Movie One Hundred Eighty Three
A little girl lives with her father in a sheltered bayou community and goes in search of her mother as her father’s health begins to fail in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Six year old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) lives with her father, Wink (Dwight Henry) in an isolated shanty community called The Bathtub south of the levees in Louisiana. As her father’s health begins to fail and a storm rolls through, leaving The Bathtub entirely underwater, Hushpuppy believes the universe is out of balance and attempts to find her mother. Part of the universe being imbalanced means that a group of large beasts known as aurochs become thawed from the ice caps and are making their way south to The Bathtub.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is much more touching than I anticipated it being. Hushpuppy’s childlike wonder makes the film a blend of surreal fantasy and we are left to wonder what is really happening or what is her interpretation of the events. She knows little of her father’s illness because he keeps it from her and we, the audience, are also left mostly in the dark to the specifics. This also makes the aurochs a great force that is mysterious and their presence in the film is small but significant.
One thing that I normally point out when I review films is whether or not they use shakycam and then I point out how much I abhor shakycam. Beasts of the Southern Wild is shot entirely in this manner, but it works in the manner of the film and never feels out of place. In fact, after the first 15-20 minutes of the film, I barely even noticed because it just felt so organic.
First time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin really provides a lot of love here and Beasts of the Southern Wild is a film that is quite hard to describe in short. While the plot may be too esoteric for its own good, and certain scenes seem to lack focus, everything has its place in the film. I went in to Beasts of the Southern Wild expecting a Where the Wild Things Are if it had been directed by Terrence Malick but I was way off. Beasts of the Southern Wild is actually quite unlike any other film I’ve seen that is a story of survival just as much as it is about growing up.
I give it 5 auroch face-offs out of 5.
Fun fact: The aurochs in the film are completely different from their real, extinct namesakes. The creatures in the film were created by using baby pot bellied pigs with a nutria skin prosthetic.
Links:
I might have to check that out.
The trailers don’t do it justice, but after seeing it I’m really not sure how they could have presented the film any differently. It’s the type of film that just needs to be experienced, I guess.
I need to check thi one out, thanks for reminding me of it as it seems to have slipped off my radar of films to watch
Hopefully you can catch it in a theater, I had a hard time tracking it down and I was worried I had missed my chance.
I’m planning on seeing this today, so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Bring a tissue/napkin/handkerchief. I was a mess by the end.
I am dying to see this movie! It is playing at so few theaters and whenever I try describing it to people I try to get to go with me they just don’t seem to get it. Even though I haven’t seen it I can’t help but feel is is like the movie Monsters where the aliens were a big point in the film but are not the focus which i really liked. Nice write up and I definitely hope to catch this one soon.
I hope you get to too! The aurochs are really important to the story but have very little screen time.
I’ve never heard of this one. Good write up. I’ll look out for it. Thanks.
Cannot wait, cannot wait, cannot wait to see this!! I feel like I’ve been waiting for 500 years for this (but I haven’t seen it playing anywhere around, might have to go into the city). This is the type of film I adore. And it reminds me of home.
Make a trip to see it if you have to, it’s definitely something special.
I absolutely adored this film. One of the best of the year.
Ditto for me – The only movie I liked more was Moonrise Kingdom
Academy I think we have your best picture. I haven’t seen it yet, barely heard of it, but i might have to check it out sometime. Sounds interesting.
Sadly, I’d be surprised if this gets much Oscar attention but I really hope I end up being surprised…
It just seems like one of those movies like The Artist that the Academy gravitates towards.
Yeah, I hope it ends up being the “it” movie of the awards season. We’ll see how things end up. I wouldn’t mind if Moonrise Kingdom swept every award possible too!
I really need to see Moonrise Kingdom. I keep hearing great things about it.
I hate myself for saying this…But it’s really a magical movie experience.
That’s actually a good name for a blog – magical movie experience. I could see it on tee shirts. I understand what you mean though. Most of his movies are like that. He did the life aquatic movie, right? Really liked that one.
I should trademark it and become rich!
Yeah, Life Aquatic, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rushmore…Moonrise is his finest work yet, though. I loved Life Aquatic but it seems generally disliked by most people for some reason.
I’m an ocean guy, so that might be why I dug it so much. Fantastic Mr. Fox was great as well.
Yeah, I dug it too
I loved this one too. I was crying really hard at the end, and it’s between this or Moonrise Kingdom as my favorite film of the year. I usually don’t like handheld camera shots (The Hunger Games is a good example), but it didn’t detract from here, though some parts were a little too shaky. Quvenzhané Wallis was fantastic in the film and really surprised me, as I don’t think many child actors are very good. Nice review.
I think I liked Moonrise more, but this was a close second. I usually have the same complaints about the camera but actually liked the way it was used for this one.
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