Genre: Drama, Romance, Science Fiction
Actor: Bertrand Bonello, Dasha Nekrasova, Elina Löwensohn, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda, Julia Faure, Laurent Lacotte, Léa Seydoux, Marta Hoskins, Martin Scali, Xavier Dolan
Director: Bertrand Bonello
1. The Beast, 2024
Are connections truly fated, completely chosen, or purely circumstantial? The slow tragedy of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle hangs entirely on the question, which captivated readers and filmmakers with the concept, including Bertrand Bonello, which forms the foundations of 2023’s The Beast. Bonello lets loose The Beast in the Jungle into an AI playbox of time and space and destiny, transforming the simple examination of human life into a sci-fi epic, a moving period romance, and an existential mystery all at once. It can occasionally feel a bit jumbled up at times, with the way Bonello jumps across lives, but Léa Seydoux and George MacKay hold everything together with their performance, making La Bête deeply striking, if a bit derivative.