Beasts of the Southern Wild - 3 1/2 smiles

“Beasts of the Southern Wild,” directed by Benh Zeitlin who mixes magic and reality with a definite sense of place, is a challenging yet hugely rewarding film. Most memorable is Quvenzhané Wallis, a 6-year-old with no acting experience who is unforgettable as the film’s fierce young protagonist and narrator. Hushpuppy and her frequently drunk father Wink (Dwight Henry) live in adjoining, junk-filled shacks in a dilapidated Louisiana Delta community that’s been cut off from New Orleans – and the world – by an enormous levee. Wink, who knows he’s dying, has been trying to prepare Hushpuppy to survive on her own since her mother ‘swam away.’  According to Miss Bathsheba (Gina Montana), a teacher, medicine woman and mother to Hushpuppy, aurochs, prehistoric beasts, have been freed from their icy graves by man’s thoughtless actions. They serve as a harbinger of doom for Hushpuppy and Wink’s tiny community called The Bathtub, itself an allegorical stand-in for pre-Katrina New Orleans. Soon a flood swamps this impoverished but vibrant community, whose members float in beat-up boats waiting for the waters to recede, only to be herded into an emergency shelter when they do. At this point, Wink’s declining condition has forced Hushpuppy to take full charge, which she does in ways that are touching and inspiring.

Young Quvenzhané Wallis, chosen from 3,500 candidates to play the tiny heroine, is a marvel. Dwight Henry, owner of the Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Café in New Orleans, had to be convinced to take the role of Wink. Though inexperienced, he hits just the right notes as Hushpuppy’s gruff father. Another standout in the locally recruited cast of nonprofessional actors is Gina Montana. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is an uplifting story of great humanism as it focuses on the tenacity of a group of people nearly undone by a powerful storm. 6/28/12