Beasts Of The Southern Wild

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

Director : Benh Zietlin

Year : 2012

Genre : Drama

Rating : *****

The poster for 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' proudly boasts that it is 'AMONG THE BEST FILMS TO PLAY AT SUNDANCE IN TWO DECADES'. This is a brave comment to crown a movie poster with as the Sundance Film Festival has played host to some of the best independent movies I have ever seen. 'Tyrannosaur', 'Senna', 'Martha Marcy May Marlene', 'A Winter's Bone', 'Moon' and 'Memento' have all been premiered at the festival and to me, they are among the best films released in their respective years. My Thankfully, 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' can join these independent masterpieces. With it's fantastic cast, blistering and touching storyline and a parable depicting one of the worst natural disasters in American history, 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' is a remarkable movie that really has to be seen to be believed.

Set in the waterlogged part of the Louisiana bayou known as ''The Bathtub'' (named due to a levee cutting off the island from the rest of the world), 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' tells the story of a little 6 year old girl named Hush Puppy who lives with her widowed father, Wink. While Hush Puppy is a strong and optimistic little girl, Wink has an unknown illness which is slowly killing him, unbenownst to his daughter. At school, Hush Puppy learns about life, nature and stories about a prehistoric creature known as 'The Auroch', a giant boar that was frozen in the icecaps thousands of years ago. Due to her father illness, Hush Puppy is forced to fend for herself and lives in a small house on her own. However, when a giant storm flattens the island and destroys everything in it's path, she finds solitude in her fathers house who defiantely shoots bullets into the air. After the storm recedes, the residents of the bathtub try to piece their lives back together again but the soil is destroyed due to the enormous amount of salt water bought on by the stormsurge. 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' then tells the story of a community trying to deal with disaster, a daughter coming to terms with her fathers illness and the way that human nature can always triumph over adversity.

Clearly, 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' is an allegory for the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. Based on the play 'Juicy and Delicious' by Lucy Alibar, the movie depicts the ruin, heartache and loss that was created when the terrible storm hit the southern part of the USA in 2005. While not mentioning the hurricane in anyway during the film, it is very clear that the ghost of Katrina still haunts the minds of Americans and through the innocent eyes of a little girl, we are able to see how a storm like Katrina can not only damage communities geographically but can bring people together spiritually. Manhattan born director Benh Zieltin chose to film the movie in Montegut, an area of the state which was directly hit by the storm and this gives the film a shocking realism, similar to the aesthetic look of the films of Terrence Malick and Werner Herzog. However, the decrepit and almost post apocalyptic look also gives 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' a mythic and otherworldly tone, tying in well with the more fantastical elements of the film.

Quvenzhane Wallis plays Hush Puppy and she is the main reason why the film works so well. With eyes that could move you to tears as well as stop people dead in their tracks, Quvenzhane Wallis really is a talent to watch out for. Having been picked out of three and half thousand auditionees, Wallis is perfectly as the headstrong but vulnerable girl who has to deal with impending disaster and the oncoming death of her father. Constantly calling out to her dead mother and trying to find a parent figure everywhere she goes, Hush Puppy is a character which I really can relate to. When I was 10, my father died of cancer and I remember at the time feeling lost and hopeless. I recall thinking ''Who would take care of me?'' or ''who can I look up to?'' To me, Hush Puppy is a perfect representation of a childs reaction to the loss of a parental figure and Wallis' performance is heartbreakingly poignant and moving. However, there is another side to Hush Puppy; a headstrong, tough, wise to the world girl who can clearly handle herself when she is in danger. She engages in arm wrestling matches and fishes with her bare hands. In some ways, Hush Puppy and the people of the Bathtub represent the America that we don't usually see in movies. Not the suited individuals happily running around their concrete jungles or trigger happy hillbillies, but the more primitive Americans who haven't been poisoned with consumerism, racism or even television. In many ways, I wish that more people were like the inhabitants of the Bathtub who are not afraid to get their hands dirty and who are proud of their roots, rather than cotton wooled society which we now all seem to live in.

The fantasy element to 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' is not really overtly shown and used more as a metaphor for society, politics and the environment. The giant Aurochs which break out of their ice prisons and roam the land destroying everything in their path clearly represent the horrors that affect lives across the world; disease, famine, pestilence and war. On release, the film was labelled as a fantasy film much like Guillermo Del Toro's 'Pans Labyrinth', but to me, the metaphors are deep in the background to the story of the people in the Bathtub. In this sense, 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' is much more a drama about the circle of life than a straight up fantasy film.

Amazingly despite a very low budget of just under $2 million, an unknown director and cast and small distribution, 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' did fantastically well at the box office earning over $19 million. Critically lauded and appearing in many critics top 10 lists, 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' went on to be nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Actress for the then 6 year old Quvenzhane Wallis, the youngest ever nominee for an Oscar. Despite not winning any Academy Awards, 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' would go on to win dozens of other awards from across the world including Chicago Film Critics awards, Critics choice awards and NAAPC Image awards.

The film really is a masterful creation. It touched me more than any other movie I can think of and to me, Quvenzhane Wallis really is a talent to watch out for. Hopefully, Benh Zeitlin will direct more movies similar in tone to this because this film shows that he really has a fantastic eye for capturing true emotion. Even if you are not a fan of the fantasy genre, give 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' a chance, it may touch and move you in ways you can't fathom.

You will like this if you liked : Pan's Labyrinth