Part of me doesn't really want to say much about Beasts of the Southern Wild. The film, which is the directorial debut by Benh Zeitlin, is one of those unique, magical experiences that is best gone into totally cold. But then again, if people just listen to the basic plot synopsis, chances are nobody would go see it. So it's important to give a little bit of context, and describe the film's texture, the world it inhabits.
The story takes place in a rundown, water world version of New Orleans known as The Bathtub. It's a place where a close knit community have come together to survive using the old ways they learned back when the world was normal, before the flooding. It's a rough life, full of incredible hardship and pain, but in that there's also magic. We see the film through the eyes of a brave, rebellious little girl named Hushpuppy, who toughs it out alongside her father, who has more than his own share of issues to deal with. That's all I'm going to say, but there's so much more to it than that. To say that the film is poetic is to do it an injustice. To simply call it a coming of age story is to do it an injustice. To call it a fairy tale adventure is to do it an injustice. It's all of those things and so much more, and the performance by Quvenzhané Wallis as Hushpuppy is one of a kind.
A new clip has been released from early on in the film, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what you're in store for. Beasts of the Southern Wild will hit theaters on June 27th....
