Beast Beast

Nito, a teenager who loves skateboarding, is the new kid at a high school in the Southern United States. That’s where he meets Krista, a charismatic and outgoing student who needs inspiration to perform a play. Nito’s confident and determined, and he’s starting a new life in the neighborhood, making up for the absence of his parents with friends from the street. At the same time, Adam, a boy obsessed with firearms, realizes that his videos need more explicit content if he wants to be able to live off his own material.

Jim Cummings (Thunder Road), a well-known face of American indie cinema, took Danny Madden’s multi-award-winning short film Krista (2018) and turned it into the feature film Beast Beast. Here, Madden directs with great intention and energy an overwhelming reflection on growing up in a world full of insecurities, in a country where street violence can escalate rapidly, in a society marked by social media and self-image. The way in which the narration opens towards the viewers leads us to experience the unfolding drama from very close: we understand the events, since we have been in the shoes of all the characters. We are facing a triptych set in Donald Trump’s America where many people are forced to grow up too fast and where many others see their dreams prematurely broken.

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Credits

Year: 2020
Runtime: 85′
Country: USA
Direction: Danny Madden
Screenplay: Danny Madden
Cast: Shirley Chen, Will Madden, José Ángeles
Cinematography: Kristian Zuniga
Genre: Drama
Subtitles: Zinebi, Pau Velasco Martínez
Contact: Vanishing Angle

Wins & Nominations

2020: Sundance Film Festival

2020: Atlanta Film Festival – Best Feature