"(singing) Grow you little b*stards."
The Beach exclusively follows Australia's acclaimed indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton while he retreats to a remote beach where he spends several months with no power and only the land to provide sustenance. This docu-series was distributed by A24 over the week of Thanksgiving. Their release strategy was really impressive. Instead of putting it out in a service or have it on vod or something like that, they had it in their personal screening room. In the screening room, the six episode series would play on repeat 24 hours and for 7 days straight. Whenever you tuned in, you wouldn't know where you'd start. With a series like this, it surprisingly works. I started halfway through episode two and watched it all the way to where I started in one sitting. The Beach is one of the most impressive series that I've seen. Everything is focused on the simplicity of life and the little things that we do to survive. There are absolutely no stakes whatsoever. Everything is calm. Warwick isn't here to draw anyone's attention with anything big. Honestly, I'm surprised more people aren't disliking it. The way he captures life, his own life, reminds us that nothing has to be extravagant to make us feel better. Warwick Thornton is such an interesting person. Scattered throughout the episodes, he'll give us personal insight and stories from his life. Some pertain to what's happening, and some are there just for him to talk about out loud. Most of the time he doesn't talk at all. At most he'll talk to the chickens he has with him. Every once in a while, I would've liked to hear his thoughts and stuff like that. At the same time, how natural it is feels just right. A show like Alone which has contestants alone in the wilderness setting up their camera and telling the audience what they're doing and thinking. I think because we know what he's doing, he doesn't feel the need to tell everyone. He's there to have a life detox.
The marketing for the series pitched it perfectly. The trailers have clips and audio that loops around before reaching a conclusion. Each day and episode is sort of like that. They all blend in together. Ok life, we repeat these tasks over and over with little variation just to survive. Even out in the middle of nowhere for six months, the same things happen. However, in this small shack on a beach, there's no stress or much to worry about. The same cycle continues and he goes to prove that point. A big part of our lives is eating and preparing meals. Warwick really emphasizes culinary arts. Each episode he makes at least two beautiful meals with the bare minimum of supplies. It's one of those things you see that makes you want to go out and try to make it, even more than you see in cooking shows. His survival skills are almost unfair, yet it's so interesting to watch. He utilizes all aspects of filmmaking once again with the bare minimum of equipment. The camera work, done with quite a few small cameras throughout the place, looks absolutely stunning. There's no reason something like this should look that good. I'm curious to how some of the techniques used were done. I assume mostly post but it's really good work. Another interesting aspect is the score. Around the second episode, you see how it came to be. He has this guitar with him and the way the wind blew on it this one time made this soothing ambient music. That's what was used to score the series. Warwick also composes a few pieces but it's mostly the ambience. The Beach has so much to compliment on and hardly any flaws. The whole experience is isolated, intimate, and sentimental. I watched it one and a half times and I still felt like I could watch it over and over. You won't see anything like it and we have Warwick Thornton to thank for that.
