You probably wouldn’t have heard of the tiny drama “Beasts of the Southern Wild” had Benh Zeitlin’s film not won two very important film festival awards: the Camera d’Or for best first feature at Cannes and the dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
But with great honor comes great responsibility — or at least great expectations. And “Beasts of the Southern Wild” doesn’t quite live up to its hype. It’s too filled with the tropes of disaster cinema to be heralded as an original masterpiece.
We hear too often — that’s another problem, much is told rather than shown — about the interconnectedness of the universe. We know from the start that a father’s tough-love approach to child-rearing is meant to prepare his soon-to-be-orphaned child for the big, bad (but interconnected) world.
| On screen |
| ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ |
| 2.5 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry |
| Director: Benh Zeitlin |
| Rated: PG-13 for thematic material including child imperilment, some disturbing images, language and brief sensuality |
| Running time: 91 minutes |
Yet there’s no denying there’s something special about this small film. It’s mostly the astonishing work of its young star, Quvenzhane Wallis, who plays the 6-year-old about to be thrust into adulthood long before her time.
Hushpuppy, as she’s called, lives in the Louisiana bayou with her papa, Wink (Dwight Henry). Their homes — they each have their own trailer — are in what looks like a post-apocalyptic movie set, but what residents call the Bathrub. “Ain’t that ugly over there?” Wink asks Hushpuppy, pointing to the city nearby. “We got the prettiest place on Earth.”
Maybe. But it’s also one of the most dangerous, especially after the inevitable storm comes and engulfs most of the homes. Wink becomes ill, and it turns into a bigger struggle to survive. The sense of catastrophe, for Hushpuppy, is magnified as she thinks on the words of her Sunday school teacher: She pictures the coming of another ice age, along with some now-extinct beasts that filmmaker Zeitlin brings roaringly to life.
But the film answers — sort of — a more down-to-earth question than what the end of the world might look like. It shows why, during Hurricane Katrina, some people dangerously refused to evacuate their homes. “Beasts” brings a way of life into focus, albeit through the repeated use of the shaky cam.
“They have holidays once a year,” Hushpuppy says of those unseen city folk. But every day is a celebration in the Bathtub — perhaps because every day it’s something of a miracle its residents have survived. When one of them has as much of a spark as Hushpuppy — and the immensely talented young actress who plays her — we must be grateful, too.
