Opening this Friday: Beasts of the Southern Wild
The warmly received Beasts of the Southern Wild boasts an impressive list of critical acclaim. Since emerging with a grand jury prize from the Sundance Film Festival and the Camera d’Or award in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival, the film has racked up plaudits from the Boston Globe, Slate, and SF Gate, among plenty others.
The film uses magical realism to tell the story of young Hushpuppy, played by six-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, who lives in a small settlement, The Bathtub, clinging for life behind a levy in Louisiana–a plot point, of course, that plays against our collective memory of Hurricane Katrina and its horrible aftermath. The film marks the directorial debut of Benh Zeitlin, who, thankfully, may be the American director who closes our quality-magical-realism gap (see: Jeunet, del Toro, and Gondry). Sorry, Spike Jonze.
Beasts of the Southern Wild opens locally at the Fargo Theatre this Friday.
