Beast
Few films feel like an easier sell for August at the movies than, “What would happen if a lion attacked Idris Elba and his daughters?” This simple pitch is, thankfully, basically what “Beast” is, and I’m not going to lie- that is very refreshing. Yes, we get a set up of other plot devices in the opening minutes, but give credit to the filmmakers- they weave that into the fundamental idea of the film- Idris Elba vs. lion- and make it make sense to the plot. The result is a great little B-movie thriller for the end of summer.
Elba stars as Nate Samuels, a doctor on a safari trip with his daughters, Mere (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries). His ex-wife, and their mother, has just died of cancer, and he’s bringing them on a trip to their mother’s home, where they met. An old friend, Martin (Sharlto Copley), will be their guide, and wants to watch out for them. Unfortunately for them, a rogue lion is stalking the lands, and it’s hunting humans.
The film’s director is Baltasar Kormakur, an Icelandic director I’ve had mixed views of over the years. I watched his 2002 film, “The Sea,” and basically hated it. In 2013, he did “2 Guns,” which I liked, but his 2015 film “Everest” just couldn’t stand up to the landmark IMAX documentary on the same tragic expedition. Having seen “Beast,” I think his forte is stripped-down action movies, because as with “2 Guns,” he understands the hook, and delivers it every step of the way. The opening of the film sets up the lion, and why it’s attacking humans. It’s enough of a lure that we don’t really need to know more to know why Nate and his daughters are going to be in trouble. “Beast’s” storytelling is economical in a way that is refreshing- it sets the landscape of the action, the tension between the characters, and just lets it rip. The film may be using CG animals, but there’s not a minute in the film where we don’t feel anxiety during an attack, or a moment when Nate is exposed, and might be attacked as a result. The set pieces in this film deliver, especially when Nate is trying to find keys for a truck so they can get away, or when they are hiding out in a former school.
“Beast” lives up to it’s log line pitch by the end, but that end gives us a literal mano a mano that shows the character’s intelligence and nerve as he calls back to something we learned early on in the film. It’s a clean through line of storytelling, and one of the reasons “Beast” delivers where other films this summer failed to do.
