HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS

Stars: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Wes Tank, Doug Mancheski, Luis Rico and Jay Brown
Writers: Mike Cheslik, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
Director: Mike Cheslik

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

 Screening: SYDNEY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of September at Dendy Cinemas Newtown.

When his turn-of-the-19th-century applejack distillery is razed from under his ruddy nose by some of the titular critters, our hero Jean refocusses his life goals in the giddily adorable Hundreds of Beavers, director Mike Cheslik’s impossibly winning spin on love in the time of Castor canadensis.

From the ruins of his booze factory, Jean (played by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews with the kind of honed comic timing that Oscar should note, but won’t) is cast into the north-eastern snowscapes of the USA, every effort he undertakes to resurrect his capitalistic dreams thwarted by the buck-toothed rodents (as well as rabbits, raccoons, wolves, fish and a pesky woodpecker). 

It is only when Jean falls for ‘The Furrier’ (an exotic Olivia Graves) and tasked by her father (Wes Bank) to deliver one hundred beaver pelts if he wants her hand in marriage, does the down-on-his-luck but always upbeat woodsman find the drive to succeed. The whole gloriously madcap, ‘Looney Tunes’-y spectacle ends on a scale so grandly inspired, its exalted status in film history is assured.

Pummeling elegantly through slapstick setup, sight gag and lo-fi effects mastery over the course of their delirious romp, Cheslik and writer/leading man Tews craft a monochromatic masterwork ripe with the DNA of the silent film classics of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. 

The pair earned a cult following amongst the indie crowd and cryptid fanatics with 2018’s Lake Michigan Monster, an equally daft no-budgeter that only unravelled when the dialogue delivery couldn’t match the visual magic. Almost entirely spoken-word free, Hundreds of Beavers will up the cult numbers hanging on their every frame considerably, as well as convince critics and audiences that there is strong pulse left in the ambitious filmmaking flourishes of yesteryear.