Movie Review on "Beasts of The Southern Wild"

In this term, the first unit, "Pre-Production," allowed me and my peers to dive deep into what it takes to create a film. We watched several movies and discussed their costume designers’ and set designers’ inspiration. We came to the conclusion that movies aren't just a story, it also includes the setting and costumes. This unit made me respect the art of making the movie more. Even though, I hate when some of my favorite movies are called "bad" and "stupid" by critics, I have created my own Movie Review for the film, "Beasts of The Southern Wild."

Tribex. "Beasts of The Southern Wild." (2013)

"Beasts of The Southern Wild" is a film released in 2012. "Beasts of The Southern Wild" is a critically acclaimed movie that took the risk of hiring a 5 year-old girl as the lead. This film is about a little girl who is one with her homeland. She said in the film, "when it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces. I see that I'm a little piece of a big, big universe." This quote summarizes her as a character because her curiosity about the world drives her as a character throughout the film. She tries to interpret her own definition of life by going on a journey to become a man. Her father believes he should teach Hushpuppy to be a man because that’s the only way she can take his place and survive. This excellent drama-filled movie was created & produced by a man named Benh Zeitlin. The setting of the story was inspired by an assortment of different isolated fishing communities under attack by erosion, hurricanes, and rising sea levels. It is a tribute to places with such environments, specifically in Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. The inspiration of the screenplay was the one-act play, "Juicy and Delicious" from Alibar. Based on real-life inspiration for the film, it is no surprise that the content of the story had to be so strong.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” takes place in a bayou town in Louisiana, named “Bathtub”. It was filmed at a location in a Terrebonne Parish town in Montegut, Louisiana. The set design was effective in making the film more powerful and meaningful. The town appeared messy and unorganized which was a consistent tone for the entire film. The protagonist of the film, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) is a six year-old girl who is struggling to survive with her dad, Wink (name the actor) in their small community, the Bathtub. Hushpuppy dressed in a ragged white tank-top, ill-fitted jeans, and white tube socks throughout the entire movie shows that she has more important things to worry about than her appearance. However, there is a little flower on her shirt that gives her a sense of femininity despite her father’s persuasion for her to be a “man”. Young Hushpuppy(Quvenzhane Wallis) and her father Wink(Dwight Henry) are struggling to survive in their small community where they live off farmland and fish. Hushpuppy's intelligent mind seems to get her in trouble multiple times throughout the story. She questions how her existence affects the world as she goes on with her life. Her father has different plans for her. He believes that everyone should be a man. Wink gets really sick and refrains from telling Hushpuppy this. Hushpuppy realizes this and starts to remember that she was the one that initially caused the heart failure. She got so mad at her father that one day she hit his chest with force, using both hands and said, "I hope you die and after you die I'll go to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself." After this incident, Wink got sicker and sicker to the point where they were abducted by the outside people and he couldn't support himself anymore so he wasn't under care of others. After the two escape the outside place, they try to subsist off nothing in the place they once called home. The rest of the story is Hushpuppy trying to make her dad proud one last time by going on a journey to bring him food from a woman who is supposed to be her mother.

The protagonist is in fact, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis), the real actor playing the part of Hushpuppy. Quvenzhane is eleven now, but at the time they started filming she was only five years old. The antagonist could be a lot of things, but in my case, I'm going to pick nature. I feel as if nature made everything complex. If nature hadn't caused all these catastrophes, then there wouldn't have been as much stuff going on. It may have even saved Wink's life. Maybe the plot of events is what killed Wink. There was a lot going on.

The setting played an amazing part in making the film more powerful and meaningful. The movie was filmed in Terrebonne Parish town, Montegut. The producer, Court 13 made good use of props in making the land a lot more messy and unorganized. He did a good job because it made me feel as if this film was real, because I can relate. My room is dirty and Hushpuppy's land is her room so we are alike in some cases. I also feel as if the setting and clothes are both equally amazingly presented. The clothes worn in the film are amazing for the plot and fit the characters very well. Clothes describe the people's personalities. Hushpuppy has a flower shirt on showing her feminine side but she also doesn't quite care about her appearance in the movie, so she isn't afraid to get dirty.

Director Benh Zeitlin has not been working on anything new as far as my sources go but I believe this film is a definite MUST-SEE. I give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars! Very famous movie critics like Roger Ebert gave this movie 4 out of 5 stars. I really believe that this is an amazing film to share with others that are interested in evolution, adventure, love, and curiosity. This film allowed me to feel a lot of empathy for the characters, as if it was based on a true story! Go watch it now!

"Beasts of The Southern Wild" has earned a number of awards including:

• Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival
• Seattle International Film Festival's Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director
• Sutherland Trophy for Most Innovative Debut
• Nomination for Four Oscars, in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director (Benh Zeitlin), Best Actress (Quvenzhané Wallis), and Adapted Screenplay (Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin)

References:
"Beasts of The Southern Wild Movie Quotes," Movie and TV Quotes. Web, November 16th.
"Hushpuppy & Director," FlicksAndTheCity. Web, November 16th.
"Hushpuppy & Wink," HitFix. Web, November 16th.
"Beasts of The Southern Wild," bbfc. Web, November 16th.
"Quvenzhane. A small force of nature," Rogert Ebert. Web, November 16th.
"Beasts of The Southern Wild Info," Wiki. Web, November 18th.