Viewed in
2013
Formats
HDTV
Premise
Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.
Liked
Performances, distinct world, characters.
Disliked
Cinematography quality.
Thoughts
I liked it, but didn't love it.
The performances were strong, especially Quvenzhané Wallis as Hushpuppy and Dwight Henry as Wink. They were convincing as father and daughter living in this forgotten community. Their performances at times were haunting and visceral, although I thought Wallis' nomination was a bit gimmicky due to her age.
I also enjoyed the complex father-daughter relationship, strained to the edge from poverty, alcoholism, and being ignored by mainstream America. Both characters were multi-dimensional that added a lot of humanity to the story. Wallis' Hushpuppy was intelligent, tough, yet vulnerable on her path to coming-of-age. My favorite moments were when the audience got to dive into Hughpuppy's lonely imagination, as she talked to her imaginary mother.
The minor characters were a motley crew, evoking a family-like society in an isolated corner of the country. A lot of that mood was also due to the gorgeous set designs and real locations. That enhanced the stark contrast to the devastating, haunting hurricane aftermath scenes. I never felt like it was getting up on its soapbox about climate change, it just showed the local ecological effects in a very dramatic way.
To me, the story of how it got made contributed to its best picture nomination. From a story-telling standpoint, it seemed to wander quite a bit, and indulged itself into that (albeit unique and wonderous) world.
But the biggest issue for me was the inferior cinematography. Sure, the small budget with ambitiously epic visuals jacked up the degree of difficulty, but there's only so much of bad lighting and focus that I could excuse before it became a distraction. Last but not least, I also have to point out that the constant shaky-handheld camera was a thorn in my side.
Beasts of the Southern Wild was an impressive feat thanks to the incredible world it created with memorable characters and moments. Pity they weren't good enough to overcome the technical shortcomings.
