Sasquatch Sunset

As a fan of the filmmaking brothers David and Nathan Zellner and their offbeat brand of humor and awkward storytelling style, I had much higher hopes for “Sasquatch Sunset” than I guess I should have. Disappointingly unfunny and too reliant on gross-out gags, this weird movie about the antics of a bigfoot family is a massive misfire on every level. This absurdist film is set up like a bad nature documentary, a strictly observational look at a year in the life of a sasquatch clan. There’s the alpha (Nathan Zellner), the female (Riley Keough), the male (Jesse Eisenberg), and the child (Christophe Zajac-Denek), and their existence is not all that interesting. They forage for food and explore the forest around them, with lots of sniffing, barking, farting, defecating, and scratching along the way. Even a fictional look at the day-to-day routine of a sasquatch brood quickly wears thin. Perhaps if the Zellners had gone with a more traditional mockumentary route, the movie wouldn’t feel so sluggish. There’s only so much the talented indie cast can do when their dialogue amounts to nothing more than a series of barks and grunts. Buried under layers of fur and makeup, the roles demand a lot of physicality, which would’ve worked far better with more slapstick gags. The script feels like it was written by 14 year old boys who wanted to include every single poop, pee, and sex joke they could dream up. It also isn’t a good sign that the majority of the time I was questioning whether or not something was supposed to be funny, as it was all so unclear. I do know one thing that was crystal, however: I never laughed. I found nothing to be humorous, just weird and gross (and for the Zellners, that’s saying something). The interesting thing about all of this is that while the movie isn’t compelling, I was still invested in the outcome. I wanted to know what happened to each of the creatures, even if their eventual fate is a bit of a letdown. The film teeters on the verge of being a total train wreck, yet I couldn’t seem to tear myself away. It’s not bad enough to walk out of, but it’s also not good enough nor enjoyable enough to recommend, which leaves “Sasquatch Sunset” in niche film purgatory. It begs the question, “who is the audience for this?“ By: Louisa Moore / SCREEN ZEALOTS