In Benh Zeitlin's magical, moving, revelation of a film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, characters that many of us would consider the reddest of rednecks live in disgusting, abject poverty. They literally sleep on top of trash. Their clothes are ratty and covered in dirt and filth. Yet, the director asks us to believe that they are happy. We (and by "we", I mean most anyone who has shelter, a place to shower, healthy food, and possibly an Internet connection) have difficulty believing that there can be anything other than misery and pain while living in such conditions. Yet we are asked to believe that with such poverty comes a certain dignity and community that cannot be replaced with nice clothes, nice cars, and safe, stable homes.
I had a hard time believing it, I'll tell you that. I would take a safe, clean home and running water over "The Bathtub" any day. The Bathtub is what the residents of the waterlogged, Southern Louisiana community call their town. Beasts takes place in this town in the not to distant future, where global warming is a fact of life, the ice caps are melting, and big chunks of Florida and Louisiana are all but under water.
While most everyone has moved north to avoid the storms and constant flooding, the Bathtub residents have decided to stick it out until...well, until they're underwater. Even if that means having to construct motorized boats out of the backs of dismantled pick-up trucks to glide around in after the storms. Such stubborn refusal to relocate somewhere safer is difficult to believe, especially since some of the Bathtubbers are young children.
Hushpuppy is one such child. She is a motherless six-year-old girl with an unstable, sick daddy who somehow manages to be braver and wiser than many of the adults around her. Quvenzahane Wallis plays Hushpuppy, and her performance is just unbelievable. Hushpuppy is an old soul; acutely attuned to nature. She has a habit of picking up creatures--birds, farm animals, etc--and listening for a heartbeat in their chests. When the ancient beasts that give this movie its title start to roam the land, it is Hushpuppy who is unafraid to face them.
The only thing that Hushpuppy is not equipped to handle is life outside the Bathtub. After a forced evacuation of the area, Hushpuppy and the other Bathtubbers are taken to a stark white shelter that feels more menacing than safe. The 'Tubbers desperately want to return to their warm, wet home, despite its dirtiness and danger.
Although I couldn't relate to the 'Tubbers and their love for their flooded hometown, I was touched by the film's suggestion that home is where one chooses to make it, and the freedom to do so is ultimately more important than safety, convenience, and even life itself. Beasts is a bizarrely patriotic film, given that we live in a country where patriotism is now something you can purchase at Walmart [or Chick-Fil-A ;)].
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a singular film. It is a fairy tale without the glass slipper and the fairy godmother. It's a patriotic film about the very people who are considered lowest on the totem poll of America. It's a film that says inner strength is what makes someone human, not clean clothes and a warm bed. It's a celebration of the human spirit that doesn't put humans on a pedestal above nature.
5 out of 5 stars
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