Sasquatch Sunset Movie Review

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The “Sunset” in the title refers to the sunset of their race. Watching this makes you come to the stunning realization that all beasts have been where the Sasquatch is, including us. They are aware of certain things, not of others. They have wandered from somewhere—God only knows where—and find themselves in the deep forest of the Redwoods.

We get to experience a year of their journey through this new terrain. Being away from familiar grounds, they now need to know how to eat and how to live. In the beginning, we see them groom one another and command leadership. You’re a little confused as to who is who, but the mother (Riley Keough) and father (Nathan Zellner) begin having sex. This helps the audience discover that it’s a family of four. Jesse Eisenberg is the older child and their youngest is played by Christophe Zajac-Denek, a little person who’s very athletic. The kids see their parents in the middle of their lovemaking, frightened at what they see. “Is this a good thing or a bad thing?” they wonder. They couldn’t be more confused.

The valley in which they stand couldn’t be more gorgeous, though. The background scenery will mesmerize you throughout the film, and the score isn’t half bad, either.

The farting and nose-picking may be a bit funny but grows old quickly. What are you watching… and why? This is what you’ll find yourself asking before long. However, this film is a testament to the acting talent. What’s needed to tell their story, (the ape and human-like beasts, covered in hair), takes a lot of work. Getting a point across, mostly only using your eyes, gestures and grunts, couldn’t have been an easy task, but they do it! You know what they’re attempting to say; they just don’t have the pleasure of the spoken word to get their points across. Eisenberg plays a Sasquatch who is teaching himself how to count. He counts the rings of a tree, the stars in the sky, and some eggs in a small nest. He always gets lost in the count and has to start over. It’s a running gag that will make you feel sorry for him, which he would be fine with because if you can’t count a few eggs, you deserve the pity.

Lingering on too far with the sniffing of fingers from touching a certain body part, the movie feels absurd and mindless. I want more than the inane caricatures offered here. Nathan Zellner’s daddy, Squatch, wanders off and finds himself a pretty kitty he can’t help but want to take home to the family. Sadly, he doesn’t realize there’s a difference between a domesticated cat and a wild one. As you might expect, good intentions aside, it doesn’t end well for him. There’s not enough story, if you can pick up on one at all, so this could have been a nice short with a message about how easy it is to go extinct. Being unaware of the dangers you cause from the lack of awareness of what’s going on around you is the strongest one going on here. Magic mushrooms? Good. Hard dirt going in two directions? Good? They have no idea. They stumble upon a statue of a Sasquatch near the entrance and have no idea what it is; it just looks vaguely familiar. That’s about as charming as it gets.

There’s a moment at a campsite that’s humorous for several reasons. They get introduced to the sound of music and immediately feel its power moving through them. It’s a great scene all around. Outside of that, “Sasquatch Sunset” is pretty dull. I was bored while watching and cannot recommend unless you like extremely unique narratives that are trying to make a point by pushing a storyline to the brink. Note. If you start watching, you’ll have to stay and see what happens.

Some theaters where you can find “Sasquatch Sunset” are…