Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

There's one thing that can always be guaranteed with the Oscars: Among the Hollywood hits on everyone's lips, the likes of Argo, Django Unchained, Lincoln and Les Miserables, the films that are praised and discussed non stop, somewhere in the Best Picture nominations there'll be a much smaller movie to fill a gap. This year, it was Beast of the Southern Wild.

Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis), an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink (Dwight Henry), 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.

This is a remarkeable film; You won't see anything like it for a long time. Wallis is absolutely brilliant as Hushpuppy. It's incredible to think that a girl so young can give such a terrific performance. She's head strong, but scared. Her narration is great and her chemistry with Wink is superb. But whilst I should be praising the person who wrote these wonderful lines, I must throw all of my credit to Wallis. Her narration contains stuff so insightful, it's so believable, even for a 9 year old girl.

Dwight Henry is also great; At first, we almost hate Wink. He is horrible to his daughter. He bad mouths her, constantly yells, all sorts. But we soon realise this is all love. He's teaching his daughter the ways of the world exactly as rough they may be. It's not always obvious, but he's proud of his daughter. As his health deteriorates, he becomes stricter and stricter. Some would say he's a bad father, but in all honesty, he's the best I've seen in a film for a long time now.

The cinematography is extraordinary. I've not seen Life of Pi, and was originally rooting for Skyfall, but if they weren't going to give this any other recognition, the Academy should've awarded it for it's stunning work. Which brings me to my next point:

As much as I loved this film, I could tell from a mile off it wouldn't have any chance of an Oscar.

The cast are unknown.

The director is unknown.

The story is about as far from Hollywood as possible.

And yet it's so unique and so worthy of the awards. As someone like Mark Kermode would point out, it's ignorance. I'm so so happy that it was at least nominated, but the fact that it didn't win a single award makes me sick. Best Direction and Best Actress were so deserved. Of course, I have not seen Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook, so I'll reserve my judgement.

Overall, a stunningly beautiful film with an extraordinary performance and an amazing meaning. 5 Stars.

"I see that I am a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes it right"