Attic of Absurdity #1

Hundreds of Beavers (2022)

Hundreds of Beavers | Directed by Mike Cheslik | 2022 | 108 minutes

by Aidan Beatty

Welcome to the Attic of Absurdity: the potential start to a series in which I will be shedding light on, reviewing and discussing absurdist cinema and or odd films I feel are worth talking about.

To start off the series, let’s talk about Hundreds of Beavers (2022). This film recently got its Calgary debut presented at the Globe by The Calgary Cinematheque. It was a rather successful event having garnered a large crowd of engaged film-goers. This film almost never had a dull moment and the theatre was packed full of continuous gut wrenching laughter. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen an audience laugh that hard and consistently. This is definitely a film meant for a big audience or group.

With a budget of around 150,000$ (10,000$ being spent on Beaver costumes alone), Mike Cheslik wrote, directed and edited his debut feature over the course of four years. The film was shot in Wisconsin during twelve total weeks of winter, between 2019 and 2020. Cheslik took two years completing over 1,500 visual effects shots himself using Adobe After Effects, and even had his father compose the score to the film. This attention to handcrafted independent detail is what makes the film feel so special. This lovely warmth is present throughout the film and it’s very apparent as to all the love that went into this production. Every shot has this magic to it that feels lost with most modern Hollywood films.

Hundreds of Beavers is presented as a black and white silent slapstick comedy. While it’s an homage and pastiche towards the films of the 20’s, it also acts as a modern day presentation of the genre by utilizing newer technology and acknowledging some of the down sides from that era. The influences are very apparent throughout the film even down to certain scenes being fairly identical from Modern Times (1936). Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton aren’t the only influences present, while they certainly are at the forefront of the action, a lot of the film feels and looks influenced by video games. This video game aesthetic they craft is extremely impressive. The film creates a game-like world better than any video game adaptation ever put to film. This world is consistently inconsistent in the most pleasant way. As the film goes on, what’s possible changes radically but never feels out of the ordinary. It’s simply the absurdist charm. It also gives the film a great flow and sense of pacing… for the most part. This is definitely a long film and can get slow, but usually it’ll throw in some gag to keep you entertained.
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I had a lot of fun with this film, both as a viewer and an aspiring filmmaker. The way it leans into the low-budget nature truly captures some wonderful moments. There’s many layers to the bits present within the film that can be identified differently from person to person. The physical humour is often always the highlight, taking some draw from America’s Funniest Home Videos. A lot of the laughs can also come from how un-scripted some of the trips, falls and such are presented. There’s no doubt a lot of it was an actual accident but they chose to keep rolling and it's very charming. The whole film is centered around this charmful wonder. I’m in awe at just how complex this film can be while also being so simple as well. It’s very effective as a comedy and a lesson in how to do physical and visual humour. I'd highly recommend this as it is already proving to be a modern day classic. You can purchase it digitally or be patient enough to get the physical release coming later this year, either way, this film will certainly surprise you with how much you’ll enjoy it… knock on wood.