'Hundreds of Beavers,' filmed partially in Michigan, packs hundreds of laughs

Part live action "Looney Tunes," part "Super Mario Bros. 2" and all slapstick mayhem, "Hundreds of Beavers" is a riotously inventive black-and-white comic adventure where any joke worth telling is worth telling six times over.

The largely wordless feature, which was filmed partially in Stephenson, Michigan — in the Upper Peninsula, just a few miles east of the Wisconsin border — has been making its way across the United States and Canada since debuting on the film festival circuit in 2022. It plays Friday night at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.

Director Mike Cheslik made the film with his pal, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who stars as a fur trapper in the 1800s who goes to war with an army of beavers, who are portrayed by humans dressed in oversize mascot suits. It's a gag-a-minute exercise in ridiculousness that pays homage to silent films and Buster Keaton while working harder for audience laughs than any movie in ages.

Cheslik and Tews are Wisconsin guys who started working on "Hundreds of Beavers" at a Milwaukee bowling alley immediately after the premiere of their 2018 film, "Lake Michigan Monster," which was co-written by the pair and directed by Tews. "It started from a very small idea, and it ballooned and got bigger and bigger," says Tews, on a Zoom chat along with Cheslik earlier this month.

Cheslik says "Hundreds of Beavers" falls in the "snow-stick" category. "There's a subgenre of slapstick movies and shorts and cartoons that take place in the ice and snow, that are based on physical gags, and it was time for a snow-stick epic," says Cheslik, a Miller Lite within arm's reach. "There's only been, like, three snow-stick features and nine shorts, so it was up to us to revive this important American genre."

They had a strict rule when writing: Anything that hurts Tews' character can be used to his advantage later on in the movie. "Anytime he has a win, it has to be utilizing an earlier loss," says Tews. "None of my wins come easy, it's always something I've learned in the past and that hurt me earlier. But they all have to be very, very hard."

"Hundreds of Beavers" was shot chiefly in northern Wisconsin over several winters, with fundraising ongoing as they were shooting. Gags were stitched together in post-production as they went along. "We were doing all phases of the production simultaneously, which only works on a very small indie team," says Cheslik, 33. "I was the director, but I thought of myself as the editor, and the whole time it was just, 'did we get the material that I need in the edit tonight?'"

Cheslik says he approached the movie's gags with an engineering mindset. "It's not an emotional thing, and it's not art. Either the gag is correctly executed or it's not," he says. "And then you find out, because the audience either laughs or they don't."

Judging by the film's reaction, they've been working. Critics and moviegoers alike have praised the film's inventiveness and ingenuity, not to mention its heart, and screenings have been playing like gangbusters. Showtimes have been added in several markets as word of mouth has spread.

The reaction has been rewarding, especially given the long process getting the movie to the screen. "There are shots in the movie where I can point out, 'OK, I'm 29 there, and then in the next shot I'm 30, and then in the next shot, I'm 31, and by the end of it I'm 32,'" says Tews, who is now 33.

They're eager to get going on their next movie, which Cheslik says will have "a lot more kung fu," but for now they're still enjoying the "Hundreds of Beavers" rollout, which included a one-week engagement last month in Elk Rapids. The movie is set for an online release next month, but it's the kind of movie that deserves to be experienced in a theatrical setting with a packed house.

"It's been a delight seeing it with crowds because it is such a community thing, being in a theater full of laughing people," says Tews. "People want to see a movie like this where it's a big entertainment picture, where you just kind of turn your brain off and have a good time."

agraham@detroitnews.com

'Hundreds of Beavers'

7 p.m. Friday

Not rated: slapstick humor

Running time: 108 minutes

Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor

Adults $10.50, children, seniors and students $8.50

michtheater.org