¨In a million years, when kids go to school,
they gonna know: Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in
The Bathtub.¨
Beasts of the Southern Wild is without a doubt
one of the best films of 2012. It is unlike any other movie you have seen and
it makes you actually feel like you are reading a poem instead of watching a
film. It came as a huge surprise for me considering I didn’t know the director
or the stars of this film. I heard of the success it was having after winning
the Camera d`Or in the Cannes Film Festival and the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize
in the Sundance Film Festival, but I really didn’t think I would be as
surprised by this film as the critics claimed to be. This small film was truly
a magical experience for me as it mixes some surrealism with a tender story
about the relationship between a father and his young daughter and their
struggle for survival. The characters in this story are facing an oncoming
storm that is threatening their lives, but at the same time the father is going
through a severe illness that is threatening his. The storm plays out as sort
of a parable of what the young daughter is facing ahead of her as her father is
her only means for survival and his death would mean hers as well. It`s hard to
decipher if some scenes are actually really happening or if they are just in
the daughter`s imagination, and this plays out beautifully in this magical/realistic
film. This is Benh Zeitlin`s first feature film and he also co-wrote the
screenplay with Lucy Alibar. The film is based on Alibar`s stage play ¨Juicy
and Delicious.¨ Zeitlin has made an impressive film and he will definitely be
someone to keep an eye on, especially if you enjoy seeing something unique and
different. The screenplay works really well thanks to a great performance from
the cast, especially from the two lead roles who play father and daughter.
The story takes place in a fictional Delta
community in the southern Louisiana bayou known as ¨The Bathtub.¨ This forgotten
community is cut from the rest of the world by a levee and they have been
warned that at any moment the water level will rise so high that there will be
no more land left in that region. In the Bathtub we meet a young six year old
girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) who lives with her alcoholic
father, Wink (Dwight Henry), and several other farm animals. Hushpuppy is a
very imaginative young girl and she believes that this world she lives in is in
balance with the entire universe. If one small piece breaks, everything else
does as well. The upcoming storm is threatening her perception of the world, as
well as her relationship with Wink who has disappeared for a few days.
Surviving on her own for a couple of days, she hears her father coming back and
from what the viewer can see he has escaped from a hospital or something. It doesn’t
take much time for her to realize that her father is very sick. Wink is very
hot tempered, but at the same time he cares for his daughter and tries to be
tough to teach her how to survive on her own in this community. The ice caps
are melting, the water levels are rising, her father is ill, and a mystical
animal named aurochs all seem to be heading her way and putting in danger her
life as well as the rest of the small and poor community of the Bathtub.
Somehow she must fight along with her father to restore the balance in the
universe and fix the broken pieces that have threatened this balance. Among the
residents of the community we have the teacher Miss Bathsheba (Gina Montana),
Walrus (Lowell Landes), Jean (Levy Easterly), and Joy (Jonshel Alexander) who
all refuse to leave from their beloved land.
I can’t say for sure if in the future people
will remember Hushpuppy, but they will remember the young Quvenzhané Wallis who portrays her because she just
delivered one of the best female performances of the year. I am sure she will
receive an Oscar nomination for her portrayal because she simply carries this
magical movie on her own. Her on screen presence is just electrifying and hypnotic.
Once you took one look at her, it was impossible to look anywhere else. She is
brilliant and single handedly makes this movie so much better than it already
is. Dwight Henry also gives a very strong performance as the father. Both Henry
and Wallis had never acted before in their lives. This film seemed to have all
the perfect ingredients to fail, but every piece fit together so well that everything
was like Hushpuppy said ¨The whole universe depends on everything fitting
together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece... the whole
universe will get busted.¨ Every piece of the universe that was Beasts of the
Southern Wild fit so well together that it made for a perfect film and one of
the best of the year. I highly recommend this magical and emotional film to
everyone because it will take you by storm. It is unlike anything you have seen
before, and I mean it in a good way. Wallis is really captivating and her
performance left me with goose bumps all over my skin.
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