Beasts of the Southern Wild
★★★★
(2012)
Benh Zeitlin's kinetic and wondrous deep south fairy tale has become a bit of a smash hit even with very few screens receiving reels of it this year. Never the less, the buzz around it continues to grow and rightly so. It's a mesmerising debut, filled up with magic, fantasy and a stirring Cajun score which buoys the film often into moments of eye watering joy. The small story of a six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy and her father, Wick living in a in a wetlands community named "The Bathtub" before, during and after what could possibly be hurricane Katrina is ripe with beauty, dirt and ingenuity.
Zeitln, filmed with non actors over a few months in the swamps beyond the levee in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Exactly how he managed to shoot his vision with such skill and mystery is part of the baffling story of how Beasts of the Southern Wild was made. As the water rises, flooding the town, the young director takes queues from everywhere including an old ute tray used as a boat (and a mission from Apocalypse Now), the resourcefulness of his film is surely down to the resourcefulness of the crew and it's "actors". And the real joy of it is surely down to the young Quvenzhané Wallis as Hushpuppy.
Her Malick like voiceover, stumbles and all, drives this film and her performance is so natural and fierce that it may go down as one of the finest debuts of all time. As the remaining residents of The Bathtub attempt to go on living, Hushpuppy feels like she has one more impossible task in the midst of it all. As her fears of being alone rise and her sick father becomes sicker she reaches out to find her missing mother before the fantastical ever charging beasts find her. Zeitlns film mixes fantasy and the real world, beauty with squalor and effortlessly takes the film to any possible place and time.
The political angle of Beasts of the Southern Wild is a curious one. Placing a 6-year-old girl as a wide-eyed protagonist in the aftermath of what might be the worst natural disaster in US history, it allows itself a wide berth, painting the people of The Bathtub as defiant and independent ones, and Hushpuppy as a naive spectator in a failing climate.
The ever-present influence of Terrence Malick is the films backing force but sadly its also its one failure. The look and sound of the picture are proud, loud echoing notes of the greatest lyricist in American cinema but the whole thing often feels like a reverb heavy cover version (albeit, a fantastic one) of Days of Heaven. Also, let's not forget David Gordon Green, the last of Malick's apprentices, who after dropping the never bettered George Washington, has yet to make a film with as much bite again.
Though Zeitln's effort is far far more ambitious, he may have already set him self a hell of a task in crawling out of the bathtub, however, the comparison isn't enough to dampen Zeitlns arrival as a vivacious and wonderful new talent.
