A24's The Beach Will Be A 'Continuous Streaming Experience' Lasting One Week

The ouroboros is traditionally represented by the image of a snake eating its own tail, suggesting a sense of reincarnation; of endless cycles of life, death, and rebirth; or merely anything that has an established brand that has taken it to such an extreme that it's sort of disappeared up its own, well, you know. Why do I mention any of this? For absolutely no reason at all.

On a completely different note altogether, famously marketing-savvy indie studio A24 has released a new trailer for "The Beach." What is "The Beach," you ask? Well ... I'm not sure I could really even say based on this footage alone. All we know for sure is that it's being billed as a "continuous streaming experience" and appears to be the most A24 thing ever, bringing a certain Bear Grylls' "Man vs. Wild" vibe if that survival show was completely unedited. Check out the trailer and decide for yourself, although this one is more like three distinct trailers placed back-to-back-to back. Symbolism, folks!

Tune your guitar, boil some crabs, and head out on your off-road vehicle of choice, because we're going to see "The Beach" ... but kindly remember to wipe the sand off your feet before entering your ramshackle little cabin by the sea, please. You probably thought the beach that made you grow old would be the last of 2021's seashore cinema, but now feast your eyes on the beach that perfectly recreates the feeling of being stuck in eternal purgatory, apparently. Australian director Warwick Thornton ("Samson & Delilah," "Sweet Country") is teaming up with the always-enigmatic A24 studio to bring a very different kind of docuseries to audiences. Teased as "a new kind of sensory viewing experience that transcends traditional television," "The Beach" is actually a modified re-release of the project, which originally filmed back in April and May of 2019 and subsequently aired on Australian public broadcasting.

While the trailer doesn't quite explain things, Deadline reports that "The Beach" is "the journey of a man who has chosen to give up life in the fast lane and decamp to an isolated beach in an attempt to transform his life through the healing power of nature." Starring Thornton after he entered self-isolation (before the pandemic hit, notably) on the Dampier Peninsula of Australia, he's joined only by his son and cinematographer Dylan River as he spends his days hunting for food, tending his chickens, and driving around on the beach in circles. A24 is making "The Beach" available for viewing through their Screening Room, which will stream the series on an endless loop for an entire week at the cost of $6.

Hilariously, A24 describes the cast as starring, and I quote: "Warwick Thornton, three chickens, a dog, a mud crab." The future of cinema is here! And it's very ... mundane.