HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS (Fantasia Fest 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
In Hundreds of Beavers, filmmakers Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews join forces once more after their previous incandescent explosion of nautical weirdness, 2018’s truly singular Lake Michigan Monster. Irreversibly lifting the bar for contemporary spittoon-centric early cinema homages, like their previous effort Hundreds of Beavers literally has to be seen to be believed. They make films that are unashamedly in love with the experience of being in love with the movies, and it’s contagious. Hundreds of Beavers starts strange, gets stranger, and yet remains resolutely adorable.
It’s wintertime in the 19th century Great Lakes region, and the life of beleaguered Jean (Tews) takes a turn for the worst when his applejack distillery is vandalized by beavers, pitting Jean in a fight for survival against the elements. Slowly developing his hunting skills, he is able to trade animal carcasses for goods from the local merchant (Doug Mancheski) where he catches the eye of his furrier daughter (Olivia Graves). True love however is impeded by her father’s price for her hand in marriage: hundreds of beavers. Battle ensues.
Heavily physical slapstick with a twist, Hundreds of Beavers is set to play at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest and is a man vs nature film quite unlike any other. Much in the spirit of their acknowledged influence Guy Maddin, Cheslik and Tews take his affection for the wackadoodle and turn it right up to eleven. Part live action, part animation, part guys in animal suits, this is a love letter to silent comedy that embraces the defiant glee of art cinema and distils it into something so thoroughly pure and sincere that it is surely hard not to fall in love with it.
NOTE: Without actors and writers, we wouldn’t have movies. This review was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and the author of this review supports them unequivocally.
