Distrustful of technology, government, and the modern
amenities I’m sucking dry just typing this sentence, the group lives by its own rules. They wish to live alone, to fish and party, the latter often to extreme. Their homes are trashed, the children unwashed, food is eaten raw, and booze is plentiful. Judge them if you wish, they have no concern for our titles, names, or finger-wagging judgments. Yet,
every person is family, no matter their age or skin color. The community is iron tight, and cares for one another deeply. Then a hurricane barges in and
floods the make-shift town, drowning some, and sending others to retreat to the
“outside” world. Those that remain survive on a make-shift trailer/boat.
Life will get more difficult for all, especially Hushpuppy. Wink and
some other men attempt to blow a hole in a nearby levee as they want to reclaim their
homes from high water, and bury their dead mates as well as their livestock. The dangerous and darkly comical action brings the community satisfaction, but briefly. Federal officials move in, mandating an
evacuation.
It’s telling that screenwriters Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
neither condemn nor condone the invading authorities as it’s a near relief to
see Hushpuppy delivered from such astounding -– to our spoiled mainstream American
sensibilities -– poverty. The Bathtub residents, most of them, of course, flee. To our horror, and a bit of relief, too.
There’s another tick: Wink is dying. I can
only guess from septicemia fueled by long-term alcohol poisoning as the man has a
profound drinking problem that sends him away for days. Then
Hushpuppy -– wiser than her years, and accustomed to inch-by-inch survival --
is left on her own to cook, clean, and care for several pigs,
chickens, and dogs. She talks to her absent mother, and also chillingly imagines as only a lonely child can, prehistoric beasts breaking free of the Antarctic ice and coming to kill her. (A story of Climate Change has sent her into paranoia.) These
beasts for all intent and purposes are real to not just Hushpuppy, but our eyes as well, and in the final scenes we witness
their wrath.
As with the
harshest tale of childhood from Dickens and Twain, “Beasts” puts a child through
a meat grinder that is difficult to stomach. It's telling that her most safe, secure moments come later on a floating house of, shall we call it ill repute? See, there I go judging. That is not the place for such an act. Alibar and Zeitlin pull no punches. And Hushpuppy's struggle feels desperately real. The documentary vibe comes
from the film being shot on location with handheld 16-mm cameras, using all
nonprofessional actors.
Wallis and Henry are unknown to us, so we have no
perceived baggage from other films, and they are amazing to watch. Their every action, cruel and kind, feel captured. Not scripted. Early in the film, Wink strikes the girl, and every one in the theater flinched hard. Hushpuppy retaliates by punching her
father in the heart, wishing aloud his death, and he collapses, and the audience flinched again,
harder. This is not Disney, not by a mile. In a just world our leads would each carry an Oscar home this coming season.
It’s a shocking, enlightening film to witness, with a final scene that
leaves us gulping. I have read so many critical stabs
at the film for being light in story, but I never minded that. This
fictional tale is a record of a tumultuous life of one amazing girl who puts
her ears to the chests of animals and family to hear their heartbeats, and fears
the end of the world. She could be the girl next door, in any neighborhood in America. But she exists in a place no cameras or politicians go, an America never discussed at, say, a multi-billion dollar political National Convention. It’s a film difficult to shake, upsetting to the core, and hopeful, and funny, too. I look
forward to going back to re-experience this story. A
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