Movie · 2012 · Drama, Fantasy · 1h 33m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 7.7/10 (158.2K ratings)
I gotta take care of mine.
Overview
Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in 'the Bathtub', a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe—for a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack—temperatures rise and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.7/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.77/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Metacritic: 86
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Benh Zeitlin
Production
Cinereach, Court 13 Pictures, Journeyman Pictures, Seville International
Cast
Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, Gina Montana, Lowell Landes, Pamela Harper, Amber Henry, Jonshel Alexander, Nicholas Clark, Joseph Brown, Henry D. Coleman, Kaliana Brower, Phillip Lawrence, Hannah Holby, Jimmy Lee Moore, Jovan Hathaway
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A striking, emotionally raw fable that blends childhood wonder, environmental dread, and Southern Gothic texture into something singular. It’s imperfect and occasionally overreaches, but the sensory filmmaking and Quvenzhané Wallis’s performance make it memorable.
Best for
Viewers who like poetic, magical-realist dramas
Fans of intense child-centered stories
People drawn to atmospheric indie filmmaking
Audiences interested in environmental allegory and mythic storytelling
Skip if
You want a clean, conventional narrative
You dislike handheld, impressionistic filmmaking
You prefer realism over symbolism and fable
You’re sensitive to emotionally punishing stories
Overview
Beasts of the Southern Wild feels like a memory, a warning, and a bedtime story told at the edge of a floodplain. It builds a world that is both specific and mythic, where poverty, illness, climate anxiety, and childhood imagination collide without ever fully separating into neat categories. The result is messy in places, but the movie’s conviction is hard to shake.
Worth noting
What lingers most is its point of view. Hushpuppy’s perspective gives the film its pulse, and Quvenzhané Wallis carries it with startling force and vulnerability. The imagery is often beautiful, sometimes overwhelming, and the score pushes the emotions hard, but the film earns much of that intensity through sheer commitment.
Bottom line
It’s also a film that invites debate. Some viewers will read its outsider gaze and allegorical approach as limiting, even reductive, while others will be swept up by its urgency and lyricism. Either way, it’s a distinctive work of American indie cinema: rough-edged, ambitious, and impossible to forget.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Eli Hayes (5★) · 657 likes
"No crying."
Yes, crying.Lots of crying.
Kent M. Beeson (2★) · 544 likes
Hey girl. Sorry you're too young and too small to do anything about global warming, your poverty, your father's horrendous parenting style, your missing mom, your terrible schooling, your community's penchant for alcoholism and general unwindulaxing, and being inculcated with values that emphasize the masculine ("beast it") to the detriment of the feminine ("don't be a pussy"). Oh yeah, and your father dying.
But hey! You stood up to some imaginary monster pigs, so good for you.
DirkH (5★) · 330 likes
Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.25
Beasts of the Southern Wild sucker punched me while I had my guard down. I knew next to nothing about it, but I wasn't really ready for this fable-like slice of magical realism.
The simplest stories are often the most interesting. This one's unique protagonist describes it best herself: 'Future scientists will know, there was a girl named Hushpuppy who lived with her father in the Bathtub.' That phrase will carry an emotional… more
Doug Dillaman (1.5★) · 193 likes
A lot of negative reviewers seem to take on the very motives of the filmmaker, etc, so let me say that I'm quite impressed by the willingness to make a somewhat unconventional indie film that would have been fucking grueling to make - no sitting around apartments and having conversations for 90 minutes here.
That said, man did I really not like this. It ticks a lot of my pet peeve boxes: sloppy handheld camera, over-emphatic scoring, people yelling at… more
Eli Hayes (5★) · 188 likes
Life is a bit like poetry, with beautiful stanzas, verses, clusters of events, and periods of progression, as well as regression. Each day in someone’s life, each week, each month, each year, they experiences situations which change the path of their existence. Events which begin to define their spirit and mold their psyche into something magnificent and unique. Some paths are bumpy, some are smooth, some are winding, and some are graceful. Not graceful in the sense of elegance, charm,… more Life is a bit like poetry, with beautiful stanzas, verses, clusters of events, and periods of progression, as well as regression. Each day in someone’s life, each week, each month, each year, they experiences situations which change the path of their existence. Events which begin to define their spirit and mold their psyche into something magnificent and unique. Some paths are bumpy, some are smooth, some are winding, and some are graceful. Not graceful in the sense of elegance, charm,… more