Review of Beasts of the Southern Wild

I saw "Beasts of the Southern Wild" In it, poor whites and blacks struggle to survive in a hardscrabble hamlet--"hardscrabble" barely describes the place--on the Louisiana coast, caught between the expanding chemical plants and oil refineries of the mainland on the one hand and the storms of the Gulf of the Gulf of Mexico on the other. The story is seen through the eyes of--and told in the voice of--a six-year-old black girl being raised by her ailing and alcoholic father. Through her radical innocence, child's imaginativeness, and innate intelligence, the girl strives to deal with premature experiences, familial chaos, menacing outside forces, and natural disasters. The film is somewhat similar to those of Terrence Malick ("Days of Heaven," "Tree of Life") in that it is a kind of beautifully photographed documentary infused with "magical realism." The settings and production design are amazing, and the soundtrack--composed by the director/co-writer from jazz, classical, and soundscape elements--is wonderful. The performance by Q. Wallis as the girl is phenomenal. "performance" isn't even the right word. "Embodiment" would be better, and not just because Wallis is a six-year-old girl. If you watch her facial expressions change, you will see that they are perfectly attuned to whatever scene she is in. Her father is also played well--by a man from the area who rehearsed after working his night stint as a baker. Interestingly, the film is also simultaneously a parable that can appeal to both left and right. Corporate power is not viewed positively, and there is a global warming element. But government bureaucracy of the "we're here to help" kind is also viewed unfavorably, and the film is "colorblind." The characters, though poor, do not see themselves as "victims" and are not depicted that way; race is not an issue; and both blacks and whites stand in solidarity to save the way of life of their"messy," very messy, community. Altogether, this low-budget, independent film is a welcome break from the CGI, 3-D, comic-book superheroes, and violent action of the dominant Hollywood universe.