Film Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild

There are pro's and cons to being exposed to a film through film studies. On the one hand it's a course you can get a qualification from by watching and analysing great pieces of entertainment, what's not to love? However on the other hand the analytical side can sometimes get in the way. For example when watching Beasts of the Southern Wild I had my notebook open ready to uncover all of Zetlin's powerful and significant commentary instead of just simply experiencing it.

It's a difficult line to walk. On one hand Beasts of the Southern Wild is perfect for essays because there is so much contextual and artistic reasoning behind its cinematic choices. But sometimes I just want to sit down and get taken away by a film and I feel like I would have enjoyed this more if I wasn't watching it off the bat with an analytical and cynical eye.

The story is about a young girl called Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) who lives in the deep south in a run down village known colloquially as "The Bath Tub". It resides on the coast, often berated by extreme weather and after Hurricane Katrina rips through their home it's up to the community to rebuild it. One thing that I admired about the film was that there was never any chance of these people living anywhere else. The bathtub is their home and just like real communities living in New Orleans and the like they refuse to give it up even if all the odds seem against them. These people are not dissatisfied with their lives even though they are so detached from our own that they delve into the realm of fantasy. Beasts of the Southern Wild could so easily have been a tale about people living in poverty, wishing for a better life but it doesn't need to do that to make us connect and enjoy watching the hopefullness and resilience of these characters.

The shaky camera and the mise-en-scene in the film make for a very realistic depiction of Hushpuppy's world, this was probably influenced by the real conditions the cast and crew experienced while filming.

At the heart of the story is the bond between Hushpuppy and her dying father (Dwight Henry). Even though on the surface this might seem like a film about a community surviving against unbelievable odds, it's not. It's a film about a father teaching his daughter how to survive in the bathtub when he's gone, an undercurrent that follows through the story like the dark, prehistoric aurochs that advance towards them. At first these beasts seem random, blurring the line between a very realistic film and pure fiction but in my interpretation these creatures represent Hushpuppy's grief and surge of high emotions.

Overall Beasts of the Southern Wild is a very powerful film, commenting on relationships, America, global warming, family and innocence but personally I feel that it's powerful without thinking about all of that. It's powerful just watching these characters live their lives against any odds.

8/10