Skip to main content

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Probably the strangest Oscar nominee of the last few years, this movie takes a look at the love, anger and fight for survival between a dirt poor little girl named Hushpuppy and her father Wink.  They live in what looks to be some sort of island off the gulf coast known as  The Bathtub. The people here, all seem to have a story that binds them, yet we never hear it.  We don't know how they got there, but they are there and they are surviving off the land, much like our ancestors. They aren't wanted by 'civilized" and they don't want them in return.  When the two do finally meet, there is no understanding of each others world.

The movie is really a metaphor for us growing together, living and loving together and how if one of us breaks the Earth, it breaks it for everyone.  On the surface it's a beautiful, if not painful tale about a little girl who will never have, but is fine with what she  does have, as long as she has her father.  She longs for a mother she never really knew, but who through stories and dreams, has become a beacon (literally at times in the movie) of hope.  The movie fails in that we're constantly worried about this child, but we grow to know that she is stronger that any of us will be. It succeed in giving those of us who struggle a voice and a message.  It fails desperately in it's climactic scene, where we see the outcome coming a mile away, thanks to a very familiar commercial, but succeeds in allowing the father and child, and  i assume the audience, to let go.  In the end, it succeeds, because  Hush Puppy is the wondrous child in all of us, looking to survive, but more importantly, looking to make her mark on this world and become part of it and it's history.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo
10 comments
Read more

11 Rules of Life - Bill Gates?

I read this on Facebook this morning.  A friend had posted it and said that every child should have to receive this. I of course read it and started to think.  I immediately wondered who really wrote this, as I rarely see things like this attributed to the proper person.  I immediately found it was written by Conservative Charles J. Sykes when he wrote a book about how America is dumbing down our youth.  I read it twice and started to wonder how true it was.  Below is a link to the actual picture I saw. So let's look at each of the rules and analyze them. Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it! - Life is not fair in that we are not all afforded the same opportunities based on race, creed, color, socio-economic background, but in general, those who are afforded the same opportunities to succeed are very often rewarded for their individual efforts.  Sure there may be underlying circumstances, but hard work is proven to pay more often than not and those who strive for succ
Post a Comment
Read more

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her
7 comments
Read more