Review of Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) by Thediscerner — 24 Jan 2013
It manages to make good use of its post-Katrina locations and has a convincing performance from a child, but its defiant human spirit ethos feels twee and cartoonish, characters remain paper-thin, the narration is just a lot of homespun nonsense and many scenes feel aimless.
If you are going to reformulate the experiences of survivors of Katrina into a magical realist fable you need to give characters a proper voice. The strength and defiance of real people, a spirit the director evidently wishes to capture and inspire with needs to find an expression beyond the vague narration, upbeat folksy music and simple lyricism that this film features.
In fact, the film's simplicity is really best suited to a young audience - judged as a kid's film, it is an impressive feat for a first time film-maker.
This review of Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) was written by Thediscerner on 24 Jan 2013.
Beasts of the Southern Wild has generally received very positive reviews.
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