Click here to copy URL

The Beast

La Bête (The Beast)

2023

Bertrand Bonello

Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Dasha Nekrasova, Julia Faure ...

6.1

905

Sci-Fi. Drama. Romance In the near future where emotions have become a threat, Gabrielle finally decides to purify her DNA in a machine that will immerse her in her previous lives and rid her of any strong feelings. She then meets Louis and feels a powerful connection, as if she has known him forever. A melodrama crossed by the genre, which unfolds over three distinct periods, 1910, 2014 and 2044.

	Author	Review
United States	Rafaela Sales Ross The Playlist	"Such a remarkable commentary on the looming threats of artificial intelligence and the dangers of glorified emotional numbness"	POS
United States	David Katz The Film Stage	"For what a discomforting and despairing experience much of 'La Bête' is, when I’ve thought back to it, its moments of real, uncomplicated cinematic pleasure, its verve and sense of joyousness, are what mark my memories"	POS
United States	Meg Shields Film School Rejects	"For better or for worse, I don't think it's sci-fi's job to be an easy pill to swallow. If any of this has piqued your interest, do what you must to seek it out"	NEU
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"MacKay and Seydoux have a natural frisson together whatever the era, one sparked from the fact that he’s always changing, and she never does"	POS
United Kingdom	Robbie Collin Telegraph	"Bonello wants us to think of the film itself like its torn heroine: a strange machine whose ghost refuses to give up (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Jordan Mintzer The Hollywood Reporter	"Ambitious and accomplished, but not always involving"	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Bertrand Bonello's best movie yet (...) A luxurious cinematic experience (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Keith Uhlich Slant	"Bertrand Bonello’s shattering vision of a world cut adrift (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Guy Lodge Variety	"Ambitious but airless (...) Bonello still ranks among the great, puckish formalists of contemporary French cinema"	NEU
United Kingdom	Jonathan Romney Screendaily	"[It] will hook cerebrally receptive audiences with its daring mix of genre elements and hot-button themes. Needless to say, the alluring duo of Léa Seydoux and George MacKay will boost the appeal of an uncompromising exploration."	POS
United States	Chase Hutchinson Collider	"Bertrand Bonello's audacious and increasingly terrifying melodrama is his best film yet (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Michael Atkinson LA Weekly	"Bertrand Bonello tosses dynamic images –and too many ideas– into his beautiful filmic dumpster"	NEU
United States	Damon Wise Deadline	"A provocative piece of sci-fi that follows Twin Peaks: The Return down the rabbit hole of dream logic, spanning three time zones in a surreal but compelling examination of human relationships."	POS
Canada	Dustin Chang Screen Anarchy	"The dawn of the 20th century was an exciting time, both socially and politically. Bonello taps on that anxiety with 'La Bête', a beast of a film, with these hefty ideas swirling around and stylized to perfection"	POS
United States	Emma Stefansky IGN	"There is a lot to enjoy in Bertrand Bonello’s time-traveling odyssey (...) but ultimately it feels like a retread of things we’ve already seen"	NEU
United States	Siddhant Adlakha Polygon	"It echoes, like an intimate experience from some other lifetime, but one that feels impossible to shake"	POS
United States	Nick Schager The Daily Beast	"An intriguing meditation on desire, dreams, and the things that make us who we are —and without which we're lost"	POS
United States	Jesse Hassenger Paste Magazine	"Despite Seydoux's uniquely magnetic ennui and MacKay's gameness, 'La Bête' has an undercurrent of restlessness, maybe even listlessness"	NEU
United States	Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"A movie with impeccable execution and an abundance of ideas to explore after it's over"	POS
United States	Kat Sachs Chicago Reader	"An ambitious and layered adaptation of Henry James’s 1903 novella 'The Beast in the Jungle'"	POS
United States	Tim Grierson Los Angeles Times	"elegant, jittery drama"	POS
Canada	Graeme Guttmann Screen Rant	"A centuries-spanning romantic odyssey that is equal parts strange sci-fi and melodrama, Bertrand Bonello's 'The Beast' is unclassifiable and refreshing (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
	Fabien Lemercier Cineuropa	"An extraordinary film, at once powerful, subjugating and cryptic, which navigates the corridors of time following the very charismatic Léa Seydoux"	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.