2024’s funniest comedy runs silent movies through a video game filter

polygon.com:

American comedy has strayed from the light of its ancestors. Gone are the days of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers, when jokes and visual surprises flew at a mile a minute and were matched by the cinematic creativity and physical daring of the auteurs behind them.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch .

Instead, the genre is littered with shows and movies alike that gesture at jokes without ever delivering any, relying more on comedic atmosphere than actual punchlines. Mike Cheslik’s outrageous silent comedy Hundreds of Beavers, now out on VOD after a limited theatrical run,is here to resuscitate a crucial cinematic genre, bringing back silent comedy in an uproarious, deliriously silly micro-budget experience. It’s the single funniest movie of 2024, delivering punchline after punchline through its acute understanding of slapstick comedy and cinematic language. It’s the kind of singular cinematic experience destined to be a midnight cult hit.

From the team behind the 2018 cult black-and-white horror comedy Lake Michigan Monster(whose poster proudly proclaims it’s “Banned in four lakes!” to give you an idea of the silliness at hand), Hundreds of Beavers is a breath of cinematic fresh air, showing how creative a team of talented filmmakers can get on a shoestring budget. (The moviewas reportedly made for a mere $150,000.)

Best described as “live-action Looney Tunesfor adults,” Hundreds of Beavers is a gag-filled comedic master class that follows Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews), a trapper stranded in the harsh winter of the Great Lakes region and trying to survive. He