Summary
- Hundreds of Beavers is a wild ride of absurd humor, balancing influences from Looney Tunes to The Lobster in its unique storytelling.
- The film features a wacky world where animals are people in mascot suits and beavers are constructing a massive base on an ice pond.
- Despite the nonsensical storytelling, Hundreds of Beavers blends a child’s imagination with a man’s desires, offering a heartfelt message in its third act.
Clearly, Mike Cheslik’s latest film is a comedy. That part is easy. Trying to figure out where it specifically fits within that specific category is a whole other endeavor that should not be attempted by the faint of heart. Unless, of course, there is some wicked amalgamation out there that covers the fast-paced frenzy of Looney Tunes, the visual slapstick comedy of the beloved Three Stooges, and the absurdist science fiction moments captured in 2015’s The Lobster. While these references do cover some of what’s to be found within this abnormal 1900s story, it is no understatement that Hundreds of Beavers balances and plays with so many more aspects in its 147-minute runtime. Even old-school cartoons never went this far with creativity.
Previously seen in other avant-garde funny movies such as 2018’s Lake Michigan Monster (which he directed and wrote) and 2016’s L.I.P.S (League of Interplanetary Process Servers), actor Ryland Brickson Cole Tews stars in Hundreds of Beavers as main character Jean Kayak. This bungling salesman was having a good time serving his clients, getting drunk, and singing sweet songs of nothing (the only instance of spoken words), but now finds himself in a dream-like winter world where the snow is knee-deep and the natural elements are against him. He spends his time tracking his path on a map and trading in his kills for supplies from an old, grizzled shopkeeper (whose daughter Jean is trying to woo). Viewers have no choice but to strap in their seatbelts because there are many dives into absurd humor in Hundreds of Beavers that just don’t let up.
Pure, Anti-Beaver Dedication
4.5/5
Release Date February 9, 2024
Director Mike Cheslik
Cast Ryland Brickson Cole Tews , Olivia Graves , Wes Tank , Doug Mancheski , Luis Rico
Runtime 108 Minutes
Writers Mike Cheslik , Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
Alongside Tews (who helped to write this film), the small but memorable cast all play a great part in building this wacky world. Never does a character question why most of the “animals” are people dressed up in mascot suits or how exactly the beavers are going about constructing a massive base in the middle of an ice pond. Brought to life by Doug Mancheski, the one merchant present in these mountains takes great pleasure in receiving beavers with cotton innards and trading the carcasses for real tools such as ropes and bear traps.
Sticking to the old ways of yesteryear, his daughter, only referred to as the furrier (depicted by Olivia Graves), always resides behind his trading post in a closed-off side yard. With the help of old-timey movie magic, she cuts up and turns the cotton innards into real delectable meat. As a testament to Hundreds of Beavers’s unique sense of humor, she also somehow manifests a stripper pole out of nowhere at one point.
SRH
There’s also the master fur trapper and the Indian fur trapper, who are brought to life by actors Wes Tank and Luis Rico, respectively. They, too, are all in when it comes to this surreal ecosystem of man-shaped creatures as the former uses dogs to drive his sleigh and the latter uses a horse to get around. They go about their business hunting as though their life depends on it — being unresponsive to the visual joke. Everything that is seemingly cartoony turns into something complicated yet so entertaining.
Taking Advantage of Being Silent
The simplistic outdoor environments where all this takes place force the viewer to stay focused on the moving entities — Jean and the otherworldly personalities that roam this place. Visual add-ins such as speech bubbles with thoughts and feelings and floating faces to indicate the unseen position of creatures are ambitious but sometimes overdone and take away from all the characters’ natural comedic skills. In an open space and subdued color like this, genuine liveliness is much appreciated.
As Hundreds of Beavers plays out all of its inspired silliness and theatrical gags, the plot deviates away from all the usual clichés and tropes that usually come with the formalities of a black-and-white, silent movie. Once Jean is in this new world and becomes accustomed to what he has to do in order to survive, his traps quickly evolve into very clever Rube Goldberg machines that you just can’t look away from.
Related Here Are 9 of the Best Silent Movies of All Time The hallowed silent film era had many memorable movies as part of its pantheon, but these stand out as nine of the greatest.
Besides that, there are also some fun and unusual subplots present that surprisingly spring out of the customs found in video games. As our lovable salesman-turned-all-around-nature-man explores the world, he fills out every scene he comes across on a map and later uses these places to better obtain beavers. As ridiculous as the rules of this film might be, there is undoubtedly a hero’s journey taking place with Jean too, that is mysteriously satisfying to witness. In the beginning, he keeps failing with what he sets out to do and keeps falling into the snow out of sheer clumsiness. While the visual is laughable the first few times (there is some variety in how this occurs), it happens so much that the repetition evolves into a bit of sluggish pacing.
Hundreds of Beavers Is Delightful Nonsense
But when he starts actually succeeding, bringing his trophies back to the shop and collecting bigger and better rewards for all of his hard work, Jean — and the viewer — are truly satisfied. On top of that, Tews himself is resilient and never lets go of the fanatical character all throughout filming. He genuinely delivers an honest reaction with a dose of wonder to every single event that occurs. Along with all the nuances that the cast brings forward in their characters and the sound design that easily substitutes any person’s voice, a surprising message develops in the third act. Jean suddenly has a choice to make and his decision pivots the otherwise hilarious story into a more heartfelt realm — one where the viewer is reminded of a more realistic world, even for just a moment.
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While the storytelling schematics are nonsensical at times, it somehow finds the time to beautifully balance the act of playing with a child’s imagination alongside the notion of a grown man’s desires — whether they are selfish or morally correct. Even though some of the things these fur-bound creatures do are utterly ridiculous, the movie turns into much more than just man versus beaver, and you just don’t ever want it to stop. If there is one thing that Hundreds of Beavers will leave you with, it will be to keep your eyes on both Ryland Brickson Cole Tews and Mike Cheslik. Their inventive synergy in making collaborative and comedic wonders like this should not go unnoticed.
From SRH, Hundreds of Beavers will open in Los Angeles on March 14, followed by a weeklong run at the Laemmle Glendale and select screenings at the Noho 7 and Claremont 5. Hundreds of Beavers will also run for a full week at New York’s IFC Center starting March 8.
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