{"id":121,"date":"2026-05-18T06:35:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=121"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:35:02","slug":"too-many-beasts-review-hunting-season-is-open-in-a-grippingly-offbeat-french-crime-flick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Too Many Beasts\u2019 Review: Hunting Season is Open in a Grippingly Offbeat French Crime Flick"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tBoth the deadpan thrillers of the Coen brothers and the downbeat \u201870s crime flicks of French helmer Alain Corneau come to mind when watching <em>Too Many Beasts<\/em> (<em>L\u2019esp\u00e8ce explosive<\/em>), 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.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=119\">Three Films in Competition, a Thriving Box Office and the Envy of Europe: Spain Is Having Its Moment<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhat sets this slickly helmed, darkly funny debut apart from other entries to the genre is Arnold\u2019s unusual blend of wildlife, agrarian strife, sexual frustration and longstanding regional feuds, which in this case involve the gentrification of one of France\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tToo Many Beasts\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<div>\n<span>The Bottom Line<\/span><br \/>\n<span><\/p>\n<p>\tBoth crazy and contained.<br \/>\n\t<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<strong>Venue:<\/strong> Cannes Film Festival (Directors\u2019 Fortnight)<br \/><strong>Cast:<\/strong> Alexis Manenti, Ella Rumpf, Vincent Dedienne, Jean-Louis Coulloc\u2019h, Pscal R\u00e9n\u00e9ric, Bertrand Belin, Jade Fiess<br \/><strong>Director:<\/strong> Sarah Arnold<br \/><strong>Screenwriters:<\/strong> Sarah Arnold, J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Dubois, Olivier Seror, Romain Winkler, Mehdi Ben Attia<br \/>\n<span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 35 minutes\t\t\t<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n\tThat gendarme is deliciously played by Alexis Manenti, who\u2019s become one of the most consistently compelling new actors in French arthouse cinema. (He\u2019s also headlining the gay trucker romance <em>Flesh and Fuel<\/em>, which premiered in Cannes\u2018 Critics\u2019 Week. <em>Beasts<\/em> premiered in the Directors\u2019 Fortnight.)<\/p>\n<p>\n\tMananeti portrays Fulda, a Corsican cop with a funny German name who finds himself plunged into a conflict that began brewing a year before he rolls into town. As seen in a blood-soaked and boar-filled prologue, the hostilities involve a militant farmer (Pascal R\u00e9n\u00e9ric), a slimy mayor (Thierry Godard) and a nutsy gamekeeper (Jean-Louis Coulloc\u2019h) who blows his neighbor away with a shotgun in the opening scene. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tArnold, who penned the script with four other writers, keeps these events purposely murky for much of the running time, to the point that we never quite know who\u2019s on the right side of the law. Nor do we know if the law itself, represented by Fulda\u2019s scheming partner (Vincent Dedienne) and dubious captain (Bertrand Belin), can be trusted, leaving the gendarme to solve the murder on his own.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHe soon finds an unlikely sidekick in St\u00e9phane (the excellent Ella Rumpf), a police psychologist who\u2019s been sent to help the state troopers deal with the crime spree, which ramps up when animal carcasses begin appearing all over town. At first, Fulda is fully resistant to St\u00e9phane\u2019s inquiries, which involve personal and professional blowups that happened when he was back in Corsica. The guy clearly has anger issues \u2014 but so, we learn, does St\u00e9phane, who was arrested for a road rage incident in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=118\">John Oliver Mocks Trump\u2019s Ballroom Plans (Again) and His Contradictory Claims Over the Reflecting Pool Upgrades<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe two eventually start working side-by-side, which may seem far-fetched at first, although Arnold\u2019s skillful plotting and wicked sense of humor never make us question the plausability of what\u2019s happening, nor all the oddbal behavior we witness. Her film is much more <em>Fargo<\/em> than <em>No Country for Old Men<\/em>, so much does it revel in the idiosyncrasies of its two troubled protagonists, not to mention a rural enclave where people do lots of strange things and nobody can be fully trusted.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe director lends an epic quality to all the bizarre happenings, using overhead tracking shots \u2014 courtesy of DP No\u00e9 Bach (<em>Animalia<\/em>) \u2014 to frame Fulda and St\u00e9phane against lush green pastures teeming with wildlife. A racing, dissonant score by Florencia Di Concilio ups the tension but never undercuts the humor, which boils over during a finale involving live ammunition and the delirious effects of liquid meth.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhat\u2019s most impressive about <em>Two Many Beasts<\/em> is how crazy and contained it feels at the same time. As absurd as the story is, Arnold always grounds it in the trajectories of her unlikely heroes, who grow closer as the plot thickens, or rather, unravels. Fulda may be slightly out of his mind; his investigative instincts nonetheless crack open a case no one else can solve. But he also needs St\u00e9phane\u2019s guidance and intellect to keep him from sliding off track, making her a perfect accomplice to his crime-fighting.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOf all the wild twists in Arnold\u2019s debut, the hardest one to predict is how the film somehow blossoms into a would-be romance between two people taking on an enemy that\u2019s all around them, as well as within them. There are indeed too many beasts in the movie for Fulda and St\u00e9phane to tame, which is why it could only end with a boldly affectionate gesture in which they wind up taming one another. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=116\">Christopher Nolan Says \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 Is \u201cThe Most Extreme Version\u201d of the Story He Could Make<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexis Manenti and Ella Rumpf star in director Sarah Arnold\u2019s &#8216;Too Many Beasts,&#8217; which chronicles a feud between hunters, farmers and gendarmes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,8,13,25],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-cannes","tag-cannes-2026","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-cannes-film-festival-reviews"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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