Sasquatch Sunset review: poignant but comedic Bigfoot flick is less David Attenborough, more Dumb And Dumber

Sasquatch Sunset is one of the weirdest movies you’ll see all year. Think Harry And The Hendersons, only if Harry spent most of the movie with his wang flapping in the breeze. Yes, not since Meet The Feebles has this critic felt so uncomfortable watching scenes of non-human fornication. The movie sprung from the quirky minds of writer-director duo David and Nathan Zellner, the film festival darlings who gave us the 2014 drama Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. Inspired by their own childhood watching Leonard “Spock” Nimoy’s In Search Of… TV series, which examined unexplained phenomena, such as UFOs and the Loch Ness monster, the Zellners became obsessed with the famous Patterson–Gimlin Bigfoot footage. Shot in 1967 in Northern California, the footage depicts a large, long-armed, unidentified subject loping through the woods, and is a foundational piece of contemporary Bigfoot or sasquatch lore. After doing a deep dive into the world of cryptozoology, the brothers decided to embark on a film that imagined what a year in the life of a family of sasquatches would actually be like. With Oscar-nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, Riley Keough (Daisy Jones & The Six), donning elaborate sasquatch costumes, the movie is completely wordless, if you don’t count the grunts that constitute Bigfoot communication. Eisenberg’s sasquatch is the lesser male of the group, with the alpha, a grumpy, randy old sod, played by Nathan. We see Keough’s character fending off the alpha’s advances, but day-to-day life is generally spent wandering around looking for food. As one season is replaced by the next, the four sasquatches, which also includes a smaller male child, traverse the stunning Pacific Northwest, interacting with a variety of wildlife along the way. Ideally suited to a film fest, the movie’s comedic vibe ensures it is less David Attenborough, and more Dumb And Dumber. Once you get your head around the silliness of the anatomically correct costumes, and the actors’ inconsistent commitment to simian movements, what you’re left with is a rather beautiful, rather poignant movie. The sasquatches are inexorably forced to confront human civilisation, with the “sunset” of the title confirming this is a metaphor for our destruction of not only the natural world, but anything unknown. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the score by The Octopus Project is the stuff indie music dreams are made of. It doesn’t all make sense, such as why these creatures seem so naive about every plant and animal they encounter in the environment they’ve lived in for decades. But this is, after all, a movie about sasquatches, so a little artistic liberty is acceptable. 3.5 stars Starring: Jessie Eisenberg, Riley Keough Rating: MA15+ In Cinemas: Now