Beasts of the Southern Wild

By Harry McPhaul

          All in all I was pleased to have watched Beasts of the Southern Wild.  At first it felt like a documentary that depicted a group people living in a post Hurricane Katrina environment away from society.  It turned out to be the struggles of one little girl with her father and growing up.  She has to clearly see, although she never says anything until almost the end of the film her father getting sicker and sicker until he eventually passes away.

          This was one of the best parts to the film.  The relationship between Wink (father) and Hushpuppy (daughter) always seemed to be one or two words away from verbal abuse.  Wink only actually hit her once but he was constantly yelling at her due to emotional outbreaks.  Hushpuppy was probably around 11 and was under the constant stress of trying to become her own person but also not upsetting her father.

          Although Wink was endlessly yelling at Hushpuppy, it was not always negative.  He even went along with one of her tantrums and started throwing things around like her.  This lead to the two laughing it off and all was forgiven.  In some of the scenes in which Hushpuppy is shown talking to a very sick Wink the dialogue seemed to get a little boring. 

          One of the flaws I had with this movie was how some of the scenes dragged on.  For instance, throughout we see clips of a few Aurochs.  Aurochs are prehistoric animals Hushpuppy learns about in school.  In the film they are too shown to represent that nature has no mercy.  There was short video of them in what seemed like almost random spots of the film.  I felt as though they were shown in excess.

          Overall, I did like the film.  I liked how it was a different story about post Katrina rather than some who got back on their feet and are rebuilding their life in a modern society.  Even though some of the scenes went on a little too long it was still a moving film.  I would recommend this film.  I would give it a 7.5/10.