Writers Bloc is pleased to present film reviews by film critic Jean Oppenheimer.
A mesmerizing film that will stay with you long after you have left the theatre, Beasts of the Southern Wild is an intimate story set in a world on the edge of disaster. Rooted in the physical world, but with the aura of a myth, the film possesses a heart-stopping emotional power and a visual beauty that will take your breath away. Not since Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven have image and music been so inextricably bound or so woven into the emotional fabric of a film. The same can be said of the story and the performances.
Six-year old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis, giving one of the great child performances) lives with her father Wink (Dwight Henry, equally brilliant) in an isolated, Louisiana bayou community that locals call the Bathtub. The people who live here in self-imposed squalor are a raucous bunch, fond of liquor but also fiercely protective of one another and their way of life. Hushpuppy’s mother disappeared years ago and, despite the deep love that exists between father and child, Wink can be harsh, even brutal, with his daughter, determined that she learn to fend for herself, should anything happen to him. And rumors of an impending storm suggest an uncertain future.
The world we see through Hushpuppy’s eyes is a place of beauty and endless celebration, but also ferocious storms and mysterious, prehistoric creatures that emerge from melting polar icecaps to roam the land. As in any myth or fable, what the beasts represent is open to interpretation, as are many things in this exquisitely crafted film.
The father-daughter relationship is the story’s emotional center and Zeitlin struck gold here, first recognizing — and then guiding — two, innately gifted novices who are so extraordinary they don’t seem to be acting at all. Winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and the Cinematography Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, as well as a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Beasts of the Southern Wild also marks the feature debut of director Benh Zeitlin and cinematographer Ben Richardson. Together, these four have created a small miracle of a film, and if this is all they ever produce, it will be enough to last many lifetimes.