Beasts of the Southern Wild - Film Review

 

 

Beasts of the Southern Wild- Film Review

 

 

This is a marmite film if ever there was one – some will love it – some will hate it, and I have to say that I belong in the first category.

The film opens in a dysfunctional community south of the not so brilliant levees of Louisiana. It seems only a matter of time before the big storm hits and washes the rickety community completely away, and so it proved to be the case.

The film follows the fortunes of Hushpuppy, an amazing little girl of six years of age, brilliantly played by Quvenzhane Wallis, and her alcoholic father with serious health issues. Mommy has long gone and is never to be seen, except in a brief flashback before Hushpuppy’s birth.

The adults, such as they are, and when they can stop drinking, teach the little ones, that all God’s creatures are there to be eaten, and many of them duly are, from alligators downwards. Even the local caged owl is worried as he is looked at with slavering lips!

But inside Hushpuppy’s head there are even more fantastical creatures that she dreams of, and talks to, and seeks comfort with, to bring some kind of order and hope into her haphazard life.

This is not a film for young kids, indeed it has a 12 certificate, but it is a memorable film, and one that picked up 4 Oscar nominations.

I have seen it likened to Pan’s Labyrinth, but other than a girl and strange creatures I don’t see the comparison. Pan’s Labyrinth is infinitely better, but Beasts of the Southern Wild is an interesting and moving film. Give it a chance, for some of the early dialogue is not so easy to take on board, but there are good moments in it that make this a very decent film.

I enjoyed it too, and many people do, but then again I am a season ticket holder when it comes to marmite, so maybe that was only to be expected. 

 

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