August is the month for snappy, inventive genre films that deliver punchy thrills in air-conditioned theaters affording respite from the sweltering heat, and Beast skillfully fits that bill. A kindred spirit to Alexandre Aja’s 2019 gator-fest Crawl, Baltasar Kormákur’s feature takes a simple conceit and executes it with an efficiency and dexterity that amplifies its anxiety. There’s nothing deep or groundbreaking about this studio-funded B-movie, but it does what it promises, generating suspense from its bare-knuckle premise: pitting Idris Elba against a vicious lion.
Elba’s recent cinematic output has been less than awe-inspiring, and thus it’s nice to see the actor get back to proverbial basics with Beast (Aug. 19), a no-nonsense affair that hinges on his stout charisma. In this straightforward tale, Elba is Dr. Nate Samuels, an American doctor traveling to South Africa with his two daughters, older Meredith (Iyana Halley) and younger Norah (Lea Sava Jeffries), in the wake of his wife’s death. Nate is plagued by mysterious dreams in which he navigates a shadowy realm of women, as if he’s searching for something precious that’s been lost, and when he’s awake, he’s forced to deal with Meredith’s coldness and anger at him for having abandoned his wife in her time of need—the result, it’s eventually revealed, of an inopportune marital separation. Meredith is headstrong and Norah is sensitive and upset about her sister and father’s squabbling, and the clan’s tense dynamic doesn’t dissipate when they arrive in the desert for a vacation intended to heal, or at least soothe, their deep wounds.
In this arid environment, Nate, Meredith and Norah are greeted by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), a lifelong family friend who knew Nate’s wife from childhood and, in fact, set the couple up during their years at university. Martin works on the reserve looking after the wildlife, and his confidence is only matched by his hospitality, which he demonstrates upon bringing his guests back to his remote home. During these early passages, including the troupe’s subsequent daytime excursion into the bush to gaze in amazement at elephants, hippos and giraffes, Ryan Engle’s screenplay casually introduces details destined to factor prominently into the ensuing mayhem. Beast wastes no energy on superfluous frippery, its every gesture designed—obviously, but not ham-fistedly—to establish elements that will ultimately play a part in Nate’s struggle for survival.
That economy is complemented by Kormákur’s sterling stewardship, which is all the more striking for never calling undue attention to itself. Whether his protagonists are moving through a residence, a strangely abandoned local village, a thicket of tall weeds and grass or a dilapidated former school, Kormákur fixates on his subjects in long, winding, unbroken takes. It’s as if the director’s camera—and, by extension, the audience—is stalking Elba and company, a suggestion that’s ideally attuned to the action that erupts once the foursome is set upon by a male lion with a ferocious desire to kill. As Martin explains, this is uncharacteristic for such a creature, which normally resorts to violence in order to protect its pride. Nonetheless, behavioral inconsistencies aren’t of much concern in the moment, given that everyone is far too busy trying to stay alive.
Although Nate and Martin are perplexed by the lion’s homicidal instincts, Beast has already revealed the motivation for its fiend’s rampage. In a nocturnal prologue, a group of local poachers use a dead zebra to lure a family of lions to a tree, where they’re all promptly executed—save for one. It’s this survivor that now stalks the land, much to the misfortune of Nate, Meredith and Norah, who find themselves in the crosshairs of a predator on a mission of revenge against all humans, whom it blames for its pride’s slaughter. This more than slightly recalls Jaws: The Revenge and, for that matter, any number of Liam Neeson programmers, and while it’s a tad cheesy to saddle the lion with vengeful intentions, it serves the pulpy material just fine, since the lion’s objectives are never stressed to unreasonably unrealistic ends.
Thankfully, the CGI effects used to create this marauder are above average, allowing Kormákur to maintain his story’s central fiction in both distant shots of the lion staring down its prey and up-close rough-and-tumble skirmishes between man and animal. At every step along its harried journey, Beast doggedly sticks to Elba, lurking over his shoulder and twisting and turning in harmony with his POV, such as during a standout sequence in which Nate takes desperate cover beneath a jeep to avoid being chomped on by his furious four-legged adversary. Philippe Rousselot’s cinematography is lithe and intense, and by not cutting away during its centerpieces, the film repeatedly builds and maintains a sense of unease and impending doom. It’s an understated case study in how to employ resourceful aesthetics for pulse-pounding ends.
Periodic complications and calamities stymie Nate and his brood’s efforts to make it back to civilization in one piece, be it a radio that doesn’t work, a vehicle that’s battered beyond repair, a dwindling supply of drinking water or a comrade whose injuries prevent easy travel, much less any chance of putting up a united-front fight against the lion. Beast is clever enough to keep things edgy and smart enough to not have its characters act in contrived ways. It strikes just the right balance between rugged and cartoonish, at least until its main event—a The Revenant-style climactic showdown between Elba and the lion that, borderline-absurdity be damned, proves just what the doctor ordered.
Through it all, Elba reconfirms his status as a formidable and nimble big-screen presence who’s equally comfortable performing feats of superheroic bravery and expressing tender, empathetic emotion. Beast is no masterpiece and it certainly won’t win its leading man any award-season plaudits. Yet there’s something to be said for the way in which Elba unaffectedly conveys both fatherly he-man might and wounded-widower sorrow, never unduly straining in either direction as Nate grapples with terrifying circumstances and does battle against a primal brute that can’t be outrun, overpowered or outlasted. It’s a genuine movie-star turn, and precisely the type of performance a lean, mean film like this requires.
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