By John Corrado

Directed by brothers David and Nathan Zellner (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter), Sasquatch Sunset is a unique and ambitious indie dramedy that unfolds without dialogue and follows a family of sasquatches living off the land, played by actors in realistic fursuits.

There’s the gruff, older patriarch (Nathan Zellner), the mama bear matriarch (Riley Keough), a junior male (Jesse Eisenberg, who also produced the film), and a younger, more curious sasquatch (Christophe Zajac-Denek). We simply watch as they munch on leaves, have intercourse, play with themselves, befriend animals, and pee on things.

The film takes place over the course of a year, the changing seasons providing chapters for the film. At time it feels like we are watching a bizarro nature mockumentary, simply observing what sasquatches might do in the wild. This also leaves things open for the Zellner Brothers to lean heavily into gross out comedy, with the creatures producing any number of bodily fluids (including graphically marking their territory with them when feeling threatened).

The most impressive aspect of the film is the makeup and prosthetics work, with the actors being practically unrecognizable under the layers of fur. It’s hard to even tell at first who is who under the fursuits, but the whole cast does an impressive job of fully committing themselves to these roles, having gone through extensive training with a movement coach to create definable characters; they believably stomp around, beat their chests, and communicate through a series of grunts and body language.

The premise occasionally gets away from itself and can feel stretched a bit thin at points, even at a scant 89 minutes. But, aside from its penchant for crude humour and obvious potential as a stoner comedy, Sasquatch Sunset also works in deeper themes about how we engage with the natural world around us. It’s shot like a nature film by Mike Gioulakis, whose cinematography captures all the grandeur, wonder, and danger of the forest around them.

The film starts off as a somewhat chill hangout movie, but more of a survival plot emerges as it goes on, including some harrowing moments of peril. It works because we can see the humanity behind the eyes of these non-human creatures. Through this slice-of-life portrait of sasquatches living in the woods, the Zellner Brothers work in allegories about life and death, allowing their film to work best as an oddly meditative reflection on our relationship to the natural world. It’s an environmental parable, but one that also doesn’t shy away from offering crude sex and poop jokes.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Sasquatch Sunset opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on April 19th. It’s being distributed in Canada by levelFILM.