Beasts of the Southern Wild

86% of critics liked it

77% of users liked it

Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry
In theaters Jun 27, 2012
PG-13, 1 hr. 31 min.

Movie Info

Cast: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry, Lowell Landes, Levy Easterly, Pamela Harper, Gina Montana, Amber Henry, Jonshel Alexander, Nicholas Clark, Joseph Brown
Director: Benh Zeitlin
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hr. 31 min.
Genre: Drama
Theater Release: Jun 27, 2012
DVD Release: Dec 04, 2012
Synopsis: In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic

Critic Reviews

  • Christy Lemire, Associated Press
    Beasts of the Southern Wild is sheer poetry on screen: an explosion of joy in the midst of startling squalor and one of the most visceral, original films to come along in a while. More...
  • Dave Calhoun, Time Out
    A dreamy but strikingly immediate and frayed-at-the-edges, child's-eye view of life on the margins of America. More...
  • Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
    A beautiful, strange tone poem about childhood and innocence. More...
  • Tom Long, Detroit News
    The atmosphere Zeitlin develops here is moist with promise and danger, and he moves back and forth between outright fable and pungent reality with an astounding sureness of vision for a first-time director. More...
  • Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
    Beasts is film as natural mystery museum. More...
  • Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
    Beasts of the Southern Wild marks one of the most auspicious American directorial debuts in years. More...
  • Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
    "Beasts of the Southern Wild" stays with you long after you've watched it, like a vaguely troubling but beautiful dream. More...
  • Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
    Beasts of the Southern Wild is like outsider art: patched together with found materials, conjured up by untrained artists (the actors), and evocative of a truly American attitude of eccentricity, boldness, transcendence. More...
  • Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
    It hews to no aesthetic or political party line. It is simply life, seen through the kaleidoscope eyes of a brave, imaginative child. More...
  • Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic
    It's unlike any film you've seen. More...