Review of Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) by Joshua B — 27 Jul 2013

The most immediate comparison I can make to Beasts of the Southern Wild, the stunning debut film from writer/director Benh Zeitlin, is Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. Both films feature a powerful lead performance by a child and explore themes of the wild, untempered roiling emotions of childhood and the dangerous world of growing up. In "Beasts," that lead is Hushpuppy, a fiercely intrepid six-year old girl living with her harsh father in "The Bathtub," a southern delta town in what is ostensibly Katrina-era Louisiana. Hushpuppy is played by first-time performer Quevenzhane Wallis, whose performance is so powerfully confident it not only eschews the common criticisms leveled at child acting, but it succeeds as the lynch pin on which the entire film rests. No doubt Zeitlin worked closely to bring out the nuance in Wallis' performance (and those of the other non-actors in the film), but the relationship between the actor and director feels organic in a way not often seen in a first film, especially featuring such a young talent. Zeitlin crafts a masterfully moving tone poem, a magic realist fable of profound humanity, plumbing the depths of pain and poverty to bring out the wonder and defiance of the human spirit. Even the score, which Zeitlin himself co-wrote, is one of the most unique and rousing I have heard in recent memory. The movie does not, as some critics have suggested, glorify poverty. Rather, it celebrates community and strength of will. Hushpuppy is undeniably living a tortured life, and maybe one that is ultimately without much hope. But the point is that hope is so ingrained in our humanity, that through the eyes of a child the loss of it is impossible.

One of the best films of 2012.