Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

Fantastic!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

What would it be like to live in the middle of a swamp, in a post Katrina or post apocalyptic world? What if you saw this world from the imagination/reality of a child. That's where I arrived when I opened my eyes to the film, Beast of the Southern Wild. The film opens in a celebration with the people of the "Bathtub", a community living in the middle of the Mississippi delta, inside of a levee. This community is a hodgepodge of races, cultures, the eclectic, and the strange. The narrator of this unusual story is Hushpuppy, a tough, spunky, and independent six year old girl, who is raised by her equally tough but slightly off father, Wink.As I watched this film, I couldn't tell where realty crossed to fantasy or when fantasy reawakened again to reality. In between listening to the heartbeat of every animal she came upon, or hand fishing with her father, Hushpuppy envisioned the escape of prehistoric beasts, released from melting polar ice caps. For her, the universe had to always be in balance, and the escape of these beasts represented just that. The film moved as it were visual poetry, weaving in and out of realism and the fantastic mind of a child. I wonder if adults would have the flexibility to still absorb or understand the idealism of such an imagination.For a first time effort, director and writer Benh Zeitlin runs full blast into a visually stunning, epic, and artistic piece. It's also hard to believe that the stars of the film, Dwight Henry(Wink) , and the truly amazing Quvenzhané Wallis(Hushpuppy) were just regular people discovered in Louisiana. This film will either disappoint with its confusion, entrance you with its artistry, or leave you longing to understand its meaning. But whatever you take from this film, I hope that you would appreciate the remarkable talent of Quvenzhané Wallis, in a performance that I hope will be awarded come Oscar time.

Perhaps the most important thing about this film is what it can teach young filmmakers about vision and budget.Sometimes you really CAN make a film with non-union talent and really score a KNOCKOUT! Does a filmmaker need to spend millions on pricey talent? NO!Does a film need recognizable actors to have a cinematic impact? NO! Can non-union talent OUT PERFORM union actors? YES! Beasts of the Southern Wild was one of the finest movies of 2012.You simply couldn't improve this film.It is absolute perfection!I wish all movies were this engaging and enjoyable.Lesson learned.

Many reviewers have pointed out how truly unique this film is. And it is. Yet there will be quite a few bells ringing if you are an experienced enough movie goer. The director Luis Bunuel would love this film, with it's surreal dialogs and depiction of dirt, muck and various crustaceans milling about and being eaten. The bourgeois were disgusted by all this before WWII and from many reviews of this film it's obvious they still are. I stress the surrealist connection here because it seems to have evaded other reviewers completely. Do yourself a favor and see the films of Bunuel. Back to BotSW, in the mind of the 6-year old Hushpuppy his father's fatal illness, a Katrina-like storm and flood and a planetary climate catastrophe all bind and fold together. Her daddy like other adults in the film live off the grid, evading the law and authorities of any kind in the swamp. There is the feel of a post-apocalypse back- to-low-tech fantasy, except that here all is seen by the eyes of a child AND it's arguably pre-apocalypse or a slow ongoing apocalypse. A kid's Mad Max experience if you like. Cinematography drives this film so it is surprising that it is based on screenwriter Lucy Alibar's own theatrical play. What a versatile author. Admittedly too much hand-held camera-work there, perhaps to point out that there is no longer firm ground after the flood. There is a lot, and I mean a lot of local South Louisiana color. Some of it is pleasant, some repulsive. Joy and horror. Big Chief Al Doucette of Treme fame makes a cameo appearance. There is a most unusual take on the ancient Viking burial rite in the end, just when I thought nothing could surprise me anymore in this film. Yes it has flaws, all well documented here, so 7 out of 10, but the film is an obvious labor of love. The filming process must have been really laborious, everybody literally getting their feet wet, and I for one really respect that.

Indpent films rarely posses as much visual beauty and poignant literary techniques as "Beasts of the Southern Wild," a gem of a movie that encompasses philosophical questions about the meaning of life and will have you moved from start to finish. Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love. Thisn movie seems to be all over the place for most of the film, and took me a couple viewings to truly understand the beauty and meaning behind the film. No worries. This masterpiece of visual and written art by young filmmaker Ben Zeitlen tests traditional summer movies and gives you a film that causes a wide range of emotions and excites the eyes due to the gorgeous cinematography and marvelous directorial skills by a young and talented wizard of cinema.