#Wes Tank

[agentnico]

Hundreds of Beavers (2024) review

This is cinema.

Plot: A drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the greatness that is this film’s poster! Very reminiscent of the poster for the 1963 epic comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, it truly encompasses the full scale cartoonish madness of the movie, and honestly is a piece of art in itself. As for the movie itself? Yeah, it’s fricking awesome!

This comes to us from director Mike Cheslik and co-writer Ryland Brickson Cole Tews (by the way holy Moses what a cool name that is!), the pair who gave us the Tews-directed Lake Michigan Monster, a bonkers little indie film that’s a mix of Life Aquatic and The Lighthouse and is immensely entertaining and stupid. What I like about these guys is how they fill their micro-budget productions with so much creativity, humour and visual inventiveness, and it really puts a lot of modern day Hollywood pictures to shame. These guys are great and so when Hundreds of Beavers popped up on my Letterboxd recommendations, it was a no brainer - I had to seek out this movie!

Hundreds of Beavers echoes the structure of video games, especially RPGs. The central character starts out as an absolutely numpty loser, and then as the film progresses he by trial and error improves his craft to become a skilful and talented trapper. This is reminiscent of how in a video game when your first start you’re essentially useless and crap at everything, but as you level up you become an utter boss. Take Resident Evil for example. In the beginning you struggle to defeat a single zombie. Chances are on your first few playthroughs you’ll die like a little b**ch. Talking from experience here, I remember that first village fight in Resident Evil 4! Then by the end you’re drilling through hordes with unlimited ammo and rocket launchers with super high HP and literally nothing can stop you. With Hundreds of Beavers it’s the same. The first part of the film the poor chap can’t even kill a single animal, let alone a beaver. By the end though he’s engaging in an impressive battle of fisticuffs with crowds upon crowds of beavers. I mean, not really a spoiler to say that there are loads of beavers in this film. Not just a hundred, we’re talking thousands!

That brings me to one of the biggest surprises of this film - there’s actually a fully fledged story here. Like yes the narrative exists entirely for the purpose of throwing as many ridiculously nuts slapstick gags in our faces at a rapid speed of a joke every second, but they are held together by a cohesive narrative. The main character Jean Kayak (brought to life by a superbly committed performance from Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, again, love the name) goes through a significant growth throughout the movie, and his mission to get the girl is as timely and charming as ever. I must say it took me about 20 minutes to properly get into the movie, but once I got to the level of whackiness it was going for I was engaged throughout.

So the visuals. Filtered throughout with a surreal black-and-white grainy filter, this plays out like a live-action cartoon in the vain of Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry. The stylistic choice that really makes this movie so unique is that the overwhelming majority of animals that Jean comes across are played by actors in full sizes costumes. Yep, it’s a bunch furries alright. Smaller animals such as birds and fish appear as little puppets, but all the larger animals are indeed played by actors in suits. You’d expect a gimmick like this to lose steam after a while, however the funny thing about Hundreds of Beavers is that it manages to consistently stay hilarious throughout, and in fact gets progressively crazier as it goes on. The final 20 minutes are truly fantastic, with the creators throwing every creative idea and visual gag they could possibly whip out of their books in your face. This movie could have easily ended up feeling like a stretched out SNL sketch, but luckily the creators share so much ambition to allow this movie to flourish in its endless creativity. Charlie Chaplin would be proud.

Hundreds of Beavers is one of the most creative, inventive and entertaining comedies of the last decade, and I had a smile on my face from start to finish. From the punchy editing, funny music cues, well-timed cutaway gags, goofy costumes or the endlessly creative deaths, this thing has so much unhinged energy it’s unreal. I can see this not being for everyone, but then again silent slapstick comedy nowadays can be definitely classed as an acquired taste, but I truly believe that everyone would find at least some part of this film amusing. In my eyes, this is a comedic marvel. Yeah, f*** those beavers!

Overall score: 9/10

[randomrichards]

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS:

Man drunk on cider

Tries his hand at fur trading

Starts war on Beavers

[kermodefan94-blog]

Hundreds of Beavers. Movie Review. 

Oh, how to describe this one. OK. Imagine your favourite silent comedian or slapstick act.  Vintage or  Contemporary. It essentially doesn’t matter as long as the viewer of choice enjoys them falling over getting hit by objects or partaking in a variety of deliberately absurd pratfalls. Now place your comedian or act of choice in 2022 ( as that’s when the film being reviewed here first played at…

[watchingalotofmovies]

Hundreds of Beavers

Hundreds of Beavers    [trailer]

In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.

Very funny, dialogue-free slapstick comedy. Channeling Buster Keaton and the anarchic spirit of classic cartoons. Very ingenious, clearly a labour of love.

[oceanusborealis]

Hundreds of Beavers - Movie Review

TL;DR – It was a completely wild ride from start to finish. I am not sure I have ever seen a film like this before, and I doubt I will ever again. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film. Hundreds of Beavers Review – For the last year, I kept hearing rumblings of this weird Beavers film that everyone needed…

[maxbruiser]

[peakvincent]

new game is to type one through ten in your tags and see what comes up. i think my favorite of mine is ‘my uncle told us he spent seven and a half hours in a sensory deprivation tank once’ but ‘gideon the ninth motherfucker’ is a close second

[turtleblogatlast]

Something about this kind of swimming getup for characters always immediately gives me transmasc vibes. Blue swim trunks and a tank top? Sorry man my brain already connected the dots. The vibes are there, and they’re not leaving.

[justjensenanddean]

Jensen Ackles | Radio Company Live Concert | Austin, August 20, 2024 [x]

[reunitedinterlude]

phlonde era

[galacticxangel]

@theshitpostcalligrapher I promise to do a proper Etsy review when the occupants GET to their tank but I must show you how audacious the frame I got for you art is (my wife agreed to let us put it above the shrimp tank in the bedroom, which makes me indescribably happy)

[budgieflitter]

tankjohnny but they're like in their 40s and divorced and depressed and trying to figure shit out

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE @jules-cant-build 💕💕💕💕💕

[xzyumi]

heat waves 💥🫠

[c-o-u-g-a-r]

I love it when marine bio people post on here because they’ll be like “look at her… Stunning… She is so beautiful… Gorgeous…” and it’s a sculpin

[welcometogrouchland]

Disgustingly messy and crusty sketch dump but I couldn't get my own terrible theory out of my head and ended up making a bunch of sketches about it. Also at the end a bonus dickbats and Damian doodle bc I was reading an issue of their Batman and Robin run (IDs in Alt)