← Back to Reviews
in
Beasts of the Southern Wild, 2012
This is a rewatch for me, and I haven't seen the film since around the time of its original release.
Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) is a 6 year old girl living in a small, ramshackle bayou community called the Bathtub with her father, Wink (Dwight Henry). But Wink's failing health and a natural disaster that threatens the Bathtub forces Hushpuppy to grow up faster than her years.
This is one of those films that got a ton of praise and then a moderate amount of backlash. I liked it when it first came out and I liked it on this rewatch.
A lot of this is due to Wallis and her natural charisma. Whether it's her natural talents or just director Behn Zeitlin skillfully finding ways to capture her youthful moods, Hushpuppy comes across as someone who is both world-weary and yet still naive when it comes to certain things.
A huge focus of the film is on Hushpuppy's relationship with Wink. Hushpuppy's mother has left them, and it has caused a breach in the relationship between father and daughter. Wink's treatment of Hushpuppy often veers into an interesting shaping of her personality--he frequently refers to her using masculine pronouns, including telling her that she will be the king of the Bathtub one day. Wink's education of Hushpuppy is largely confined to a way of life that functions in the Bathtub--how to catch a catfish by hand, or breaking a crab in half. There is a desperation and determination in Wink to toughen Hushpuppy up before he is physically unable to care for her anymore. This element is incredibly relatable--he has so much to teach her and not enough time for it. Without him she will be without family, and every scene between them is fraught with a mix of fear and anger about this situation.
As for the magical realism, I kind of wish that the film had leaned into it a bit more. As it stands, it feels a bit haphazard. I liked the way that the film depicted these sequences--products of Hushpuppy's imagination--such as a "memory" of her mother lighting the stove just by walking by. In terms of the "beasts" themselves, prehistoric creatures who emerge from melting ice caps and descend on the Bathtub, I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret them. Are they meant to symbolize natural forces (like her father's illness or the storms) that are out of Hushpuppy's control? Are we supposed to see them as symbols of toughness and realize that Hushpuppy is getting in touch with her inner "beast"? Regardless of their meaning, they look great, and I enjoyed the sequences with them even if their purpose in the narrative wasn't wholly clear to me.
I'd say that on the whole, most of the reviews I've read of this one in the last few years have been on the middling or negative side. I wondered if I would still enjoy it and was pleased to find that I did.
Beasts of the Southern Wild, 2012
This is a rewatch for me, and I haven't seen the film since around the time of its original release.
Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) is a 6 year old girl living in a small, ramshackle bayou community called the Bathtub with her father, Wink (Dwight Henry). But Wink's failing health and a natural disaster that threatens the Bathtub forces Hushpuppy to grow up faster than her years.
This is one of those films that got a ton of praise and then a moderate amount of backlash. I liked it when it first came out and I liked it on this rewatch.
A lot of this is due to Wallis and her natural charisma. Whether it's her natural talents or just director Behn Zeitlin skillfully finding ways to capture her youthful moods, Hushpuppy comes across as someone who is both world-weary and yet still naive when it comes to certain things.
A huge focus of the film is on Hushpuppy's relationship with Wink. Hushpuppy's mother has left them, and it has caused a breach in the relationship between father and daughter. Wink's treatment of Hushpuppy often veers into an interesting shaping of her personality--he frequently refers to her using masculine pronouns, including telling her that she will be the king of the Bathtub one day. Wink's education of Hushpuppy is largely confined to a way of life that functions in the Bathtub--how to catch a catfish by hand, or breaking a crab in half. There is a desperation and determination in Wink to toughen Hushpuppy up before he is physically unable to care for her anymore. This element is incredibly relatable--he has so much to teach her and not enough time for it. Without him she will be without family, and every scene between them is fraught with a mix of fear and anger about this situation.
As for the magical realism, I kind of wish that the film had leaned into it a bit more. As it stands, it feels a bit haphazard. I liked the way that the film depicted these sequences--products of Hushpuppy's imagination--such as a "memory" of her mother lighting the stove just by walking by. In terms of the "beasts" themselves, prehistoric creatures who emerge from melting ice caps and descend on the Bathtub, I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret them. Are they meant to symbolize natural forces (like her father's illness or the storms) that are out of Hushpuppy's control? Are we supposed to see them as symbols of toughness and realize that Hushpuppy is getting in touch with her inner "beast"? Regardless of their meaning, they look great, and I enjoyed the sequences with them even if their purpose in the narrative wasn't wholly clear to me.
I'd say that on the whole, most of the reviews I've read of this one in the last few years have been on the middling or negative side. I wondered if I would still enjoy it and was pleased to find that I did.