Cornerhouse LiveWire Young Film Critic James Martin reviews Beasts of the Southern Wild
Hushpuppy is young, feral and remarkably intuitive. She spends her time listening to the heartbeats of animals, remarking on the fact that every living thing is, “speaking a language that she cannot understand”. She does not know what they are saying, but most of the time, she supposes “they are just hungry.”
Such is the simple logic of an inquisitive mind. Hushpuppy (in a remarkable debut performance from Quvenzhané Wallis) lives in a place called ‘the Bathtub’ with her daddy, Wink – an ignorant and hot-tempered but caring man who insists that whatever comes, the Bathtub is their home, and they will not leave.
The Bathtub is a small bayou community inhabiting an area of low-lying land that is in danger of flooding if (or perhaps more accurately, when) the storms come. As the weather begins to change, the fiercely perceptive and independent Hushpuppy has to come to terms with the possibility of losing her home and her father (to a fast developing illness). In the meantime, somewhere in the South Pole, the ice caps are melting, ancient creatures called ‘Aurochs’ are once more coming to life, and they are slowly making their way to the Bathtub.
Part coming-of-age story, part fairytale and part melodrama, this curious and wonderful hybrid of a movie is bursting with poetry, cinematographic genius and profound humanity. It is by no means a children’s film; it is a journey of discovery like no other, an exploration of one girl’s childhood and her growing independence in the face of drastic change (this is a fairytale specifically for the global warming generation). Full of warmth and humour, it spares us the sugary sentimentality that it could so easily have descended into; thus when we cry (and I have to say that you’ll be hard pressed to find a dry eye in the house at the end of this one), we do not feel cheated.
The performances and the dialogue ring with authenticity; and then, there is always the possibility of magic. Filled with truly haunting, beautiful scenes, this is one of the most moving and hopeful films to be released this year.