‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’: I didn’t get it.

Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Just in case the world does end today, I need to get something off my chest, so I can go to my apocalyptic grave with an unburdened movie-loving conscience: I didn’t get Beasts of the Southern Wild.
When it started picking up mad buzz and heaps of festival awards earlier this year, Beasts of the Southern Wild shot up to the top of my to-see list. A visually-stunning, lyrical American fable centered on the breakout performance of a five-year-old powerhouse of a little girl? Sign me up!
I finally got the chance to see Beasts of the Southern Wild on an overnight transatlantic flight last fall, admittedly imperfect screening conditions. I fell asleep during my first attempt to watch it, lulled by its dreamlike qualities (on top of travel fatigue and a couple 187ml bottles of red wine). So I tried watching it again later in the flight, after the sun had come up. I managed to stay awake this time, but not awake enough to understand WHAT ON EARTH WAS GOING ON.
This is the part of the review where I should offer a brief synopsis of the film, but I didn’t understand what was happening enough to be able to adequately do so.  In my memory it goes something like this: Hushpuppy lives in The Bathtub, a simple swampy community isolated from the rest of society. Hushpuppy explains her worldview in poetic narration while Events Occur.
Here’s a few more half-remembered details, bolstered by some research into other reviews: Hushpuppy’s dad is also around, bouncing intermittently between neglect of and tough love survival training for Hushpuppy. And then there is a storm and a forced-evacuation from the suddenly-present government? And Hushpuppy and some other little girls go look for Hushpuppy’s mom, and may or may not find her? And then Hushpuppy wins a staring contest with a herd of gigantic prehistoric animals who floated over from the melting ice caps?
Hushpuppy vs. Auroch
Whaaaat? This all makes The Tree of Life seem like a straightforward piece of traditional storytelling.
What makes Beasts of the Southern Wild so elusive is that it is told from the perspective of its young protagonist, Hushpuppy (played by Quvenzhané Wallis, only five years old at the time of filming). Wallis really is a magnetic screen presence, and I wanted to love this movie on the basis of her captivating performance alone. But I also wanted to know what was happening. The sci-fi fan in me was too distracted by the unanswered questions (among them: what year is it?) resulting from the sidelined world-building of The Bathtub to fully invest in the character-driven, loosely-structured story in Beasts, no matter how engaging I found Wallis’s tiny tour de force.
“Even as you watch the film, you might not understand or fully comprehend the meaning of the unusual plot. But let its poetic beauty, emotions and raw honesty wash over you. Let it sink in.” 
I tried. I want to support experimental narratives. I want to support films that showcase marginalized groups like children, women, and people of color (Hushpuppy is a triple threat!). I want to be intellectual enough, patient enough, film-lover enough and feminist enough to enjoy Beasts of the Southern Wild, but I was not.
So if this is the end of days, at least I will go out honestly. Do you have any cinematic confessions to share with the class while you still have the chance?

3 thoughts on “‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’: I didn’t get it.”

  1. LOL this is MUCH better than the tree of life, because there’s an actual story here. it’s told in the point of view of the little girl, so a lot of what you’re seeing is over-dramatized or under-dramatized to reflect her way of digesting the horrors around her. i thought it was beautiful.

  2. I totally agree with you. I felt like the movie was pretty much a waste of time. I didn’t feel emotionally connected to the film even though I know thats what it was maybe designed to do. I think it was the fact that there was much to be desired in the character development dept. I didn’t know who any of these people were! There was no back story, not enough dialogue between characters for me to feel connected..or in other words, care. Maybe I missed something but I didn’t get why this movie got all the attention it did. I too was very excited to see a movie with a little girl protagonist. But it made me feel nothing and on top of not knowing what was going on, it all seemed very blah. I wanted to feel something-i really did but I think if only they developed the characters more or made the audience get to know ONE of the characters really well, it would have been worth it. I wasn’t sure if i should feel bad for the characters because they lived in such extreme poverty but mostly I was just confused.

Comments are closed.