Beasts of the Southern Wild Review

Director. Benh Zeitlin

Feat. Quvenzhané Wallis (Hushpuppy), Dwight Henry (Wink), Levy Easterly (Jean Battiste)

Fox Searchlight Pictures & Entertainment One, 2012

Movies have the power to transport us to different worlds.  Benh Zeitlin‘s Beasts of the Southern Wild transports us to a world we never dreamt before and beyond our imagination. It is a story bursting with life and death, rage and tranquility, fear and bravery, and all of it delivered through a magnificent score, thoughtful cinematography, and on the shoulders of its child star.  It is an intellectual [missing object/predicate nominative] and at times, even emotional, but all in all, it is unlike anything you’ve seen in recent years, and it is a movie you must see.

Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) and her father Wink (Dwight Henry) live in “The Bathtub”, a land unto itself on the other side of the New Orleans levy [homophone: levee].  The people of the Bathtub pride themselves on their self-sufficiency and staying away from the cloistered, coddled lives of outsiders.  The world of the Bathtub is held together with scrap metal, wooden planks, and the spirit of its community.  The coming flood that will drown their houses and send them adrift is not the apocalypse but the beginning of a new odyssey.  Several story threads are scattered throughout, but the film mostly examines daily life in The Bathtub and the new challenges and new revelations it presents for its young protagonist. An important theme in this film is the idea of living "off the grid" and away from everyone and everything else outside of their establishment. This can come with many challenges. For example, when the flood hit, everyone had to fend for themselves, no help from emergency services. When Hushpuppy's father passed out, she had to go find help herself! No cell phones or ambulance to call in the Bathtub, remember?

Another thing I noticed was that it was hard for me to build an emotional connection with the movie. I was unable to be Hushpuppy. Although we watched her gain independence, what she endured wasn't realistic enough for me. I couldn't imagine being that young and caring for myself and my ill father. It just wasn't relatable. Overall though, I recommend this movie for everyone to see at least once. It's so different, yet so captivating at the same time. Zeitlin might have came up with a classic [Another strong post Tia - I especially like how you are critical of the film, and yet recommend it].