It is not often that I weep at the end of a film; the only movies I’ve ever cried during were Edward Scissorhands and the equally sappy The Green Mile. Luckily, I could allow myself to barricade my cat and many boxes of tissues in my bedroom to cry in private. I could not have picked a worse time to watch the beautifully orchestrated Beasts of the Southern Wild than on a transatlantic flight with my mother, who is a notorious crier. However, for those who are lucky enough to avoid watching the film on an eight-hour flight, I could not recommend more.
Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild follows the adventures of Hushpuppy, played by Oscar-nominated Quvenzhané Wallis, a five-year old girl living in bayous of Louisiana with her hot-tempered and super-terrifying father Wink, played by Dwight Henry. The story is woven together by Hushpuppy’s musing on her “Bathtub”: a forgotten community cut off from the rest of the world by a levee. While Hushpuppy reflects on her happy life in the bayou, the prehistoric creatures called “Aurochs” are being released from the Arctic ice caps, as told to her by the “teacher” Miss Bathsheba, to follow her at a distance. Because the Bathtub is virtually cut off, its inhabitants are drunk, lawless, and rogue. Despite all its failings, the Bathtub is magical.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a fairy tale. In a time of cynicism, bitterness, and suspicion of one’s fellow man, it truly warms the heart to chronicle six-year old Hushpuppy’s struggle through her tender and vulnerable eyes. Though the film teases mystical themes, it does not lose its sense of reality. The film seems so real, in fact, that you’ll find yourself sulked back on your sofa, asking yourself, “What have I done with my life?”