Critical Recommendation: Hundreds of Beavers

I can't believe I'm doing this.

I think it's fair for me to say that this blog has grown with me. I look back at some of my older articles and sometimes cringe a little at the not-as-experienced writing ticks and tendencies. I imagine that in the future, I'll look back and do the same with everything I'm publishing today. But such is the nature of growth. However, some things never change, and one thing that has never gotten old for me is the trademark classic humor of Looney Toons I loved so much as a kid, that slapstick, goofy, almost rednecky yee-haw that so many of us grew up with, but was in its heyday a good bit before my time. And just recently, I was reminded of how much I love that style of humor when I watched a hidden gem mine called "Hundreds of Beavers." Yes, it's a real movie, and no, this article is not a joke because Hundreds of Beavers isn't only hilarious all the way through, but it's also so well-written that I might even go so far as to say it's genius. I decided to watch the film after I read a perfect review of it on Roger Ebert's site, and I think that this is one of the best watch-or-don't-watch decisions I have ever made in my entire life because it's genuinely a fantastic movie and I want to spend some time talking about it on my blog, because even if the Tin Shack Film Institute is really small and the vast majority of people on Earth don't know it exists, in a lot of ways, I'm doing this for me. I write because I love to write, and I love to write about things I love. Today, I want to write about Hundreds of Beavers because it became easily one of my favorite films by the time the credits rolled, partially due to actors running around in hilarious beaver suits (no, I'm serious) and partially due to the film's spectacular writing, and I hope that you will give it a chance, despite its overwhelmingly weird vision and subject matter. It's independent and original filmmaking at its very smartest and finest, despite its microscopic budget, and in simpler terms, it's just a fantastic film: I promise you that this is not a joke, it's really as good as I'm saying.

Hundreds of Beavers, directed by Mike Cheslik, is a neo-silent film about a down-on-his-luck lumberjack-slash-aspiring fur trapper named Jean Kayak who suddenly discovers that fur trapping turns an immense profit and eventually must trap hundreds of beavers to impress a stern, tobacco-chewing merchant and his daughter, whom Jean may or may not be attracted to.

I like independent cinema. These kinds of films are pretty much entirely free of the confines, influences, and shortcomings of the larger world of the blockbuster, generally freer and freer of them the smaller and more small-budget they get, and so when I watch movies like Hundreds of Beavers, I just know that I'm going to be watching something new, truly original, and exciting, regardless of the actual quality. And following that track record perfectly, this film is unlike anything I've ever seen before, mixing live-action shots, animated moments, and weird humanoid animal suits in ways that, strangely enough, work really well with each other, crafting a truly zany and interesting world for Jean Kayak to explore (that name is so much fun to say. Try it). It's like watching a Looney Tunes cartoon in real life, and it's insanely fun all the way through. In addition to its unapologetic originality, Hundreds of Beavers is also really genuinely hilarious, more so than any other comedy film I've seen in a very long time, and its ability to milk a joke without ever letting it become stale is just uncanny and absolutely unparalleled. Its recurring visual jokes have to be one of the highlights of the film, and watching Jean Kayak fall through the ice periodically throughout the film will probably never get old for me. Also, can I say that watching obviously human actors run around in animal suits is weirdly funny? Yes...all the animals are played by people in two-legged, cartoonish costumes. Except for the horse. I feel kind of bad for the two people who had to be in that costume, but that thing was hilarious. Not only does this unabashedly weird choice on the part of the filmmakers never get old or feel out of place, but I think that if this movie ever picks up a large enough cult following, these really classic costuming choices will keep it from aging too much, if at all. All in all, this could be the funniest movie I've seen this year, and I don't know if that's more because of personal preferences than anything else, but the slapstick nature of this film is truly hilarious, and I don't want to detract from that too much, because even if that kind of humor isn't your thing, I think that you'll still get a kick out of it, because the humor in this movie isn't just a shade of Hundreds of Beavers: it's a total tonal commitment on the part of the filmmakers, and commit they did, drawing from an endless well of visual jokes and gags an hour after most anyone else would have run out of comedic ammunition.

On a more fundamental level, does it sound strange to you when I say that the plot and pacing of Hundreds of Beavers is absolutely fantastic? The story is a simple one, and the goal of Jean Kayak is likewise a simple one. This keeps the movie very grounded and intentional in terms of narrative goals, and the story never really loses track of what it's trying to do in meaningless subplots or overcomplicated quests. Jean needs to obtain the pelts of hundreds of beavers, and this movie is about him trying to do just that. I guess what I'm saying is that Jean's goal is really measurable. It makes a lot of sense in a weird and zany but also simple and straightforward way, and it lets us, as the audience, just have a lot of fun with the weirdness that this film brings up along the way without ever letting the weirdness spiral into not making sense. Oh, and this movie does have a feature where Jean is making a map of the wilderness as he explores it, and this creates a very thorough and impressive sense of the world in which Hundreds of Beavers is set. It's just the icing on the top of the cake that this film is, but that icing is pretty dang sweet if you ask me. Now, I'll mention again that Hundreds of Beavers is also a silent movie, and being a silent movie, it lives by the adage of show-don't-tell and almost sets a new standard for it in a lot of ways. It makes for some really effective and unusual comedy, and it really kept me from checking out of this film in any way, shape, form, or fashion.

Now, if a movie about a fur trapper chasing around people in cartoony beaver costumes sounds like a kid-friendly romp....well it kind of does. But I do need to tell you that for all of its surprising artistic merits, this movie isn't really kid-friendly. It almost reminds me of some stuff on Adult Swim in a lot of ways. It's got one same-sex kiss (non-sexual: played for laughs) and a decent amount of some silent but pretty raunchy humor. But I guess it doesn't have any swearing for obvious reasons. I just say all of this to let you know that just because it has cute beavers in it doesn't really make it a kid's movie because it's not. But despite some content issues, I still highly recommend this movie because I really loved it and I could see that it was critically a very high-flying piece. I wasn't really thinking that this film would get a recommendation from me before I sat down to watch it. Heck, I didn't even think I would end up posting about it on my blog. But here I am today, doing both. Hundreds of Beavers is the silent slapstick masterpiece I didn't know I needed, and I think it's a movie you need, too. It's a really good time, as well as a really good movie that needs a little bit more exposure, and I hope that I'm able to do a little bit of both with a post such as this one. I can't really think of any major flaws in this film, not even technical ones, as the movie embraces all of its budgetary imperfections and runs with them in ways that make Hundreds of Beavers all the funnier, and by the time the credits had rolled, Mike Cheslik's slapstick winter epic had become one of my favorite films of the year, and frankly, one of my favorite films of all time.

Hundreds of Beavers - 10/10

Psalm 29:9