This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.Though it refers to something very different in the context of its story, The Beast is a fitting title for writer-director Bertrand Bonello’s latest film as it begins to convey the massive scope of the canvas he is painting on. A monumental and menacing science fiction journey through time, it’s an unwieldy work that still manages to delicately wind its way around you before crushing the air from your lungs. The terror of the finale alone will forever etch itself in your memory. It is a long road, but it all connects in a way that becomes absolutely flooring.

Spanning decades of time that can pass in the blink of an eye, it takes us through separate moments of the multiple lives of a woman who feels disaster bearing down on her in each of them. Played by the always magnificent Léa Seydoux of the outstanding recent films One Fine Morning and Crimes of the Future, which almost feel like they are coalescing here, we see her trying desperately to avert a looming destruction that she does not yet even fully understand. It all comes viscerally alive, in an uncanny visual and emotional sense, as if we are watching the fragments of a memory being played back long after they have faded.

What Is ‘The Beast’ About?
Image via Ad Vitam

Only loosely based on Henry James’ 1903 novella, “The Beast in the Jungle,” the opening of the film places us in a desolate green screen environment where Seydoux’s character is acting out a horrifying scene. It is eerie to see her going through the motions and more than a bit biting as Bonello seems to be having a go at the emptiness of modern filmmaking that robs scenes of their physicality. At the moment when danger rears its unseen head, we witness the first of many warpings of the screen and then the title card. It is a bold beginning that raises many questions the film won’t answer for quite a while as we then settle into 1904 France where we see Seydoux’s Gabrielle. As she wanders through a luxurious party, she comes across Louis (George MacKay) as if by chance. And yet, the two seem drawn to each other. It is as if they were both a distant memory in the other’s life that they are only just now recalling. This is only the start of a sweeping and sinister experience that leaves nothing on the table.

RELATED: TIFF 2023: The Movies We’re Looking Forward to Most

Much of this is seen in the hauntingly near future where artificial intelligence has taken over our world. We meet up with Gabrielle once more who is disillusioned with her draining job and wants to do something more fulfilling with her life. To do so, she must undergo a procedure that will purge her of all her emotions as that is considered to be a danger in this future. These feelings will then take her back to what seem to be past lives playing out both in 1904 and in 2014 Los Angeles which was where we first met her in the green screen sequence. As she then sees these memories playing out before her just as she is at risk of losing them, it initially feels like the classic Michel Gondry film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has been crossed with Amy Seimetz’s spectacular She Dies Tomorrow. Only here, the film dials up the existential dread that just keeps getting louder and louder until it reaches a fever pitch.

This brief encapsulation leaves out much of the details and textures of the film as the past continually echoes into the present. The technology is different, with Gabrielle and all the inhabitants of this future world having to use devices to breathe outside in a echo of the recent series Extrapolations, though we keep hearing things that remind us of how familiar everything is. Love, loneliness, death, life, joy, and misery are all swirling around every frame. Even when it makes a rather jarring pivot to see how Louis has become a pathetic incel in the Los Angeles timeline, this all ends up making sense as you reflect on it. Indeed, the film itself even rewinds and plays back key moments as if it is trying to understand how someone so kind in one time could become monstrous in another. It is all made chilling as we see his cruelty begin to boil over with MacKay absolutely disappearing into the character. However, this is Seydoux’s show to shine and shine she does once more in an increasingly bleak film.

Léa Seydoux Is Brilliant in ‘The Beast’
Image via TIFF

Across each twist in time and place that can rush together without warning, the grounding force to it all is Seydoux. From the recurring interviews Gabrielle must undergo trying to get her new job in the future to the similar discontentment she feels in the past, we feel every moment of it. There is an unspoken yet still no less painful underlying connection between all of these moments that she embodies perfectly. No matter what Gabrielle does, she can feel the world closing in around her and something disastrous coming. There is nothing that can be done to push this away from her mind. Even friendly conversations she shares in the future with an unexpected companion, played by the great Guslagie Malanda of the stunning Saint Omer, offer only small respites. Not only is salvation in short supply, but there is the potential for Gabrielle to be destroyed before even realizing what it was her short lives could be.

As all of its vast scenes collapse in on each other, with each cut carrying its own disquieting dread, The Beast proves to be among the most formidable films to make the rounds on the festival circuit this season. When it comes together in one of the most striking conclusions of the year, the final echoes you hear may just continue to ring out through time once more.

Rating: A-

The Big Picture

The Beast is a monumental and menacing science fiction film that delicately winds its way around you before delivering a terrifying finale. Léa Seydoux gives a brilliant performance, capturing a sense of underlying fear and hope in every moment. The film’s unique structure and disquieting dread make it one of the most formidable entries on the festival circuit this season.

The Beast had its North American Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.