Beast

On the island of Jersey, Moll, who lives with a family that suffocates her, meets Pascal, a poacher. At the same time young women are being killed on the island, and suspicion gathers around him. The film is not interested in who the killer is. It is interested in who Moll chooses to believe: everything the audience is given stays clouded by her wish to escape her own family. The result is less a murder mystery than a story about belonging. The form turns the small geography of the island into a prison. Church, family dinner and beach all belong to the same tight circle. The story feeds on a real case: Edward Paisnel, the self-styled Beast of Jersey, who attacked women and children on the island between 1960 and 1971. Unlike the beast of this film, Paisnel did not kill. The film is not retelling the case, it is borrowing its fear. Michael Pearce wrote and directed. It is his first feature and it brought him a BAFTA nomination. Jessie Buckley plays Moll, Johnny Flynn plays Pascal and Geraldine James plays the mother. Who it is for: viewers who want character psychology more than thriller mechanics, and anyone who wants to see Jessie Buckley's breakthrough. Who it is not for: anyone who needs a clean resolution. The film keeps who did what deliberately unsettled to the end.