DVD of the Week: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Here’s a great movie unlike any you have seen before. A small girl and her dad live off the grid in a tiny hamlet on a Southern Louisiana tidal bayou. Responsible for their day-by-day survival by fishing and gathering, the dad is stressed, self-medicating and ailing. Then a killer hurricane threatens to obliterate their home, their way of life and them.

The story is told from the child’s point of view. The audience experiences both her reality as she understands it and, when she switches off reality, her imagination. In her mind, threats can take the form of prehistoric beasts called aurochs. Writer-director Benh Zeitlin shot the film from child height with a handheld camera, and used an entirely untrained cast. The result is a boisterous panoply that celebrates the indomitable human spirit.

In her first role, Quvenzhane Wallis carries the movie. She is on screen at least 70% of the time, and her performance is stirring. Zeitlin audaciously bet his debut feature on the performance of a six-year-old. He went all in and won the jackpot.

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a special film, and one of my Best Movies of 2012 – So Far. Universally critically acclaimed, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the first film award at Cannes.