BEAST BEAST

Trying to find out where you belong in the world, particularly towards the end of your teenage years, can be quite a daunting prospect. With your whole life ahead of you still, the pressures of fitting in can lead to some drastic actions and life-changing events that shape the rest of your life, for better or worse. Beast Beast is an independent coming-of-age drama film from Danny Madden that takes a stab at telling such a story.

Krista (Shirley Chen), Adam (Will Madden) and Nito (Jose Angeles) all live in the same town in the Souther United States. Adam has recently graduated and trying his hand at making YouTube videos about guns only to find it hard to build an audience. Krista and Nito attend the same school and become close as a result but the three could never predict how their lives would collide in such dramatic fashion.

Beast Beast is an ambitious film, that's for sure. The intertwining lives of these three teenagers being a great opportunity for an insight into the life through the eyes of American youth, three very different lives coming to the fore and these differences causing shockwaves that mean none of their lives would ever be the same.

It's a shame though that Beast Beast is let down in its pursuit of reaching for such heights by underwritten characters and narrative, while the handling of one moment in particular leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth. Unfortunately, the film doesn't develop its main characters enough to make their actions in the final act feel warranted, gun violence being such a major issue in America for a number of years now and the way this film deals with both the violence and the fallout just feels so tone deaf and rather insulting to its audience.

Coming to the performances, Beast Beast has an inexperienced trio who apply themselves really well to their respective roles, Will Madden in particular doing a fine job with an anxious performance of a young man trying to find some relevance online with his gun videos. Jose Angeles has a lot of fun screen presence that instantly makes his character likeable alongside Shirley Chen, who he shares rather decent chemistry with. It's just a shame that the writing on the characters doesn't match up to the performances of the actors.

I have to applaud Beast Beast for trying to tell an ambitious story however, it always comes with scrutiny, particularly when handling a subject matter which has been a major talking point in America for a number of years now. On that note, Danny Madden fails but it shouldn't make him stop trying to make films with a poignant message because he can learn from this and he is someone I will look out for in the future. 

Verdict: ★★

Blue Finch Film Releasing presents Beast Beast on Digital Download 30 April.