Both the deadpan thrillers of the Coen brothers and the downbeat ‘70s crime flicks of French helmer Alain Corneau come to mind when watching Too Many Beasts (L’espèce explosive), a promising first feature from director Sarah Arnold that finds clever new ways to tell a familiar story of crooked cops and small-town corruption.
What sets this slickly helmed, darkly funny debut apart from other entries to the genre is Arnold’s unusual blend of wildlife, agrarian strife, sexual frustration and longstanding regional feuds, which in this case involve the gentrification of one of France’s oldest pastimes: game hunting. Set in the lush forests and fields of the northeast, the story depicts a gory factional war between hunters and farmers, have and have-nots, with one depressed fish-out-of-water gendarme caught in the middle.
Too Many Beasts
The Bottom Line
Both crazy and contained.
