Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Hmm, not sure about this one. Brave story telling with a strong political message or trite pontificating that patronises its audience? Benh Zeitlin’s debut film tells the story of a community (known as that “Bathtub”) in the Louisiana Bayou. It concentrates mainly on the combustible relationship between Wink (Dwight Henry) and his young daughter Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) and an overall eye on how the inhabitants survive in such a hostile environment (they’re cut off from the rest of the world by a levee). There’s plenty of positives on show here. Henry and Wallis are both superb, Zeitlin’s approach behind the camera is technically impressive and the special effects (particularly during a storm sequence) are as subtle as they are notable. It’s in telling the story where this loses its way. Though ostensibly a fantasy film (there’s more than a few nods towards Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are), the majority of what Zeitlin shows you appears to be based in the real world so whatever message he’s trying to get across gets a bit lost. In addition, the blurred line between what’s in Hushpuppy’s imagination and what should be taken at face value is frustrating for the viewer as you’re not sure what you should be investing in. No doubt this was done on purpose by Zeitlin, but it doesn’t really work, no doubt aided by the fact that Zeitlin (as admitted by himself) never bothered to look at dallies until after the end of the day’s shooting. The biggest problem the film has is that despite being only 90 minutes long it drags like a slow death at times and, frankly, long patches of it are just boring. The explanation behind this is that the film is based on a one act play (Juicy and Delicious, co-written by Zeitlin himself) which has been clearly stretched to breaking point. The result being there’s far too much filler here that doesn’t move things along. Political arguments aside, Zeitlin employed a huge number of local people on the cast and crew and the background to the film (see the internet) is actually more interesting than the final feature. I always have a soft spot for first time directors so here’s hoping that Zeitlin goes on to have a successful career, but I not sure there was enough material here in the first place to justify a feature length production.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict

Looks impressive, but it’ll be down to personal opinion as to if there’s any substance here. Rating: 6/10.