The Beaver Trilogy, Part 4
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The WTF: The Beaver Trilogy, Part 4
Please read this title again.
Cinema, especially in the Internet age, has its share of mysteries. Clips or entire movies can appear on YouTube without any context, without knowledge of where they come from or the creative minds involved, or, for that matter, what even a movie is. Is this a business card left by a serial killer? Or is it just teenagers having fun in their basement?
Case in point: director Trent Harris’ bizarre feature film, The Beaver Trilogy. The film is divided into three segments, the first, apparently a documentary about a teenage boy named Groovin ‘Gary. Gary has a great personality and an unconditional love for Olivia Newton-John, so much so that he is named after her car. Gary talks about his dreams of becoming a Hollywood movie star before a trip to the morgue (yes, really) to do his makeup (yes, really… again). The segment culminates with Gary performing a live drag act as Olivia Newton-John in a school talent show.
Segment # 2 essentially repeats the story of the first, albeit with Groovin ‘Gary now being played by Sean Penn (yes, really… this movie has a lot going for it, in case you haven’t gleaned). Penn performs every Gary Schtick track from the first film, though the second segment has a very different ending. In this track, Gary’s father condemns him for becoming gay, and the segment ends with Gary’s gunshot suicide. The third segment recreates Gary’s story again, though Crispin Glover dons the ONJ drag and kills himself with a shotgun in his head.
And now for The Beaver Trilogy Part 4. If our description of The Beaver Trilogy has left you in awe, you are not alone. Director Brad Besser has launched an investigation into the origins and meaning of the bizarre film with this documentary, narrated by Bill Hader. Part 4 features lengthy interviews with Trent Harris who describe the origins of the original film and how he landed two up-and-coming young stars to star in his dramatized segments. The documentary also reveals the identity of the real Groovin ‘Gary and the homophobia he endured that left him a drastically changed man. For the record, that doesn’t mean Gary was actually gay; what matters more here is that people perceive it as such. Homophobia poisons more than the hearts and minds of homosexuals.
The Beaver Trilogy Part 4 plays out as a strange ode to cinema, the resilience of a director, and, on a subversive level, the destructive power of anti-LGBTQ sentiment. We won’t be revealing the true story of Groovin ‘Gary here, his fate, or the beaver trilogy here, other than to say that this “fourth chapter” of the saga has more than a few twists and turns. Captivating, hilarious and with a menacing vein running through it, we suggest you give it a watch. You’ve never seen a movie like this.
Streams on Amazon, Tubi, YouTube, and VUDU.
