Sasquatch Sunset-90 Minutes of Surprisingly Profound Sasquatch Absurdity

Sasquatch Sunset does the most with its reasonably simple concept. It's 90 minutes of pure slice-of-life moments of grunting sasquatches doing everything you'd expect sasquatches to do. As simple of a concept as it is, I found a certain charm to it, much more than I expected. Everything from the expressions and physical acting of the Sasquatch actors to the wide shots of the California forests and the almost ethereal music provides a charm and vibe I connected to. I also found the film's uses of gross-out surprisingly funny, unlocking a more juvenile side of myself, as I found myself chuckling a lot more at many moments involving some sasquatch fluid.

By the film's end, there's also a surprisingly moving commentary on nature and humanity. The film showcases these sasquatch characters going through many tragedies of nature, which shows that many emotions, such as grief and sadness, aren't mutually exclusive to humans and that other creatures can feel these emotions, even if they cannot fully understand them. By the film's end, by showing it through the sasquatch character's perspectives, the film portrays the absurdity of many parts of human life—the absurdity of cutting down trees only to throw them away into the river and the bizarreness of human-made food and technology. It's commentary that isn't anything new, but Sasquatch Sunset, in its purely visual approach, handles it in such a uniquely insightful way. The film's final shot before the cut to the credits is simultaneously profound and hilarious.

The film does begin to lose steam after a while. Its slice-of-life structure can only go so far, and watching the sasquatches go about their natural world could get a bit tedious by the end. And while I did find much of the film's gross-out humor funny, some moments of gross-out also didn't work for me.

Sasquatch Sunset is a flawed film, and I can understand the mixed reactions it received and the infamous number of walkouts when it premiered at Sundance back in January. However, I found the film to have a surprising charm and more profoundness than I had ever expected. Many won't be able to get on the film's wavelengths, but I also suspect many will be able to vibe with the film as much as I did.

Now Showing in Select Theaters in the U.S