Would you believe me if I told you a film about four Sasquatches was one of my most oddly moving cinematic experiences of recent memory? The latest from independent filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner, Sasquatch Sunset offers a life-affirming, if often hilarious and silly, look at a year in the life of folkloric simians. Bigfoot has never been treated with such compassion, not even in Harry and the Hendersons (1987). More often, the creature inhabits the same realm as conspiracy theorists and low-budget horror such as Willow Creek (2014). However, the Zellners have a knack for treating even the most outlandish situations with an emotional integrity some might deem unbefitting. The sibling filmmakers approach the material with the curiosity of anthropologists or Nature documentarians observing without judgment, yet also with a sense of existentialism that mourns the Sasquatches’ passing due to bad luck, deforestation, and other factors. That doesn’t mean Sasquatch Sunset is humorless; quite the opposite. The Zellners find humor in bodily processes and behavioral idiosyncrasies, often with the fascination of an immature teenager. Still, the film has a tenderness and empathy that overrides its moments of absurdist and gross-out humor, leaving the viewer with an overwhelming sense of melancholy by the final frames.

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