So I'm reviewing this movie 4 years after it's release. I did not see it 4 years ago, I saw it tonight on TV. (27/12/16). The reviews for this film are amazing, 86% on rotten tomatoes. 7.3 on IMDb. 4/4 by Roger Ebert. So why did I not enjoy as everyone else did? As always, a pro's and con's list.PROS -Dwight Henry is mind blowing in this film. He had me captivated, scared, sorrowful and was in my opinion much better then Quvenzhane Wallis, who was good too, but Dwight Henry deserved an Oscar Nomination much more then her.The Music is outstanding, emotional and filled with triumph and woe. Outstanding. Once again an Oscar Nomination would've been nice.Originality, this movie certainly is original. Balancing old filming techniques (We'll get to some of them later) with an original script to keep it leveled.Overall these three pro's allowed this film to get a 6 in my books, now onto the cons.CONS -Shaky cam. Oh my god the shaky cam was unreal. At first I enjoyed then my eyes hurt then I felt sick. I was actually glad the channel I was watching it on had ads, I needed a break from that shaky cam.Confusion. Now maybe I'm dumb or didn't understand the film. But a lot of it had me confused. Why and how did Hushpuppy and the other kids get to the boat. Why were they going to a small town with a brothel?. How did they get back? What was the point of that whole bit. I was very confused at this. I think I will need to watch it a second time.Underwhelming. The reviews for this called it a "masterpiece" a "cinematic triumph". Now I DID shed a tear at one point. When Wink and Hushpuppy share final words brought me to a tear or two. But other then that, I didn't feel any emotional connection with THE STORY, not the characters but the Story. Yes they were in a deprived community but I just didn't feel as emotional as some other reviewers did/do.Overall, I have mixed feelings of this film. The story is kind of confusing, some moments are pointless and odd (The point of the Aurochs failed to hit me) yet moments with Dwight Henry and the music lifted me. But I just didn't love it as others did, maybe it was because I did not understand it as well as others. On paper, this sounds like my kind of film and I have been DYING to see it. This film definitely disappointed me, which I am really sad about but it is not by any means a terrible film, I just feel that the reviews and the hype may have been to much and I was just underwhelmed. But my hat goes of to Dwight Henry. Amazing performance, you were robbed of an Oscar my friend.

What would it be like to live in the middle of a swamp, in a post Katrina or post apocalyptic world? What if you saw this world from the imagination/reality of a child. That's where I arrived when I opened my eyes to the film, Beast of the Southern Wild. The film opens in a celebration with the people of the "Bathtub", a community living in the middle of the Mississippi delta, inside of a levee. This community is a hodgepodge of races, cultures, the eclectic, and the strange. The narrator of this unusual story is Hushpuppy, a tough, spunky, and independent six year old girl, who is raised by her equally tough but slightly off father, Wink.As I watched this film, I couldn't tell where realty crossed to fantasy or when fantasy reawakened again to reality. In between listening to the heartbeat of every animal she came upon, or hand fishing with her father, Hushpuppy envisioned the escape of prehistoric beasts, released from melting polar ice caps. For her, the universe had to always be in balance, and the escape of these beasts represented just that. The film moved as it were visual poetry, weaving in and out of realism and the fantastic mind of a child. I wonder if adults would have the flexibility to still absorb or understand the idealism of such an imagination.For a first time effort, director and writer Benh Zeitlin runs full blast into a visually stunning, epic, and artistic piece. It's also hard to believe that the stars of the film, Dwight Henry(Wink) , and the truly amazing Quvenzhané Wallis(Hushpuppy) were just regular people discovered in Louisiana. This film will either disappoint with its confusion, entrance you with its artistry, or leave you longing to understand its meaning. But whatever you take from this film, I hope that you would appreciate the remarkable talent of Quvenzhané Wallis, in a performance that I hope will be awarded come Oscar time.

An imaginative and beautifully shot film about a coming of age story. A story that follows the six-year-old Hushpuppy is told front such an interesting point of view as the line between reality and imagination is so blurred in the eyes of our main protagonist. It is a journey of finding courage and also love. The film was beautifully shot completed with an amazing performance from a child actress. It is interesting to see this character having all of these connections to the world around her, and her perhaps more primitive outlooks on these social archetypes that we perhaps hold our own views of. This film takes modern societies outlooks on rules, nature and machinery and turns it all around from a point of view of a young child. A Lot of these events are magical and wonderous while others are disjointed and nonsensical. But really, other than the performance and this innovative 'point of view' this film lacks in many ways too. Especially with the overall flow of the movie, many scenes can be incoherent and mismatched making it overall quite confusing. The idea is at the right place surely but the execution in terms of the scene by scene can really make the film seem pointless although it is a shame because behind this there is such a story to be told. I do believe that this could have and should have been done a lot better. I also found myself quite disoriented and nauseated at times by the hand held camera technique which may be argued was the whole point, but really? Overall an alright film with some beautiful scenes and an amazing idea/story to be told but poor and misleading execution of the film may be its downfall.

I will begin by saying that I went into this film with an open mind. I was expecting a good movie, some people had told me it was great and some had said just OK. I also have watched this a total of three times just in case I wasn't picking up on something. So, when I say with absolute certainty that this movie is absolute filth I say this from an unbiased position. Some small independent films do a good jib of portraying the raw emotion of the struggle of people through their use of new and unprofessional actors. Let me be clear, this is not one. Each actor does his or her own work bringing the entire film down by offering unnatural lines delivered dryly. All in all, they are extremely unconvincing in their parts. And, if we talk about this using "The Method" then these actors should be really good because this is their life, but it is far from the case. This film whirls you into a dizzying array of shots and weird angles shown from the perspective of a small child. But, this film does just that, it makes the viewer dizzy by using solely hand-held techniques that offer nothing other than nausea. Also, being told from the view of a young child could be an effective story telling technique if done well. Sadly, this film just comes across as unintelligent and portrays the world in a way that disregards all other factors. It fails to even recognize that it is told as if from a young girl, which just seems lazily done and confusing. Adding to this overall negative effect is the weird buffalo things. This film disregards all science and focuses on scare tactics to push its left wing propaganda concerning climate a change on viewers by showing a terrified, cute little girl who is helpless in the shadow of these beasts. They also characterize the people in "The Shower" as beasts. This is because they are self centered and narcissistic and believe that they are impervious to everything. This belief that they are better than their "evil system" is exactly what makes this movie so bad. As an expert film critic, I do not recommend the waste of time that is this movie.