BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD… 3.5 ***




If you are looking for something completely different from all the other popcorn flick that have playing this summer, then” Beasts of the Southern Wild” is the movie for you. Beasts is a low budget, independent, dramedy masterpiece. Beasts is a truly original story, and more creative than most of the other films that have come out so far this year. Beasts stormed through the independent film festival circuit winning several awards at the Cannes Film Festival, and the top Grand Jury Prize at this year's 2012 Sundance Festival. It has a truly fresh screenplay that sucks you in from the opening moments and never lets you go until the credits roll. The remarkable believable cast is headlined with tiny Quvenzhane Wallis, only 6 years old, who plays Hushpuppy, and puts on an acting showcase seldom seen from someone so young. The range of emotion shown on her face is a shocking marvel. I would not be surprised to see an Oscar nomination go to the pint sized star.

The story is about Hushpuppy, a fearless, six-year-old girl who lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe; for a time when he's no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother and instead finds her place in the universe.

This is a beautiful film in which the story hints at natural revelation as well as being an apocalyptic tale. We are taken through the story by the narration of Hushpuppy. Her story is one of love; survival, the importance of community and how we are all connected in this universe and no one and nothing is inconsequential. Hushpuppy is always stopping and listening for the heartbeat of whatever she comes across or touches whether it be a cat or a leaf. She shows us how everything she crosses has a purpose in her eyes, and we can tell that there is something bigger at work in the universe.

Clark