Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012): Beasts of the Southern Wild is sadly the only movie I saw at SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) this year. Luckily, this was a good choice. Beasts is the directorial debut of Benh Zeitlin and it has already made a splash on the festival circuit winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Camera D'or (Best First Feature) at the Cannes Film Festival. The film focuses on Hushpuppy (an amazing Quvenzhané Wallis, who may give one of the seminal child performances), a wise beyond her years, poetic, and mystical six year old girl. Hushpuppy lives with her father (each in their own houses) in "the Bathtub", a lawless but idyllic bayou south of New Orleans. The storm everyone in the Bathtub expects to come and wash them away happens, at which point the film takes on a sort of contained apocalypse as the members of the community do their best to keep their homes and way of life intact, all while the eponymous Beasts that have been predicted by Hushpuppy's teacher begin their journey to the Bathtub. The cinematography is gauzy and nature filled, and one could describe it as an end of the world movie made by Terrence Malick or early David Gordon Green (a la George Washington). There are some scenes that are so beautiful they will take your breath away, the title sequence in which the residents of the Bathtub throw a party and Hushpuppy runs with firecrackers through the night is staggeringly beautiful. Overall, some of the more magical elements didn't work for me but I found the performances to be strong and Zeitlin has created an atmospheric and beautiful world in this film.
Beasts of the Southern Wild will be released in theaters later this year.
Happy movie going!
Julie
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