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Picture taken live at Frida Cinema
The evening of April 8th, 2024 saw dozens of people line up just outside the entrance to the Frida Cinema, a nonprofit independent theater located in the heart of Santa Ana, California. Despite there being so many different people gathering to see one film in particular, not one of them had to pay a cent for admission; everyone who had managed to acquire a ticket for that night’s event had either gotten it via their membership to the Orange County theater or through an email sent to those who had responded to a Polygon article offering up to 150 tickets to the screening that night. Given the overall enthusiasm among the crowd though, there’s a good chance that most of these people would’ve gladly shelled out as much money as possible to access an exhibition of the film being shown that night. Said film is one that has already made the rounds at various venues and festivals over the course of the past several months, garnering overwhelming acclaim from every critic and audience fortunate enough to see this film. From what has been spoken of the film so far, one may be led to assume that it’s a revolutionary work of high art that challenges the norms of the current cinematic landscape and captivates audiences with its distinct approach to the cinematic medium. In a way, the film can indeed be described as such, though perhaps not for the reasons that one would use to describe the average arthouse feature. In fact, this film is conceptually one of the last that most would think of as “high art”, yet to those who have seen it, its execution is strong and clever enough for it to achieve this status regardless of how it appears on the surface. The film in question: Mike Cheslik’s slapstick comedy “Hundreds of Beavers”.
Shot entirely in grainy black and white and foregoing the use of any comprehensible dialogue, Cheslik’s film serves as a throwback to the silent age of cinematic comedy while also drawing heavily from various popular video games and cartoons. Set during a particularly harsh winter some time in the 19th century, the film follows Jean Kayak (played by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who also serves as one of the film’s producers and screenwriters alongside Cheslik), an applejack-salesman-turned-fur-trapper who must survive the cold climate while striving to win the heart of a merchant’s daughter. How he must go about completing such tasks is primarily by trapping various animal species (particularly the titular rodent above all others), although in typical slapstick comedy fashion, catching and killing these animals is far easier said than done. Even then, nothing can prepare the protagonist for the sheer insanity that comes from the beavers and their suspiciously extravagant construction skills.
The exhibition strategy utilized by Cheslik and his fellow filmmakers is rather unorthodox compared to most other independently released features. First premiering at Austin, Texas’ Fantastic Fest at the end of September 2022, “Hundreds of Beavers” has not been placed under the distribution of an outside company, as Cheslik has instead chosen to distribute the film himself and have it be booked at one cinematic venue after another, hoping that word of mouth will be strong enough to draw in audiences without having to resort to typical marketing practices. So far, the film has found its way to plenty of film festivals both within and outside the United States, being screened during such events as the Wisconsin Film Festival in April of 2023 to Germany’s Fantasy Filmfest White Nights in January 2024 (among many others). It wouldn’t go into “official” release until January 26th of this year though, and rather than open in hundreds of theaters simultaneously, the theatrical rollout has been a bit more gradual, slowly making its way to each new market while just as slowly building a credible reputation. It would appear that this release strategy is designed to use word of mouth to get as many people packed into a single screening as possible, and if that is in fact the case, it seems to be working phenomenally.
So far, critical reception to “Hundreds of Beavers” has been almost unanimously positive; review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes currently shows a 95% approval rating from critics with an average rating of 8.3/10, while the audience approval rating is an equally respectable 93% with a 4.7/5 average. According to the site’s consensus, the film is “a comedic gem that gives a dam” that benefits from “sustaining a zany premise with stylistic bravura and inspired gags”, with one critic in particular, Variety’s Dennis Harvey, praising the film as “a sort of vast homage to comedy past […including] the Roadrunner v. Coyote Saga, as well as pre-talkie knockabout humor… and so on”. Its current total box office intake, meanwhile, sits at just over $207,000, which may seem rather underwhelming compared to the average Hollywood release and its ability to gross millions of dollars, but is more than enough to make back the film’s incredibly low budget of $150,000. More revenue is expected to pour in as “Hundreds of Beavers” enters one new market after another, with its mostly positive reception hopefully being enough to attract the interest of the most attentive of film enthusiasts.
Such enthusiasts filled the seats of the Frida Cinema during its “Hundreds of Beavers” screening that Sunday evening, and those in attendance can confirm that the film more than lives up to the hype. A continuous laugh-fest throughout the entirety of its one-hundred-and-eight-minute running time, the film succeeded in blowing its viewers away with its absurd and cartoon-like comedic antics, and by the time it finally came to an end, one could hear an ecstatic round of applause from just about everyone as the credits rolled and the lights turned back on. The Q&A with director Mike Cheslik proved just as enjoyable, with Cheslik answering many of the questions asked to him with a relatively sarcastic and unserious tone that many were likely more delighted by than they would’ve been by a regular Q&A (and to say nothing of an “unexpected” beaver appearance). Experiences like this seem to be quite common among all of the screenings that “Hundreds of Beavers” has had so far, and while a digital release of the film is planned for later this month, there’s still hope that more and more people will be able to view this film in theaters as many others already have. Should that still be the case, the film’s already passionate audience will continue to grow and built it up as a modern masterpiece of comedic cinema.
