NZIFF 2012 Review: ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’

Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild opened the 2012 New Zealand International Film Festival and I think it’s fair to say that the epic, magical journey of the 6 year old warrior-poet Hushpuppy and her beautiful, disintegrating bayou community at the edge of the world is literally the best movie ever.

Hushpuppy lives with her father in the Bathtub, a backwoods community in Louisiana that’s rich in culture but poverty stricken, cut-off from the mainland and being washed out by levee destruction. The world of the Bathtub is enviable in lots of ways – money doesn’t exist and there’s an abundance of seafood, festivals and neighbourliness. But with nature a constant threat, the inhabitants don’t take any of this for granted. The icebergs are crumbling, the storms and sharp-toothed mythical beasts are on their way, and behind every scene is this awesome sense of the world ending.

Beasts sure doesn’t hold back in letting bad things, and more bad things, happen to good people, but it’s how they act in the face of this that makes the characters and the film so triumphant. Hushpuppy, (Quvenzhané Wallis) the hero of the film, is overwhelmingly awesome: tender and heartbroken, independent and brave, she goes on adventures, wears gumboots every day, and has the best hair of anyone ever. She befriends giant prehistoric beasts, communes with little creatures, and is basically a tiny genius who gets the world in a way no one else does.

It‘s sort of impossible to describe the mad skills of Wallis as an actress, who was chosen out of 3,500 girls for the role, but it’s impossible to imagine Beasts without her. “I didn’t even know about acting,” Wallis said to Vulture.com about her performance. “That was just me [in Beasts]. Bored. Happy. Sad. Mad. Angry. Everything just popped out of me.”  The film’s small budget meant an equally unknown and awesome support cast. Like Hushpuppy’s ailing father Wink, played by the owner of a New Orleans’s Bakery & Café Dwight Henry.

Beasts of the Southern Wild took Sundance’s top Dramatic Grand Jury Prize award this year and Caméra d’Or at Cannes for best first film, proving how thoughtful, original stories and characters kick the ass of big budgets and superheroes and tired rehashed tales. I sincerely hope everyone watches this film, because Beasts is the best kind of reminder that no matter how much it sucks sometimes, the world is a magical place… and every now and then people are making intensely awesome films.

10/10