Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild *10*
Benh Zeitlin, 2012
Sundance Award

This is a mesmerizing and powerful film by debut director Benh Zeitlin, from a play by Lucy Alibar, a fellow writer that Zeitlin met in a writers workshop as a teen. The unlikely star of the film is six year old Quvenzhané Wallis, who had to pretend to be six when she was five to beat out 4,000 others for this part in auditions.

The basic story is that of a motherless girl called Hushpuppy in a bayou region of an island in the Mississippi River delta area of Louisiana, the part past land's end. As you will see early in the film, this is a much more responsible child than we were at age six, her survival depends on it.

This quote from Hushpuppy's narration tells the situation succinctly:
"If my daddy doesn't get back soon, I'll have to start eating my pets." 

Her father, Wink, is brilliantly played by a New Orleans 7th ward cafè owner, Dwight Young, also with no previous acting experience, and already two awards for best supporting actor. He plays dad Wink, who has heart trouble, and knows he won't be around while Hushpuppy grows up, so he is raising her to be the man. He demand of her "who's the man?" and she flexes her biceps and says "I'm the man!" This is probably going to be repeated often by fans of this film.

Her name is Hushpuppy likely because she feeds all the animals, their only source of food other than the river, where they catch catfish, crawfish, and other local bounty. Wink even shows her how to catch a catfish by hand in the bayou, by grabbing him when you feel him on the bottom. These people are living in danger like everyone in low coastal areas, here in a makeshift village known as The Bathtub. Without any connection to the mainland, they are constantly endangered by storms, flooding, and global melting, which will easily inundate these low lying areas.

This is the best made coming-of-age story since To Kill a Mockingbird, and Wallis' performance is much tougher and more demanding than Mary Badham's, and seems more natural - you get the feeling that Nazie is not far out of her element in boats and mud in the delta.

Rather than ruin this film by too much story or analysis, as its a magical journey of myth-making proportions, I'll let you see through these links the impact of this film, which Barack Obama called "a spectacular film - even my 4 year old niece was captivated".

Awards and Nominations
Currently Beasts leads with 35 (six so far for Nazie Wallis), including wins at Sundance, and four at Cannes (next high film is Zero Dark Thirty at 21, The Master with 20, and Argo with 19):

http://www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com/news/beasts-awards-and-nominations/

Film Trailer
The film's trailer from Cannes

The film page at Facebook, where people are telling their stories of this film's impact on their families or children, as well as many other links.

Unfortunately for the Academy Awards,  Beasts debuted at Sundance last January, and often an early release in a film season loses Oscar® attention to films timed to attain academy recognition, which this year would be Life of Pi, The Hobbitt, and Lincoln. That would be a shame for Nazie Wallis, as she has given the child performance of cinema history - she deserves the lead actress Oscar®.

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True Love

Nancy Savoca, 1989 (8.0*)
Grand Jury Prize, Sundance
This is a small story with no pretensions, and not really any action either, just a story of two Italian Americans in the last few days leading up to their wedding. Ron Eldard plays a typical male, who'd rather go out drinking with his buddies "one last time" (that becomes again and again) than prep for the wedding. Annabella Sciorra steals the acting kudos as his fiance, who begins to suspect that he may be getting cold feet the closer the actual day gets. I really enjoyed her performance in this, she's an underrated Italian beauty in my opinion. Eldard is usually better (always later, this was early in his career), especially in the war film When Trumpets Fade; he just doesn't seem very Italian here (blond hair didn't help) - where was John Turturro I wonder?

This is likely going to be more enjoyable for women than men, the men are fairly weak characters, the women stronger ones (heck, that's kinda accurate for life, isn't it?). It also makes a few assumptions about this particular ethnic culture being a little familiar with viewers, which it really should be.

Presented as a 'comedy', that's not really accurate (that scene on the dvd is staged, it's not even in the film!) - it's a drama about love, marriage, and personal commitment, filmed with affection and humor, but the entire slant of the film is a serious look at what makes families and happy (and unhappy) couples, as there are all types around the betrothed. Personally I liked Savoca's non-judgmental approach, and how she showed relationships affected by jobs and the church as well, which felt very accurate based on my own experiences.

Some say "slice of life" is a phrase that kills movies - if it does for you, then this won't be your cup of tea, but otherwise this is another good film by a female director, and one with nothing untasteful. Imagine an Italian-American film with no bloodshed, no sex, no bathroom humor! What the heck happened here?

This small indie romance impressed the critics and festival juries more than the fans at IMDB, who only rate it 6.1, but it's much better than that. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance (and four awards overall) and the Grand Prize at the USA Film Festival, and a nominee for three Indie Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Nancy Savoca for best director, and Annabella Sciorra for best lead actress.

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Restrepo

Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, 2010 (9.0*)
Memorial Day War-a-thon film #21
Documentary that follows The Men of Battle Company 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, in Afghanistan's deadly Korangal Valley, as they work out of firebase they call Outpost Restrepo, after a fallen comrade, medic Juan Restrepo.

If you're interested about how contemporary American soldiers look in daily combat, this is as good a film as you'll get, shot with superb cinematography, as risk of the filmmakers themselves being shot. (Director Tim Hetherington was in fact killed while filming in Libya in March of this year).

The film is simply a journal, following the platoon with little narrative structure other than their building OP Restrepo, the 15-man outpost on a hill overlooking the entire enemy valley - and a patrol into the civilian population called Operation Rock Avalanche, during which the troops came under heavy fire. Through face-to-face interviews with the soldiers, we can see what this has done to their psyches, and many of the soldiers are just out of high school.

4 awards, including Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, out of 12 nominations, including an Oscar® nomination for documentary (Inside Job won). Tim Hetherington also won a Pulitzer Prize for a 2007 photo of the soldiers resting at Restrepo.

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Frozen River

Courtney Hunt, 2008 (8.3*)Grand Jury Prize, Sundance
Melissa Leo made a star-making performance in this film of a single mother who lives along the Canadian border in New York, who can't make the payments on her new trailer with just her part-time job. One day she helps a Native American woman from a nearby reservation, which spills over into Canada, with a ride. She ends up helping the woman transport two illegal immigrants back into the U.S. after driving over the border on a frozen river.

This begins a nerve-wracking new career, that of smuggling people over the border. Every time she begins another trip over the river, the viewer expects the worst, as this activity can't continue to be as easy as the first time. This is a good suspense film of an average person trying to survive in a harsh economy.

Winner of 23 awards overall, with an Oscar® nomination for Melissa Leo for lead actress, who would later win for supporting actress for 2010 for The Fighter

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Animal Kingdom

David Michôd, Australia, 2010 (8.8*)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema
Powerful story of a crime family in Melbourne, Australia is director David Michôd's first film. The incredibly complex script with terrific dialogue was re-written several times by Michod over a six year period before filming, and it shows.

The story involves J, a teenager played by newcomer James Frecheville just out of high school, whose mom overdoses in the first scene. With no alternatives, he goes to live with grandma Jacki Weaver, who turns in a mind-blowing performance. She is basically the leader of an organized gang of her four sons that does armed robberies, all uncles of J's and unsure how much to let him know.

What follows is J's introduction to the family trade, and their running battle with the Armed Robbery Squad of the city police, which is now operating beyond the law and performing their own hits on suspects without bothering for arrests. This is a chilling story reminiscent of L.A. Confidential, but a bit more realistic, being placed in an unspecified 80's time period, a time when Machod had moved to Melbourne and "was reading lots of true crime articles" which inspired this story (in an interview on the dvd). Veteran actor Guy Pearce (Memento, The Proposition, L.A. Confidential) plays a smooth police detective building evidence against the brothers, who thinks J may give up some information if bothered enough.

Jacki Weaver has 12 nominations for either lead or supporting actress so far for her incredible performance as the mother from hell, who supports her boys' life of crime, yet who is still loving and likeable. I hope she wins the Oscar® for supporting actress, she's simply unforgettable, and has likely turned in the performance of her long career. The film has already won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for World Cinema.
Check out all hers and the film's nominations here

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Winter's Bone

Debra Granik, 2010 (9.4*)
Grand Jury Award, Sundance
Excellent southern gothic story, being called 'film noir', about a teenage girl hunting for her dad, who has disappeared before a court appearance after putting up their Ozark mountain shack and land for a bail bond. Since he's a meth cooker, many feel that he's either fled to avoid prison, or has been fed to some pigs. The film hinges on the terrific breakthrough performance by Jennifer Lawrence, nominated for many acting awards this year.

Jennifer gives a touching performance as a girl, Rolly Dee, who has to take care of two younger siblings who don't get enough to eat. She teaches them how to survive without her, typical backwoods skills like hunting and cleaning squirrels for dinner. To complicate matters, her mother is now catatonic and is still at home. This is a rough life that is all too typical all over the south; in fact, this is so close to my Georgia mountain homeland that it's almost unbearable.

Terrific indie actor John Hawkes is perfect as her uncle, who provides the only real adult support that she gets. Even more memorable is actress Dale Dickey [photo rt] as a scary distant relative who warns her not to come around their place anymore, as many who visit the meth dealers domain don't leave.

Already a winner of 10 awards, with 27 nominations, including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Winter's was directed and co-written by Debra Granik [photo lt], who has a wonderful touch with keeping the story and the actors understated, which adds to the realism and therefore the story's impact. In upcoming ceremonies, Winter's Bone is also nominated for 7 Indie Spirit awards, including best feature, director, actress, screenplay, supporting actor and actress - and 7 Satellite awards. It should receive some Oscar® nominations, if justice is served: picture, director, screenplay, actress for Lawrence, and supporting actress for Dickey. The film has a rating of 90/100 at Metacritic, which compiles critics ratings - this would place it in the all-time top 100. Lawrence is being compared to Streep, and Granik to Kathryn Bigelow.

Update: Winter's Bone received Oscar® nominations for best picture, actress (Lawrence), adapted screenplay, and supporting actor (Hawkes)

Young Jennifer Lawrence in a breakthrough performance

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Me and You and Everyone We Know

Miranda July, 2006 (8.7*)
Special Jury Prize, Sundance
Visual artist Miranda July made this film to publicize her museum quality artwork. In her story, an artist, played by herself, is working on a show in a local museum. This circular storyline rarely works, but it certainly works here, thanks to her honest artistry.

Along the way we get treated to a budding romance she has with a shoe salesman, wonderfully played by John Hawkes [note: now a best supporting actor nominee for 2010's Winter's Bone], and a hilarious internet romance struck up using chat by the museum's female director. This leads to one of the funniest scenes in recent films when a meeting takes place at a park bench.

This film epitomized the term small indie film. As such, it is an important statement by a female artist and budding film director. Miranda wrote, directed, and stars in this film which essentially makes it a one person work of art, and one which is about the artist herself. Usually this sort of exercise reeks of self-promotional egoism, yet somehow Miranda's self-deprecating and realistic viewpoint make this film an intimate and revealing look at how the creative process can give us a glimpse into the soul of the artist.

For me it is for more interesting than the facile laziness I feel when watching some of the films by John Cassavetes or even lesser Woody Allen vehicles. I hope she continues with her film career and perhaps turns the camera on external subjects next time, for she's a very talented filmmaker, and unlike any other.

This film won FOUR awards at Cannes: Critics Week Grand Prize, Un Certain Regard, Golden Camera, and the Young Critics Award. At Sundance, it won the Special Jury Prize for 'originality and vision'. Overall it won 18 awards out of 26 nominations, with 16 awards going to Miranda, most for director or film, but a couple for screenplay and ensemble cast.

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An Education

Lone Scherfig, 2009 (9.0*)

Sundance Audience Award
Carey Mulligan gives a star-making and Oscar®-nominated performance in this brilliant coming-of-age British romance from Danish director Lone Scherfig. She plays Jenny, a 16-yr old, middle-class honor student, at a prep school for Oxford in 1961 who begins a romance when a thirty-ish man, Peter Sarsgaard (as David), gives her a ride home from school in the rain to 'protect her cello'.

What follows is a very gentle, slowly-paced romance during which David is able to charm his way into her life and show her how 'the other half' lives, attending art auctions, expensive dinners, and real estate sales.

Her best teacher, superbly played as usual by unheralded Olivia Williams, (star of many BBC classics, and the hilarious comedy In The Loop) and her principal, in this case former Oscar®-winner Emma Thompson, are both convinced she is throwing her education and her future away. Meanwhile, her parents, with Alfred Molina terrific as her dad, showing a previously unseen vulnerable (yet still humorous) side, are a little more accepting while becoming friends with David themselves.

For me, this is art at its finest - we see the gradual character growth in Mulligan's face, and don't need dialogue or events to hammer home the point that she is transforming from girl to woman in a few weeks. Lone Scherfig has done a typically understated and brilliant piece of Danish film directing (fellow director Susanne Bier is one of the world's best) that shows romance in a romantic, non-prurient and positive setting, letting the story and character development evolve seemingly on their own. This is all too rare in the last half century.

As proof, An Education was nominated for the best picture Oscar®, as well as screenplay (Nick Hornby brilliantly adapted his own novel), and best actress for Carey Mulligan. She won the BAFTA, the only award it won there out of 8 nominations (including film and British film), and 11 other best actress awards worldwide, many from critics. Overall, it won 15 awards out of 63 nominations, including the Sundance Audience Award.

Director Lone Scherig has 25 wins overall out of 39 nominations, most for Italian For Beginners (2000). Not bad for any director, and she's a Danish woman! I keep telling you, they're way ahead of us..

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Blood of My Blood

aka Sangre de Mi Sangre
(originally titled Padre Nuestro)
Christopher Zalla, Mexico, 2007 (8.2*)
Grand Jury Prize, Sundance

This is a gripping suspense story of a illegal teenaged immigrant to the U.S., Pedro (Jorge Adrián Espíndola), who heads to New York in a semi-trailer with other illegals to find his father (Jesús Ochoa), armed with a letter sent to his mother and a locket with their picture as proof that he is his father's son. Unfortunately, he befriends a criminal in the trailer, Juan (Armando Hernández) who steals these at the end of the trip, and who begins to pose as the son himself, finding the father through the address on the letter.

The illiterate Pedro ends up lost on the streets, and enlists the help of a drug addicted prostitute, Magda (Paola Mendoza), who helps him, but of course for money, which Pedro doesn't have, as that was stolen also. The film follows the stories of all four, which are eventually interconnected through the father.

This gritty streetwise story, perhaps a bit overlong, has an excellent screenplay, realistic cinematography, a unique music score, and the acting is right on target - one feels that the actors are pulled from real life and not film auditions. This is unlike most U.S. films, since small realistic endeavors like this won't make enough money to get filmed here, yet it's similar in style to early Scorsese, notably Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.

A nominee of several awards at film festivals, and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival.

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Quinceañera

Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland, 2006 (8.0*)

Grand Jury Prize, Sundance

This small indie film (in Spanish w subtitles), shot in the Hispanic district around Echo Park, Los Angeles, revolves around the Mexican title ceremony for a young girl turning 15, when she "becomes a woman". The film begins with one such ceremony, for a member of the middle class, who can afford the expensive dresses and limousines to the dance. I suppose this is similar to the debutante balls usually given for upper class white girls to present them publicly as marriageable young ladies to a group of eligible bachelors.

However, in Magdalena's case, played by Emily Rios, she has discovered she is pregnant at 14, thus dishonoring her father and family (and before her own quinceañera), who is a rather strict part-time preacher who runs a local grocery store. She goes to live nearby with her great-uncle Thomas, wonderfully played by Chalo González, who emigrated to the U.S. decades earlier. Also there is her troubled gay cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia, whom you've likely seen before), both of whom find acceptance without judgment by the elder family patriarch, while being disowned by their own parents.

The film was shot by directors Glatzer and Westmoreland in the same neighborhood where they live, and locals loaned them their houses and acted in the film, which lends much veracity to this simple yet heartfelt story. Those unfamiliar with the Hispanic sub-culture in L.A. will learn a lot from this film, which won several awards at film festivals, including the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. Both Rios and Garcia were nominated for acting awards, but for me the film's best is Gonzalez as uncle Thomas.

Awards page at IMDB.

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God Grew Tired of Us

The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan
Christopher Dillon Quinn, 2006 (9.0*)
co-dir by Tommy Walker
Sundance Audience Award and Jury Prize
The story of the genocidal slaughter of the largely Christian southern half of Sudan by the Islamic north is one of the sadder stories of modern times. This film first documents the long exodus of at least 27,000 young men from Sudan to Ethiopia, then when that government fell, to a refugee camp in northern Kenya. Only 12,000 made it there, facing hunger and thirst along the way, forcing many to eat mud and drink their own urine. For some reason the UN and the U.S. both have decided to sit back and let this occur, even though the U.S. had no problem invading Grenada, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. (there is no oil nor any terrorists or communists in Sudan). Those who didn't flee the troops were burned alive in their villages.

This film begins with the story of a few lucky young men selected to be flown to the U.S. for education and jobs. Their first western food is on the airline, and they grimace and say that the survival camp food was better, that "this tastes like soap"! Things get better in the U.S., as they can cook their own food in an apartment, and most receive jobs, even though the pay is around minimum wage. The film, narrated by Nicole Kidman, follows the path of three men and their friends and their new lives in America.

Most find life in the U.S. lonely, as one named Panther says "If you're lost and go to a house in Africa they will help you; here they call the police - I feel alienated and lonely as a result. No one walking on the streets talks to each other." Most hope to send money back to the refugee camp for their friends, or to locate their families, missing since the civil war began. Even though the beginning is very harsh viewing, in spite of the singing and smiles of those in the camp, the remainder of the film offers hope that the "Lost Boys of Sudan" is a story that will belatedly find a larger audience, and the apathetic industrial nations will make a much larger effort to rectify this situation. The film won 6 awards at 5 different film festivals. More films like this one need to be made and seen by the world.

Quotes: "God must have grown tired of the unrighteous acts of mankind; God must have grown tired of us."
"I have never used electricity; when I get to America, I think I will have a hard time learning how to use electricity."
(re Christmas, after arrival here): "What does Santa Claus have to do with Jesus? Is he in the Bible? What does the tree have to do with this? In our country we sing and dance and prepare for the birth of Jesus in our hearts"

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13 Tzameti

Géla Babluani, France, 2006 (9.1*)
Grand Jury Prize, Sundance

This is one of the most riveting crime films you will ever see - one reviewer said "when done, the audience had to extract their fingernails from the armrests". It begins with a young man working to repair a leaky roof for an aging gangster, who overhears the criminal speaking of being able to earn lots of money overnight by answering a mysterious letter which contains a train ticket and hotel reservation. When the workman answers the request, he is plunged into a nightmarish scenario that may very well be his last job on the planet. I don't want to give away the surprise here, but if you watch the dvd's "interview with a witness", you'll find that this is based on an actual crime, making the plot even more astounding. Shot in black and white to give it the look of classic French film noir, director Géla Babluani has created a modern noir classic with a visual link to great crime films of the past. Babluani's son plays the lead role.

Winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance, it won 8 awards out of 11 nominations at various festivals (Awards page at IMDB)

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Brothers

Susanne Bier, 2004, Denmark (8.2*)
Sundance Audience Award
Brothers (aka Brødre) is another gripping and emotionally charged drama from master Danish director Susanne Bier (see After the Wedding here), winner of 13 international awards. This film deals with the effect of war on civilian life, as the film begins as one brother, Michael, a major in the army, is about to embark for duty in Afghanistan. We see a family dinner with his wife and two girls, his parents, and midway through his alcoholic brother Jannik shows up, who is an ex-convict and the black sheep of the family, who hangs in bars and shuns real jobs.

However everything changes after the brother leaves, and Jannik changes and becomes a good friend to the family, especially playful with the little girls. (Describing much more would spoil the plot, which has some turns). The stunningly beautiful Connie Nielsen (photo rt) is terrific as the wife, and won five international awards, including one as part of the winning ensemble, which is excellent overall. In a way, this is a Danish Best Years of Our Lives, updated for a modern world where small wars are fought but undeclared, raising moral issues for all concerned.

For me, not as artistic or subtle as After the Wedding, but still another worthy volume in Bier's impressive filmography as perhaps the best living female director.
Awards Page at Imdb

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Smoke Signals

Chris Eyre, 1998 (8.4*)

Sundance Audience Award

Terrific all Native American comedy that takes place on a Montana or Idaho reservation, supposedly the first all Native American production. The story becomes a road trip when Victor (Adam Beach) must get to Arizona to collect the cremated remains of his estranged father.

This is a funny and heartwarming tale about friendship, that is also offbeat and unique enough to remain interesting. Look for Elaine Miles, the Eskimo receptionist on tv's Northern Exposure, as a woman whose car only goes in reverse, so she's always driving backwards, which has to be a perfect metaphor for something, like perhaps only being able to get somewhere in the present by going into your past. Adapted from Sherman Alexie's short stories.

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