Beasts of the Southern Wild

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🎙️ EPISODE 300: 01.24.2021 *Review starts @ ~ 1:33:35 Early in Beasts of the Southern Wild, before everything goes to shit and the giant prehistoric monster hogs begin their migration toward “The Bathtub” in Louisiana, we see the two primary characters–young Hushpuppy, a 6yo girl, and her volatile dad, Wink–riding on a boat that is actually the flatbed portion of a pickup truck which has been converted into a water vessel complete with a motor and everything. WHOA! Obviously, this is cool-looking, but it's also sort of a logistical/realistic nightmare (at least in my mind). I knew little about this movie going in, but I knew at that moment it could only go one of two ways. Luckily, it went the right way. In a fantasy film, where anything can and usually does happen, the ability to genuinely surprise an audience is often paramount to whether or not it's a success. Beasts seemed to be following a fairly predictable, albeit beautiful

and emotionally-engaging arc, before Hushpuppy and three accomplices decided to jump into the ocean and swim toward a distant light. I felt happy when her dead mother cooked her fried alligator. When the children started slow-dancing with strippers in 60s-era negligee, that was fine as well.

This is a powerful and occasionally disconcerting movie. It will make you feel things. Sure, on occasion director/co-writer Benh Zeitlin shows his emotional hand a little early (Hushpuppy's cat food and gravy dinner) or overstates the important political message in an all too obvious way. But it's never oppressive (which is good since this is such an anti-oppression film).

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a film about real life that doesn't rely on real life to make its statements. In an interview with The Atlantic, Zeitlin noted, "I don't want to shit on indie film, it's just that a lot of it is not any more sophisticated than big action movies. Action movies are a lot more interesting a lot of the time because they are engaged in myth and genre and culture. You can track your culture through Hollywood, you can't track it through indie movies." Now, that’s probably an idea I would have never considered before seeing this. And while I don’t wholly agree with it, it provides an interesting thematic base for this film in a way.

Even the greatest films never exist solely as perfect examples of what the medium can achieve. The best actively expand upon the medium: its lexicon, its relationship to culture, and so on. Benh Zeitlin accomplishes this in the very least by mashing up blockbuster appeal with indie sentiment. I will never care about what happens to Iron Man, but I will always care about characters like this.

*** part of THE BIG EPISODE 300 EXTRAVAGANZA wherein I reviewed 36 movies, mostly live reads of critiques I wrote between 2009-2012. The finished product above is a highly edited version of the truly embarrassing one that was read during the five-hour podcast recording. I guess this is growing up. ***

THE 36 MOVIES REVIEWED DURING EPISODE 300

30 MINUTES OR LESS • ALEX BAG: UNTITLED FALL '95 • AWAY WE GO • BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD • BEING ELMO • BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM • THE BROTHERS SOLOMON • A BUCKET OF BLOOD •
THE CAMPAIGN • THE CENTER OF THE WORLD • CHRISTMAS ON MARS • THE CHRISTMAS TREE • CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. • (500) DAYS OF SUMMER • A FIELD IN ENGLAND • FUNNY PEOPLE • GET HIM TO THE GREEK • GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS) • INCEPTION • JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME • LEAVE NO TRACE • MAN ON WIRE • MIDNIGHT IN PARIS • MONEYBALL • MOON • MUTUAL APPRECIATION • POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD • RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES • SLEEPWALK WITH ME • SOME DRINKING IMPLIED • TIM AND ERIC'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE • TRANSIT • TO ROME WITH LOVE • THE WICKER MAN • WINTER'S BONE • YOUTH IN REVOLT

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 300J - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 300L ⫸

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