JP Nunez
Bigfoot holds a special place in my heart. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by all things mysterious and paranormal, and cryptids were a big part of that. I read everything I could find about creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, and while that obsession has since waned, I still find these legends super intriguing. So naturally, when I first heard about Sasquatch Sunset, I knew I had to check this film out. I bought a ticket as soon as I got the chance, and I couldn’t wait to see what wacky antics these Bigfoots would be up to.
Sasquatch Sunset was directed by David and Nathan Zellner, and it stars Riley Keough, Jesse Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek, and Nathan Zellner. It’s a comedy that follows a family of four Sasquatches who live in the wilderness, and it basically just documents their day-to-day lives. We see them do normal things like eat, play, interact with the wildlife around them, and even have sex, but beyond that, this movie doesn’t really have much of a plot.
Sasquatch Sunset is entirely character-driven, and since the characters are animals, the film is completely devoid of dialogue. Instead, the Bigfoots communicate through a variety of more-or-less indistinct grunts, cries, and gestures, so in a certain sense, this movie is a lot like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
The latest entry in the MonsterVerse has several long stretches with no humans in sight, and those sequences do an excellent job of letting the monsters tell their own story without a single line of dialogue. Sasquatch Sunset is basically an entire film of just that, and it does an equally impressive job of telling its story through its legendary nonverbal leads.
In particular, I have to give huge props to the four actors who play these creatures. They’re in so much makeup you can’t tell who’s who, but you always know what their characters are feeling. These performers skillfully change their facial expressions and their body language to convey numerous distinct emotions, like anger, sadness, joy, and even horniness, so you always know exactly what’s going on.
However, despite that impressive character work, Sasquatch Sunset never truly captured my imagination. See, this movie leans very heavily on its comedy, but that element fell completely flat for me. It’s mostly lowbrow humor about drugs, sex, and bodily waste, and I got the impression that the gags were supposed to be funny just because they involved Bigfoots instead of humans.
To take just a couple of examples, there’s a somewhat prolonged sex scene involving two of the Sasquatches, and there are numerous times when the creatures urinate and defecate on things they don’t like. To be fair, if you enjoy that kind of humor, I think you’re going to get a real kick out of this film. However, those jokes didn’t work for me at all, and that ruined the entire experience because, at its core, Sasquatch Sunset is a comedy above all else.
Like I said before, the movie doesn’t really have a plot, so it stands or falls almost entirely on the strength of its characters. And by and large, these characters are little more than walking jokes. Sure, there are a couple of genuinely emotional moments here and there, but they’re few and far between. The one real throughline in this story is the comedy, and if that doesn’t work for you, there’s simply not much else to latch onto.
That being said, beyond the gags about sex and feces, Sasquatch Sunset does have a legitimate message. In the second half of the film, the Bigfoots start to encounter some man-made objects like roads and candy (although, oddly enough, they never come across any people), and the way I see it, the point is to juxtapose what we make with what nature makes.
See, this movie was clearly shot in the middle of the woods, and the natural landscapes it captures are beautiful. I didn’t enjoy the film overall, but even I have to acknowledge that it looks absolutely gorgeous. And when we see the various ways humanity has encroached upon this natural beauty, the contrast is striking.
Our metal and concrete artifacts look like a blight on the land, at best a poor imitation of the wonders of mother nature, and they have some very damaging effects on the Sasquatches’ lives. Their ugliness is a clear indictment of our species’ harsh treatment of the natural world, and even though I’m not particularly passionate about environmental causes, I do sympathize with that message.
But unfortunately, it doesn’t doesn’t fundamentally change what the movie is. The second half of Sasquatch Sunset is still a character-driven comedy without a real plot, so no matter what it all means, the film still stands or falls primarily on the strength of its characters and its humor. And unfortunately, those elements simply aren’t very good.
So despite a few redeeming qualities, I’m sad to report that Sasquatch Sunset is a real slog to get through. Sure, it’s a slog with something to say, but that’s not really better. My inner cryptid-loving child was sorely let down by this movie, so unless you think you’d enjoy its particular brand of lowbrow Bigfoot humor, I suggest giving it a pass.
Sasquatch Sunset was released in limited theaters on April 12 and it got a wide release on April 19.
