Once there was a Hushpuppy who lived with her daddy in the Bathtub. She was a little girl, but fierce and strong and full of love, who renounced the Dry Side and found beauty in the marshes and swamps. Hushpuppy spoke few words, but she experienced the world with an open heart and open ears, hearing the heartbeats of nature and the whispers of her lost mother. When her world was threatened she did not despair, but flexed her guns, gave a great howl and proved herself to be King of the Bathtub.
Quvenzhane Wallis stars as the little girl in the Mississippi Delta who lives in horrible poverty with her fiery-tempered father, Wink (Dwight Henry). There is a magic power about this young unknown which swallowed up the movie and made it impossible to watch anything but her. Little children and their innocence are so hard to capture honestly on the screen, but this girl doesn't act, she exists.
It is a film of rare creativity, full of melting ice caps, frightful storms and giant monsters. But even through all of the fireworks there is only Wallis, in her little galoshes eating crawdads, which radiates. There is sunshine in her stoic face which speaks far more than any words she could have spoken, and she steals this film simply because they captured her purity. It is overwhelming.
After a freak storm, the bayou where Hushpuppy, Wink and a dozen others of the hopelessly impoverished live, is drowned in salt water. Their very existence has come into jeopardy. To make matters worse Wink is dying, threatening to leave Hushpuppy all on her own. Mighty aurochs, fearsome beasts from the polar north, charge to her home to eat her up, and with her life in danger Hushpuppy must learn to survive, fight back tears and find her long-lost mother.
This is the type of movie that comes about so infrequently that it startles and angers when it does. I say angers, because it is an encapsulation of what film making is supposed to be about. Their budget was small, their cast has no stars, their premise is conceptual, but they had a vision and they never compromised once. Behn Zeitlin has brought Lucy Alibar's play "Juicy and Delicious" to the screen with vividness and raw beauty, honing in Wallis's enormous natural gifts to create one of the most memorable pieces of art this year. It angered me that I was startled to find a movie with uncompromised vision.
It's a film written in ebonic poetry, full of philosophical teachings of the universe, taught through the eyes of a 6-year-old girl who has never had any formal education, but knows how to light a blowtorch to cook her supper. This is a film that squishes and crawls and growls; it breathes and moves. Even in death it is a celebration of life, of being, of being human, of being loved. It has a majesty which it is perfectly aware of and embraces the scope and power of a little girl's imagination and wonderment.
This is a small moment of happiness to enjoy when the waters begin to rise. Hushpuppy's life is hard--much harder than any child should have to endure--and though she doesn't combat it with a smile, she combats it with spirit. I watched this film and I felt good. I was uplifted. This is the type of film that deserves to be seen because it wants its audience so badly. It wants to spread that spirit and to uplift and show people that a good life can be found without material possessions. The love for your family, and not just your biological family, is all that is important. They are your levee when times get rough. Together, we must simply grit our teeth and shout "I'm the man!"
4/4
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