The Movie: Beast Beast
The Director: Danny Madden
The Cast: Shirley Chen, Will Madden, Jose Angeles, Courtney Dietz, Daniel Rashid, Anissa Matlock, Stephen Ruffin, Chip Carriere, Kron Moore, Susan Gallagher
The Story: A look at the lives and trauma surrounding three people living in a southern town.
The Review:
We need a complete and total recreation of gun laws in America. We also need a complete and total shift in perspective from gun owners and advocates in America. Now that's a conversation I'm not going to get into, especially in this review but those are two things that absolutely need to happen unless we, as a population of this particular country, are okay with the constant stream of gun violence and mass killings that have somehow become normalized. Director Danny madden points and shoots his camera right at the heart of America and sets his sights on how the youth of America, as diverse and culturally rich as it is, can still easily fall into some very basic traps involving guns and violence.
The story follows three primary characters, first and foremost being Adam, played by Will Madden (Danny's younger brother), a young man who creates detailed breakdown videos of how to use guns with all safety protocols in mind. After discovering that his online tutorials aren't registering with the type of mass, revenue generating audience he is hoping for, he takes a bit of a turn towards the extreme. Shirley Chen plays Krista, a high school classmate and next door neighbor of Adam's who leads her high school acting troupe and has set her sights on Nito, the new kid in school. Nito, played by Jose Angeles, is the talented skater kid who falls in with the wrong crowd and ends up in some precarious situations that end up intersecting the paths of the other two characters.
While you might be able to extrapolate an idea of how this story plays out, it also takes some very interesting and unexpected turns showing just how slippery of a slope being a kid in today's America really is. I mean, it's never been easy, we just now have the influence and programming nature of the internet, connectivity, and social media creating a much stronger influence then previous generations have been subjected to. The performances from each of the actors feel very authentic and the director does a great job of letting you inside their heads so you genuinely understand what they are going through and the decisions they ultimately make. The whole thing just feels very relevant and fresh while giving us a harsh glimpse at the realities of today's society in relation to guns and the internet.
The Verdict:
Beast Beast is a shot across the bow and a stern warning against the dangers of allowing guns to be freely used and handled by pretty much anyone who wants one here in America. Danny Madden's latest effort is also an extremely relevant look into the culture and psyche of today's generation of high school students.
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