beasts of the southern wild

i love movies as much as i love the rest of the things i post here on Summer Teeth. i want to be better at sharing the ones that make me stop and say "hey, that was freaking awesome."

the level of revelry and ecstatic commotion with which Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by newcomer Benh Zeitlin, starts with is enough to catch your breath in your throat. it's a good forecasting of the rest of the movie, which tells the emotional, delightful, zany story of a mostly-forgotten but still kickin' Louisiana Bayou community called The Bathtub in the wake of a sizable natural disaster.

despite some pretty heavy socio-political undercurrents ("Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together"), the film doesn't pander, but rather holds tightly to your heartstrings as it spins the tale of a father readying his young daughter for the end of the world (for him, at least, and maybe for others too. We're never quite sure what's going on in the world of and beyond The Bathtub). the cast, composed largely of nonprofessional locals - and one incredible 8 year-old named Quvenzhané Wallis - is truly enough reason to see the film. the way it makes your eyes swim and your heart swell as you take in the crazy beautiful visuals, and the strange, gorgeous story, is another.



go on, see it.