This heartbreaking love story celebrates what made the Netflix series viral

Dancing as if nobody and the whole world were looking at you at the same time. Away from all social norms, just feel and transfer rhythms into movements. The dance scene from Wednesday that went viral and not only found hundreds of imitators on TikTokwas perhaps not the only decisive point for the incredible success of the Netflix series.

But Jenna Ortega’s performance touches on a feeling that probably everyone has had before. Be it on the dance floor or alone at home vacuuming, your favorite song at full volume. Music is life, dancing is an expression of one’s own identity and with The Beast In The Jungle a film can be seen at the Berlinale 2023 that not only builds on the Wednesday moment, but takes it further.

25 years of club ecstasy: Compared to this film, Jenna Ortega’s dance routine in Wednesday seems almost unspectacular

Jenna Ortega improvised her dance in the Netflix series, taking inspiration from ’80s goth culture, Nina Hagen, and ’70s punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Beast In The Jungle by director Patric Chiha starts in the 70s and shows uninhibited partygoers for decades to come.

Sometimes bare-breasted making out in the midst of people who are not limited to one gender in their sexuality. Sometimes with a fag in the mouth and a deliberately careless-looking grunge lumberjack shirt, almost absently bobbing to the beat of the music. A Intoxication from sensory overload and the compelling feeling of wanting to be at each of these parties. Without the fear of being looked at stupidly because you dance differently than the average.

A second season of the Netflix series Wednesday with Jenna Ortega has already been announced:

Each of these scenes transports a similar energy like the viral scene from Wednesday, except that the focus here is not just on a single person. But this is not just about celebrating individuality and the love of dance. The Beast In The Jungle highlights queer escapism in times of the AIDS crisis or a spirit of optimism in the face of global political events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall. The club, which remains nameless for a long time in the film, becomes the place where you lose yourself or find yourself for the first time.

The Beast In The Jungle is an unusual love story – and worthwhile despite narrative weaknesses

With all the intoxicating scenes, the story itself almost fades into the background. Because at its core, it’s actually about a seemingly hopeless love. When May (Anaïs Demoustier) and John (Tom Mercier) first meet at a party, they are 15. He tells her a secret at the time: A great event is predestined for him, which will change his whole life. He just doesn’t know what it is yet.

Now in their 20s, the two meet in the bathroom of a Parisian club and make a pact: they will wait for the big event together. For around 20 years From then on, the two meet every Saturday in the smoky Parisian club and hope for the big event, the beast hiding from them in the jungle of nightlife. The two get closer and closer emotionally, but never close enough. Because what’s the point of falling in love and being together before the big event that changes everything anyway?

Finally, of course, there is the event. That really Beautiful and heartbreaking on film is not the somewhat foreseeable resolution, but the sensitively told way there with two stunning actors: inside. The audience almost feels a bit like in this 80s hit by Ultravox: Dancing with my tears in my eyes.

The Beast In The Jungle can currently be seen in selected cinemas as part of the Berlinale.

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