Rock Case

As a first-time feature-length filmmaker, Benh Zeitlin did a wonderful job creating a wild bayou world, Bathtub, that almost feels like a fantasy with characters both crazy and real with their primitive but free lifestyles and everyone connected with eccentric but warming relationships. The main character Hushpuppy, a 6-year-old girl, has been guided and encouraged by her dying single-parent father to become a "big man". However, despite all the inhabitants' effort, "the outside world", destroyed the place they have loved. And also gone with their beloved wild home, is the father, who, upon seeing his kid become "a brave and big man", passed away.

In Bathtub, the lives of people are all based on the wildlife or stocks. As a result, their simple life is full of joy of festivals, drinks, and wild food, free from all the worldly burdens of modern life. Living together in this natural kind of environment, the inhabitants have to learn to survive without the help of technology and to care for each other. However, this type of life is threatened because the government has built a dam on the bayou, which keeps the water from draining down once it rains.

As the threat is more prominent when the storm comes, the relationship between Hushpuppy and her father encounters problems as well. She accidentally burns down the house and even curses and punches her father when he accuses her of the accident. Although Hushpuppy doesn't understand at that point, when she burnt the house, her father actually just came back from the hospital for his heart disease.

Knowing his own bad health condition, Hushpuppy's father has to try every means he can to teach his little daughter the tough survival skills and cultivate in her mind a strong determination. Catching fish, cracking a crab with bare hands, helping with rebuilding the house and volunteering to destroy the dam - with father's help and encouragement, Hushpuppy learns to grow strong in this southern wild world she lives in. However, from time to time, Hushpuppy still fantasizes about her mother who she has never seen but only heard from her dad that she lives somewhere across the sea.

The government found out what the Bathtub inhabitants have done to the dam, and forcefully evacuated Bathtub. Despite his very bad health condition, Hushpuppy's dad managed to get the group back to their home, where he finally saw his own daughter grow strong enough to live off on her own. And peacefully, in his little girl's arms, he passed away.

This touching story happens in an isolated setting, and this draws attention to many issues of our modern life, which also makes the wild but carefree life in the movie seems very appealing. Sounds like Avatar?

Different from Avatar though, which massively relies on CGI to create an exotically beautiful world on an alien planet detached from reality, the world in Beasts of the Southern