environmental messages are so limp that they, too, have next to no impact.
The performances aren't really there, buried beneath prosthetics, but the level of commitment to them is both insane and impressive. The same can be said for the dedication from the filmmakers to their initial ideas. But when the film feels incredibly drawn out and is rarely funny or emotionally impacting in any other way, it's a disaster. One in, maybe, a thousand will see the spark within this film and will click with it completely and love it for all of its off-putting weirdness. Every other viewer will be some mixture of confused, disgusted and bored, disappointed by the wasted potential of this cast, this crew and this admittedly amusing premise.
Sasquatch Sunset will be available on select platforms from the 29th of July. It will be widely available on digital and Blu-Ray from the 26th of August.
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