As if my dearly beloved Manhola Dargis's pull quote weren't all I needed...
Benh Zeitlin, this year's Sundance wunderkind whose particular vein of magical realism cast a serious spell on Park City last winter, has drawn comparisons to Terrence Malick with his very first film, the superbly titled "Beasts of the Southern Wild." And I do mean a serious spell, as "Beasts" rose above the festival fray bewitchingly enough for The Guardian's Damon Wise to say the film "stands out like a whirling peyote-crazed medicine man in this year's lineup." Even the soberly descriptive accolades have been wildly rapturous in admiration of this special thing young Zeitlin has crafted; Todd McCarthy states as a matter of fact that Zeitlin's "directorial debut could serve as a poster child for everything American independent cinema aspires to be but so seldom is." WHOA, NELLY!
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" was swooped up by Fox Searchlight's strategically spirited butterfly nets lickity-split in January, and there's no reason to believe the studio won't give "Beasts" the TLC it needs to become the indie movie event of this summer. Prime evidence: the picture has just been given a marvelous poster treatment in advance of its June 27 release, and even as I was writing the last paragraph, the first trailer has debuted in Apple HD... (or watch the embeded YouTube version down below, all the same unless you're a stickler)
"Beasts" is the best bet to burn up the art house box office this summer, not just because of its sweltering Southern swamp setting & an irresistible main character in the form of a six-year-old Bayou baby named Hushpuppy, played by the supposedly Oscar-tempting Quvenzhané Wallis, who lives in a Louisiana shantytown called the Bathtub on the brink of orphanhood. With only her childish optimism and unwavering faith in the balance of nature and the universe to guide little Hushpuppy through an otherwise heartbreaking setting, the little hero manages to make sense of it all even as she is forced to weather a storm of Biblical proportions. I mean, holy shit.
Even if it fails to catch fire and lands with a commercial thud (very unlikely, but still), the fact that something like this has even a smudge of commercial potential is really rad. (Though I've gotta admit, few things make me happier than a weird-ass art film hitting the zeitgeist & swimming in gold. Searchlight handled "Black Swan" with precision & confidence and it made $300 million worldwide on its way to achieving iconic status in cinematic history on multiple levels. If any studio can sell Zeitlin's strange swirling brew of poverty & fantasy to mall crowds, it's this one.) I mean, its being likened to a live-action Miyazaki film with "Days of Heaven" narration. WHAT?! This guy is the one to watch, whether his name is Benh Zeitlin merely because it sounds magically bizarre, or if he was indeed born that way, as parents who would name their child as such would also likely produce a visionary creative genius. Either way, he's got It.
BEHOLD...
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" opens June 27 in probably just New York & L.A. and will trickle its way into expanded release throughout July & August. With a little luck and maybe some magic, "Southern Wild" might just manage to turn its weird little trickle into a bona-fide delta.
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