Beasts of the Southern Wild

"Sometimes, they speak in code."

Heather and I just watched this movie. Aside from our seating (second row left -- serious neck cramps and some reaction to camera shake) it was great.

Enough glowing reviews (two links; check'em both) have been written about this movie that I do not need to add my own. Instead, I want to lay out some other films to pair with this one. In no particular order:

Where the Wild Things Are

In Beasts' long cold-open, there is a bit where Hushpuppy leads her neighbors in a glowing parade, everyone holding sparklers or roman candles (watch the scene with director's commentary here). The camera dollies alongside them, through a wooded mise-en-scene while joyful, folksy music plays in the background. I was reminded of the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, and where that movie failed, this movie succeeds. It is a stretch, but I would even suggest that Beasts of the Southern Wild is a better adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are (the book) than the movie version was. Plus, the monsters in Beasts are fiercer and more mysterious, just like Sendak would've wanted.

O Brother, Where Art Thou

Only in the last half did the similarities with O Brother make themselves evident to me: The importance of a dam and a flood. The journey away from and then back towards home. The persistence of the unjust Law. Whereas the other movies on this list share thematic or stylistic similarities, Beasts and O Brother line up with regard to their inspiration in the Odyssey; the eternal journey towards home (which cannot be separated from mother, as Freud and Hushpuppy would remind us).

Aurochsen

Works of Werner Herzog

It takes guts to include prehistoric creatures in a movie (see below), and as soon as Bathsheba rolled up her skirt to show her Aurochs tattoo, I was reminded of Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The denizens of the Bathtub are, in some ways, akin to the prehistoric artists who populate the background of Cave. But it is not just his most recent work that leads me to connect Herzog to Beasts. He has been quoted numerous times saying that we need new images in our movies; new ways of seeing that undo visual cliche. Beasts does this, revealing new things in such a way that to describe what the movie is about does it a disservice. It must be seen.

Dinosaur

Tree of Life

I place this movie last on this list because 1) it is the closest in release date to Beasts, and 2) it is the most obvious comparison. Both movies employ the visual language of the poem more than the average narrative film does. Both concern themselves with The Universe; Tree of Life with its beginning, Beasts with its end ("kinda," to quote Hushpuppy). Both include prehistoric creatures. Both are about nature and grace, and how they play themselves out in childhood. 

As you can see, there's a lot going on here. Enough that you should probably just go watch Beasts of the Southern Wild and then compare it to other movies that you've seen. Let me know what you think. Here's the trailer if you need more convincing.