While The Beast won’t be for everyone, its risks are what make it so compelling. Bertrand Bonello is uninterested in tying up every loose end, but those narrative imperfections feel like deliberate artistic choices rather than missteps. The film constantly shifts shape, feeling at times like an anthology, a love story, a sci-fi thriller, and an existential drama all at once.
‘The Beast’ Movie Review
Few films in 2024 are as ambitious as The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s sprawling, time-bending romance that places Léa Seydoux (The French Dispatch, One Fine Morning) and George MacKay (1917, The End) in multiple lives across different time periods, connected only by their names—Gabrielle and Louis—and an intangible bond that seems to stretch beyond time itself.
In a near-future setting, Gabrielle is undergoing a radical procedure to purify her DNA, immersing herself in past lives to rid herself of overwhelming emotions. In this world, artificial intelligence has taken over most prestigious jobs, and human emotions are seen as liabilities. If she wants a well-compensated career, she must erase her strong feelings, eliminating the possibility of human error. But as she navigates these past lives, she keeps encountering Louis, forming a connection so intense that it feels as though she has always known him.
Bonello, always an experimental filmmaker, takes The Beast into deeply layered and cerebral territory, blending elements of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Her with the grand, interwoven storytelling of Cloud Atlas and Vanilla Sky. At times, the film evokes the dreamy, fractured logic of David Lynch, while its meditations on love and desire recall Claire Denis. The film’s first immersion sequence, set in 1910 France, even conjures images of Titanic, as Gabrielle and Louis find themselves trapped in a flooding doll-making factory.
Bonello has played with similarly ambitious ideas before, particularly in Coma (2022), which only recently surfaced on VOD in the U.S. Coma examined the anxieties of contemporary childhood through surreal, mixed-media storytelling, while The Beast shifts that lens to adulthood, exploring the existential dread of an uncertain future. Both films suggest a deep concern with how external forces—whether technology, history, or fate—shape our personal identities.
This is a film that almost demands multiple viewings. The first watch can feel overwhelming, with Bonello throwing the audience into an intricate maze of timelines and emotions. But upon rewatch, The Beast reveals itself more clearly, with Léa Seydoux anchoring the film through subtle, restrained performances that shift ever so slightly across each time period. George MacKay, meanwhile, transforms dramatically from a smooth-talking businessman in 1910 to a menacing, socially alienated stalker and incel in 2014 Los Angeles.
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While The Beast won’t be for everyone, its risks are what make it so compelling. Bonello is uninterested in tying up every loose end, but those narrative imperfections feel like deliberate artistic choices rather than missteps. The film constantly shifts shape, feeling at times like an anthology, a love story, a sci-fi thriller, and an existential drama all at once. It’s unpredictable, challenging, and undeniably bold—an exhilarating reminder of cinema’s ability to experiment and take risks.
Rating: 7/10
The Beast (2024)
- Cast: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda
- Director: Bertrand Bonello
- Genre: Drama, Romance, Science Fiction
- Runtime: 146 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: February 7, 2024