To Kill the Beast

Directed by Agustina San Martín, To Kill the Beast follows Tamara Rocca’s Emilia as she arrives at a small town near Argentina’s border with Brazil hoping to find her missing brother. First-time filmmaker San Martín employs that thin setup as a springboard for an atmospheric yet completely meaningless drama that feels excruciatingly long even at just 79 minutes, as the movie, by and large, contains an almost complete absence of context and character development that consistently prevents the viewer from embracing the material – with the arms-length vibe certainly exacerbated (and heightened) by a pace that couldn’t possibly be less brisk. And although San Martín clearly has an eye for memorable, eye-catching visuals (ie the film is riddled with shots that could easily be framed in an art gallery), To Kill the Beast‘s relentlessly avant-garde sensibilities ensures that one’s efforts at connecting to the one-dimensional central character and her aimless exploits fall hopelessly flat – which, when coupled with a fairly endless final stretch, cements the picture’s place as a handsomely-shot misfire that just isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, entertaining or compelling.

* out of ****