I cannot recall ever feeling more ambivalent about a film. Having read the reviews and seen the trailer, and having heard nothing but praise from those who'd seen this movie, I was really looking forward to seeing it myself.
So let's start with the good things, of which there are several. The atmosphere of the film is literally marvellous. We are immediately transported to an almost post- apocalyptic environment - the Bathtub - that is a steamy, waterlogged, mucky place and that is a wonderland for a young girl with a vivid imagination and an adventurous spirit. Able to move around with little or no adult supervision, but for the intermittent intrusion of a drunken, dying father, Hushpuppy can revel in nature and create fantasies that sustain her in her squalid surroundings.
The story is always interesting, taking bizarre and unexpected twists and turns. The other side of that assessment (and here comes my ambivalence) is that the plot seems to be made up as it goes along. There is certainly no clean narrative thread, and the unifying motifs - the oryx (aurochs?), the heartbeats of the beasts (humans most certainly included), the Gatsby-like lighthouse to which Hushpuppy speaks as if it were her absent mother - can seem more or less forced.
And there is fact that these are not professional actors. Even if we were unaware, the performances of the two leads are truly extraordinary. Wallis in particular, who is in virtually every scene, is riveting and has a greater screen presence than any number of top Hollywood actors I can think of. An Oscar nomination is, or ought to be, inevitable.
Parenthetically, it's interesting that two films this year - this one and What Maisie Knew which I saw recently at TIFF - are both tales of dysfunctional families told from the constant perspective of precocious six-year old girls, both of whom provide unbelievably fine performances.
So what's wrong with Beasts? Maybe it is just my own political correctness, but I couldn't help feeling throughout that we were watching the most reprehensible stereotypes of the Southern poor. The characters in the Bathtub with whom we are asked to empathize are, to a person, illiterate, shiftless, violent, besotted rubes who are too dumb to get out of the way of a freight train. I exaggerate, of course, but not by that much. Making it worse is the knowledge that we're not watching professional actors, but rather the residents who are called upon to play caricatures of themselves.
It may take me a while, and another viewing, to reconcile my feelings about this movie. One thing I will say, though: this is a remarkable achievement for a first-time 29 year-old director and we should all be looking forward to his next work.
So let's start with the good things, of which there are several. The atmosphere of the film is literally marvellous. We are immediately transported to an almost post- apocalyptic environment - the Bathtub - that is a steamy, waterlogged, mucky place and that is a wonderland for a young girl with a vivid imagination and an adventurous spirit. Able to move around with little or no adult supervision, but for the intermittent intrusion of a drunken, dying father, Hushpuppy can revel in nature and create fantasies that sustain her in her squalid surroundings.
The story is always interesting, taking bizarre and unexpected twists and turns. The other side of that assessment (and here comes my ambivalence) is that the plot seems to be made up as it goes along. There is certainly no clean narrative thread, and the unifying motifs - the oryx (aurochs?), the heartbeats of the beasts (humans most certainly included), the Gatsby-like lighthouse to which Hushpuppy speaks as if it were her absent mother - can seem more or less forced.
And there is fact that these are not professional actors. Even if we were unaware, the performances of the two leads are truly extraordinary. Wallis in particular, who is in virtually every scene, is riveting and has a greater screen presence than any number of top Hollywood actors I can think of. An Oscar nomination is, or ought to be, inevitable.
Parenthetically, it's interesting that two films this year - this one and What Maisie Knew which I saw recently at TIFF - are both tales of dysfunctional families told from the constant perspective of precocious six-year old girls, both of whom provide unbelievably fine performances.
So what's wrong with Beasts? Maybe it is just my own political correctness, but I couldn't help feeling throughout that we were watching the most reprehensible stereotypes of the Southern poor. The characters in the Bathtub with whom we are asked to empathize are, to a person, illiterate, shiftless, violent, besotted rubes who are too dumb to get out of the way of a freight train. I exaggerate, of course, but not by that much. Making it worse is the knowledge that we're not watching professional actors, but rather the residents who are called upon to play caricatures of themselves.
It may take me a while, and another viewing, to reconcile my feelings about this movie. One thing I will say, though: this is a remarkable achievement for a first-time 29 year-old director and we should all be looking forward to his next work.