20 great movies from the past 20 years: Hundreds of Beavers

I’m counting down to the 2025 best-of-the-year season by recommending 20 of my favorite movies from the past 20 years. Here are the previous entries, if you want to catch up:

2005: Caché
2006: Undisputed II: Last Man Standing
2007: Sunshine
2008: Speed Racer
2009: Vengeance
2010: Unstoppable
2011: The Three Musketeers
2012: Eega
2013: Rope A Dope
2014: Hill of Freedom
2015: SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
2016: Love & Friendship
2017: Mersal
2018: Infinite Football
2019: Dark Waters
2020: Riders of Justice
2021: The Mushroom Speaks

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First, a quick programming note: The next countdown recommendation will be in January, because I’ll be taking a holiday break while I visit family, culminating in PV Guide’s Best of the Year. It also means today’s countdown entry will be a bit shorter than usual, as I prepare for my time away. The weekend watchlist will continue throughout December, although probably a bit shorter than usual.

2022 was my first year covering the movies full-time, transitioning from my work in sports at SB Nation over to Polygon. I already kept up with new releases religiously, but the career pivot allowed me to do so much more regularly. That means there were a lot of options for me to pick from for today’s countdown: the other strong contenders were Romain Gavras’ scintillating action thriller Athena (still one of the most jaw-dropping movies I’ve ever seen, even if I take issue with the ending), Khalid Rahman’s endlessly entertaining action comedy Thallumaala (about boys who just love to brawl), Michael Bay’s Ambulance (an outstanding technical achievement that is also an extremely fun action thriller), and John Patton Ford’s outstanding Aubrey Plaza crime thriller Emily the Criminal (one of the best movies about the gig economy).

If you haven’t seen those movies, you should, but today we’re going to focus on my absolute favorite movie of 2022: Mike Cheslik’s uproarious black-and-white slapstick masterpiece Hundreds of Beavers. Technically, it didn’t get a full release until 2024, but it premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2022, and I wanted to talk about it this week. I make the rules around here, anyway.

With the impending purchase of 2025’s most successful film production company by the biggest streamer, finding great independent cinema has arguably never been more important. Hundreds of Beavers is a breath of fresh air that is as creative as it is funny, a mad stew of disparate influences and comedic genius that is one of the highlights of the decade.

The movie follows 19th century applejack maker Jean Kayak (Ryland Tews), contending with the snowy elements and the titular hundreds of beavers (all played by people in large beaver mascot suits) as he tries to win the hand of a local girl and survive the harsh winter. Equally influenced by silent movies and video games, Hundreds of Beavers was made for an estimated $150,000, yet has more effective use of CGI than many modern blockbusters (and better action sequences than many of them, too). Above all else, it's an excellent example of how unbridled creativity and cinematic genius can be fun as hell.

I reviewed the movie at Polygon when it was first fully released. It’s one of the reviews I’m happiest with from my time there, so I encourage you to check it out. But most importantly, watch Hundreds of Beavers. It’s a silly good time.

Hundreds of Beavers is available to watch on Prime Video, Mubi, and Philo, for free with a library card on Kanopy and Hoopla, or for free with ads on Pluto and Tubi.