“Sasquatch Sunset” is an oddly interesting film which may frustrate you at times for good reasons. Steadily following one year of a small Sasquatch clan inhabiting somewhere in the wilderness of Northern California, the movie simply observes their behaviors and feelings, and it adamantly pushes its challenging story setting as much as it can, though it eventually stumbles more than once due to its rather thin narrative.
At first, we are introduced to the four members of that Sasquatch clan one by one, and we get some sense of hierarchy from them. The group is mostly dominated by the one who can be regarded as “Alpha Male” (Nathan Zellner, who incidentally co-directed, co-produced, and co-edited along with his brother David Zellner), and we soon see him having sex with the only female member of the clan, while the other two members including her child are watching this from the distance.
After that, we observe how these four Sasquatches go through another day in their forest. They often look for anything to eat, and there is a little amusing moment when the other male adult member of the clan, played by Jesse Eisenberg, has to give up what he just found to Alpha Male before trying to grasp the concept of counting.
Needless to say, there is always the possibility of danger around them in the wilderness as reflected by the occasional shots of various wild animals also inhabiting in the forest. At one point, they discover some plant berries to eat, but then Alpha Male discovers something else which turns out to be quite intoxicating. As a consequence, he ends up showing more of what a lousy leader he is, and this leads to a series of humorous moments including the one involved with a poisonous mushroom.
What eventually occurs after that narrative point makes the film feel a bit more serious than before. I will not go in detail here for not spoiling anything, but I can tell you instead that the Sasquatches come to show genuine emotions and this makes us more curious about what they are actually feeling or thinking. Although they are one or two steps below us in terms of evolution, they seem to be capable of showing some sincere consideration, and we come to observe them with more curiosity as well as more amusement.
As the story rolls along several seasonal changes, we come to sense more of a certain biological change from the female member of the clan, who is played by Riley Keough. She understandably becomes more sensitive about her current condition, and the male members around her including her child respect that to some degree, but the situation becomes quite desperate as winter is coming to the forest later.
Meanwhile, the screenplay by David Zellner has its main characters experience a few accident encounters with the world outside their habitat. At one point in the middle of the story, they happen to come across a paved road leading to somewhere outside the forest, and their surprise and bafflement are accentuated further by the unconventional score by the Octopus Project. In case of one particular scene accompanied with an unexpected musical moment, we become more conscious of the rather inexplicable absence of human beings in the film, and that impression is more emphasized around the end of the story.
As coming to lose some of its narrative momentum during its last act, and the movie seems to be at a loss just like its main characters, but you will admire the considerable efforts put on and behind the screen. The directors and their crew members including cinematographer Michael Gioulakis, who previously worked in “It Follows” (2014) and “Us” (2019), did a commendable job of establishing the vivid outdoor atmosphere on the screen, and the Sasquatches in the film look fairly convincing even though we are sometimes clearly see that they are just the performers wearing the costumes and a lot of makeup.
Nevertheless, the four performers of the film somehow bring enough personality and feeling to their respective roles, though I must confess that it took some time for me to distinguish one from another due to their very, very, very hairy appearance. Keough, who has been one of the most dependable actresses in American independent cinema since “American Honey” (2016), deftly and subtly builds up her character along the story, and her resulting good performance ably carries several key scenes in the movie. On the opposite, Eisenberg, who also participated in the production of the film along with Keough, willingly throws himself into an equally challenging task while not overshadowing his co-star at all, and Nathan Zellner and Christophe Zajac-Denek are also effective in their respective supporting parts.
Overall, “Sasquatch Sunset” is not good enough to compensate for its several weak aspects, but it is not entirely without interest, and I admire not only the efforts of its cast members but also the competent direction of David and Nathan Zellner, who previously worked together on “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter” (2014) and “Damsel” (2018). The directors are already working on their next film at present, and I sincerely hope that I will be more entertained and satisfied.
