Beasts of the Southern Wild review

                Tragedy from the eyes of a child is never an easy thing to portray for several reasons: One, the effect and gravity of the situation hinges on the abilities of the child actors, two, it’s sometimes hard to tell when too much is too much and three, if you downplay the harsh realities of the situation(s) to appeal to a younger demographic, then you can sacrifice the weight and emotion of the entire film.  However, if you push the drama and stakes too high at the character’s expense, then you can easily end up with exploitation, manipulation, or numbing melodrama—“Precious”, I’m looking at you.

                This year, seemingly out of nowhere, a small film called “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was released and surprisingly, it finds a perfect balance between the woe and whimsy that the subject matter calls for. At the heart of this story are two powerful performances from two unknown actors; Quvenzhané Wallis, the lead child actress who plays the ferociously independent Hushpuppy and Dwight Henry plays Wink, her broken father.

                The story surrounds the events of a hurricane-effected New Orleans and the small, impoverished, shanty towns that surround it—known in the movie as The Bathtub. In this place, Hushpuppy is a strong-willed 6 year old who lives with her single father. Not only is he an alcoholic but he is also trying to hide that fact that he is dying of an unknown ailment. After the hurricane  destroys their homes, Hushpuppy and her father look for other survivors in their make-shift motor boat.  Together they have to brave the traumatic flood that submerges their entire society, while at the same time trying to keep a sense of community when the white-coats come to the Bathtub to bring their sense of ‘order’.

                What keeps this from being a timely, Lifetime movie-of-the-week, is the approach and style that the director Ben Zeitlin brings to this story—based on a play by the writer Lucy Alibar. The phrase ‘magic realism’ has been used to describe this film’s style and that would be accurate. Zeitlin presents everything, no matter how sad, how disgusting, or how tragic it is, from the mind of an imaginative six year old. Everything is larger than life, everything is special, and everything has a precise design and wonderment. This is best exemplified by a particularly strange subplot dealing with prehistoric boars breaking free from the polar ice-caps, charging to find the movie’s young heroine.  Though the camera work is loose and handheld and the sets and costuming are seemingly gritty, the production of this movie is otherworldly. The locations recall a post-Katrina New Orleans but something about the tone and look of everything feels fantastic and strange.  

                The two lead performances, both by Wallis and Henry, are incredibly effecting. Quvenshane’s stern young face and commanding line-delivery keeps you from feeling too sorry for her, as she seems better equipped for this terrible event than the adults around her.  Dwight Henry’s portrayal as her father is absolutely heartbreaking. We watch with pity, like his daughter, as he tries to keep his strength and integrity, even as he is falling apart or can barely stand up.

                This is a film that is meant to evoke a strong reaction. How you react will have a lot to do with your individual perspective. If you are a child then you could view this as a down-the-rabbit-hole kind of adventure, if you are an adult then you could read this as a political allegory about poverty, classism, global-warming, and/or the government’s effectiveness during national crisis.  But none of these ideas would work if the emotional beats weren’t there. What is most impressive about “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is that even as it is concerned with socio-political ideas, it still works as a piece of tender-hearted entertainment, where its rewards are matched by its ambition.

                This is probably the best film I have seen all year, and that isn’t an overstatement. The acting is expressive, the set design is inspired, and the original score by the director is lilting and memorable, as it nicely accents the fantasy element of the plot. Like the best mix of 80’s-era Steven Spielberg, 70’s-era Terrence Malick, and anytime-Terry Gilliam, this movie will move you in a way that most films don’t bother to anymore. 

Grade: A

Originally Published in The Basic Alternative/Jan-2013