Beasts of the Southern Wild

Starring: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry

Directed by: Benh Zeitlin

Rating: I Didn't Like It

I watched this movie, because I had yet to see any of the Oscar contenders for Best Picture.  It's not often that I watch many of the films on that prestigious list until after the awards ceremony, mainly because I've never heard of most of them until then.  I do try to see at least a couple, not because I feel like I should, but because at least one or two of them look good.

Of last year's nominees, I watched two: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - which I enjoyed so much that I bought the book, but haven't finished it, yet - and Moneyball and both were really good.  If we go another year back to 2011, a year where movies that were popular with audiences also seemed to be popular with critics, a rarity that happened in 2010 also, I watched five of the nominees, Black Swan, Inception, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, and True Grit.  The year before that was about the same percentage watched for me.  

All that to say this...  I'm not opposed to watching movies that are up for big awards.  I'm not opposed to what many will call "artsy" pictures, either.  I enjoy all different kinds of movies, but this one wasn't one of them.  Beasts fits directly into that stereotype of movies that critics love and the average moviegoer doesn't understand or isn't interested in watching.  

The movie, on its face, is about a young girl, Hushpuppy (Wallis), and her father, Wink (Henry), and their life and struggles living in the "bathtub", a bayou community that is flooded by melting ice caps, all the while, the pair is dealing with Wink's fading health.  There's a horrible flood that runs most of the community out of the area, but Wink and Hushpuppy are among the ones to stay.  Wink and some of the other men go to blow up the levy to release the water. 

 After the water recedes, emergency evacuation crews come to remove the people still living there.  They eventually escape this evacuation and return to their homes.  Hushpuppy and some of her friends then swim away to be picked up by a tugboat captain who takes them with him to a very questionable establishment.  They eventually make it back home - I'm not sure how or why all this happened exactly, because I'd completely lost interest by this point - and somehow the movie ends.  

Oh yeah, there are these beasts, yup, the ones mentioned int he title, that we get glimpses of throughout the movie running across the countryside, making what we can only assume is a straight line to Hushpuppy's bathtub home.  They are part of a story told by her teacher, obviously a legend intended to keep children in line.  ::POSSIBLE SPOILER Highlight to Read::  I thought that they were imaginary and only appeared in her mind until Hushpuppy confronts them in front of everyone toward the end of the film.  

In conclusion, I'm sure that all of the people and situations and creatures were intended to represent some bigger issues and concerns.  I'm not against this at all.  I really enjoyed Pleasentville, and it was a very transparent view into many events of America's past most people would like to forget.  Beyond the blatant satyrical retelling of the American 50s and 60s, though, there are plenty of movies where the "bigger picture" reaches beyond the characters to speak about issues like race, gender equality, environmental issues an more that are good movies.  Regardless, even if that's the case with this film, I couldn't stay interested in it long enough to know or care.  

Between the unfamiliar way of life and language, the ridiculousness of the side story, and the pigheadedness of the characters, I just couldn't enjoy this one at all.  I can only imagine myself watching one other of the nominees for Best Picture this year, and I'm pretty sure it definitely covers the issue of race.