Beast

An unlikely romance plays out against a background of violence in Michael Pearce’s feature debut—set on the isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands—which is anchored by fierce lead performances from Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn as Moll and Pascal, youngsters from very different backgrounds whose intense relationship veers toward tragedy. Moll seems completely under the thumb of her imperious, class-conscious mother (Geraldine James), whose rigid control stems from a brutal reprisal that Moll delivered against a bully at school. Moll rebels by taking up with Pascal, a brooding but charismatic petty criminal. Pascal is also a suspect in a series of murders of young women on the island, but that only fuels the girl’s fascination, to the extent that she even provides him with a false alibi for the night of the latest killing. But Moll begins to have doubts. Some of the dialogue is leaden, and the narrative is sometimes unnecessarily opaque, but the remarkable performances make for a compelling portrait of two troubled outsiders struggling against the demands of a rigid society in this dark, twisted, engrossing film. Recommended. (F. Swietek)