By Jim Gilles
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/18/22 – If you are looking for a finely crafted experimental narrative film from U.S. filmmakers, consider seeing Three Headed Beast at the Outfest Film Festival this Tuesday July 19, at 9:45 at the Directors Guild of America. Writer-directors Fernando Andrés and Tyler Rugh’s romantic drama Three Headed Beast depicts a bisexual polyamorous relationship with delicacy and empathy, but what is most striking is the quietness of this film which has very little dialogue. The brilliance of the film is the way that the long stretches of silence emphasize the protagonists’ lack of communication with one another, but it also allows us as viewers to focus on the power of the gaze and the gesture in telling their story. The experimental approach first-time filmmakers Andrés and Rugh are both 24-years-old and self-taught filmmakers, but they exhibit masterful control over every detail of the visual aspects of this film with this expertly crafted screenplay with a sound design and lyrical score which serve to accentuate the visual dynamics of the film. If you can’t make it to the theatrical screening, I recommend watching this fine film at home with Outfest Virtual Screening beginning July 20, 8:00 AM. Go to: https://www.outfestla.org/films-and-events.
The opening few minutes of Three Headed Beast begin like most films, with music accompanying two figures as they set up a basic dramatic circumstance. Two men –one with a bushy red beard and baseball hat, the other dark-haired and limber – are moving a mattress into an empty apartment. Huffing and puffing, they plunk the mattress hastily on the floor before pulling each other down into an erotically charged tumble. Almost imperceptibly, our brains begin to piece together a story from the information we’ve been given: They appear to be a couple in their lustful honeymoon phase moving in together for the first time. As the moving montage progresses, with one snapping photographs while the other does all the work before heading out the door with a perfunctory kiss and a houseplant handoff, our perception of their relationship begins to shift.
Like the relationships it portrays, Three Headed Beast upends traditional storytelling conventions. After these wordless introductory scenes, which include a woman embracing her lover goodbye and running home, one might expect some dialogue to puncture the silence, but it never comes. Instead, the drama unfolds like a simple animated film, without language to offer any explanations; filmmakers Fernando Andrés and Tyler Rugh rely on tight editing and inventive camera work to guide the viewer’s eye, using every visual tool including split screen views of the three characters, to craft a compelling narrative. It’s an impressive feat, especially for both filmmakers’ first feature (Andrés also shot and edited the film), one that rises to the challenge of budgetary limitations to invent something undeniably new and unique.
Set in the filmmakers’ hometown of Austin, it follows partners Nina (Dani Hurtado) and Peter (Jacob Shatz), who for some time before the film’s introduction have been in an open relationship. Both are bisexual, and they use it as an opportunity to explore their sexualities while staying committed to one another. While Nina occasionally has sexual trysts with women and men. Peter has frequent rendezvous with Alex (Cody Shook), a proud gay man in his early twenties who doesn’t seem to have any commitments to relationships. Their bond seems to be stronger than what Nina has with her various partners. Despite the lack of dialogue in most of the film, the actors are successfully able to convey their inner emotional states physically without having to speak a word.
Peter (Jacob Schatz), the red-head, is a landscaper who prefers beer to wine and carries a jug of water with him wherever he goes. He lives in a tidy and cozily designed house with Nina (Dani Hurtado), a personal trainer and obsessive podcast listener. We learn their vocations in split screen, as they go about their busy work days in a simple montage. Both bustling frames continue on either side of a third, where Alex (Cody Shook), the guy from the beginning, sleeps peacefully between them (in the split screen), serving as a cheeky metaphor. Alex wakes up halfway through the other couple’s workday, and when they’re making dinner at home he is out dancing at a club. When they kiss goodnight and turn the lights out, he’s bedding a guy in his new place.
Nina begins to experience her own bouts of doubt and sadness in terms of Peter’s close relationship with Alex. She senses something is wrong, and for guidance, religiously reads and listens to the work of an open relationship expert on After Monogamy to help her come to terms with the couple’s new stage in their arrangement. As for Alex, despite having numerous one-night stands, Peter is the one he has a stronger connection with and more often yearns for his presence. Cody Shook’s performance as Alex stands out for his ability to manifest the inner sense of loneliness and disconnect in his character’s life, except for whenever he’s with Peter. The romantic chemistry that Peter has with both Nina and Alex is strong, and it becomes harder to decide which person he should settle for. Though at the same time, he seems to have the least emotional involvement, compared to how both Nina and Alex try to hold onto him.
It’s revealed that Peter and Nina are partners and have been so for the past eight years. They are planning to go to Fredericksburg and visit the place called Enchanted for a weekend outing. This plan provides the narrative with a forward movement indicating that something is going to go down by then. And, you guessed it, by the time the calendar countdown comes to “Day 1,” Peter, Alex and Nina’s lives go through a significant change.
The story of Three Headed Beast is all about tackling the very nuances of an open relationship. But it’s also about the individuality of the characters on-screen and the spaces they share. The magnetic, naturalistic performances of Jacob Schatz, Cody Shook and Dani Hurtado will pull you into their experiences, as we pay close attention to how they touch each other, how they respond to touch, what they’re doing when they are alone, what the choice of their clothing is saying about them, etc. The film allows you to project so much of yourself onto Peter, Alex and Nina that when they speak, you realize that you now have to deal with the notion that their thoughts and words aren’t in line with what you’ve imagined about their psyches.
Much of the film is scored by Ryan Faber’s impressionistic compositions, which can turn from jaunty to wistful on a dime. But there are musical reprieves, where silence descends and the starkness of the wordless story is allowed to hang in the air. Fernando Andrés’ cinematography helps give the film its Malickian aesthetic thanks to its natural/practical lighting and playful camera movements. Clearly one senses the influence of Terence Malick, but also echoes of French filmmaker Claire Denis. The actors Shook, Hurtado, and Shatz use the silence to their advantage as each of them successfully channel their characters’ desires, states of mind, and longing for love. With the final contemplative shot, these three will reach a point where spontaneous romantic trysts are barely an option anymore and a decision about their futures must be made. Overall, it is a poetic, introspective, and bracing exploration of love, intimacy, and relationships.
Three Headed Beast had its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and also screened at Frameline in San Francisco. It has been warmly received by film critics who understand what these two young filmmakers have attempted to create. It is worth your time to view Three Headed Beast as a quiet, slow-moving, yet intoxicating film which is more like a visual tone poem that deserves to be approached when you are able to put aside your standard expectations for dialogue-driven romantic comedies.