I watched Beasts of the Southern Wild last night. It was a fabulous, but disturbing film. To think that modern day human beings can live in such abject poverty boggles the mind a bit. I can see why the movie missed the best picture bid at the Oscars, though. It was a wonderful example of the art of film making, with some incredible cinematography, and hands down the greatest performance by a child actor I have ever seen in Quvenzhané Wallis' portrayal of Hush Puppie, but the plot was confusing, and the thematic representation of the aurochs did not work for me.
An aurochs is an extinct kind of ox from the middle ages (made somewhat famous by George Martin), not some kind of gigantic prehistoric wild boar. I realize that part was fantasy, and I'm not sure why it bothered me so much, but maybe my nerd flag was flying too high.
Anyway, in spite of a couple minor nitpicks that I only bring up because I can see why it missed best picture, it's otherwise a fabulous, moving film.
Has anyone seen it?
