Story
Cut off from the world by a massive levee bank is the Louisiana bayou town of Bathtub. Here six-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) lives with her father Wink (Dwight Henry).Hushpuppy is an inquisitive and intrepid child, who spends her time walking around, picking up all sorts of creatures and looking for signs of life by listening to their heartbeats. Hushpuppy believes that everything in the universe is connected and that all the pieces have to fit together just right for it to work properly.While he loves Hushpuppy deeply, Wink is an alcoholic. He has unpredictable mood swings and spends much of his time in a semi-drunken state. Wink becomes terminally ill and a massive storm strikes, flooding the community of Bathtub. The salty flood waters not only destroy property but the environment itself, leaving the people of Bathtub without a way to survive. Hushpuppy’s world falls apart.As Hushpuppy’s life begins to spiral out of control she calls on her imagination to face her fears. She also finds the strength to endure the death of her father and to live life beyond the bayou.
Themes
Death of a parent; alcoholism; natural disaster; global warming; abandonment
Violence
This movie shows the physical and verbal abuse of a small child, some reckless behaviour resulting in destruction and injury, and occasional action violence and peril. For example:
Sexual references
This movie has occasional low-level sexual references. For example:
- A woman says that a man tried to touch her breasts.
- Wink asks Hushpuppy if he ever told her the story of her conception. The scene shows a flashback image of Hushpuppy’s mother and tells the story of how she killed an alligator to protect Wink. Four minutes after Hushpuppy’s mother shot the alligator, Hushpuppy popped into the world.
- A waterside bayou brothel has a sign that says ‘Catfish Shack. Girls, Girls, Girls’.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
This movie shows some use of substances. For example:
- Most of the adult characters in the movie display alcoholic behaviour, and many continuously drink various types of alcohol. They appear in various states of drunkenness.
- Wink pours himself a drink of moonshine and then one for Hushpuppy. He says, ‘This counts for a whole bunch of things’. Hushpuppy drinks it and makes a face.
Nudity and sexual activity
This movie shows some implied and partial nudity. For example:
- In a couple of scenes, six-year-old Hushpuppy runs around in her underwear.
- A woman shows her bare thigh to Hushpuppy. There are images of aurochs tattooed on her thigh.
- We see the image of a young woman (from the waist down) wearing only her underwear.
- In one scene, Hushpuppy ends up in a brothel, where several women dressed in flimsy low-cut slips dance with men. Several young children also dance slowly with the women and bury their heads in a woman’s cleavage, as though they’re starved for motherly love.
Product placement
None of concern
Coarse language
This movie has some coarse language.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Beasts of the Southern Wild is an emotionally intense drama, showing the harsh realities of the life of a six-year-old girl in a poverty-stricken bayou community. The movie targets an older audience and is truthful and brilliant. But it’s also emotionally draining and too intense for children under 15 years.
The movie is full of wisdom and powerful messages, most of which come from six-year-old Hushpuppy. For example, Hushpuppy believes that people are a little piece of a big universe. She think that ‘the whole universe depends on everything fitting together just so. If the tiniest piece is missing it will be busted’. She maintains that if you can fix a broken piece everything will fit right back.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include the following:
- Generosity, selflessness, friendship and caring: although the people of Bathtub live in poverty, they show boundless generosity towards each other. For example, they share what little they have with those who have nothing.
- Bravery: Hushpuppy shows great bravery when she faces and stares down her fears, which take the form of the extinct imaginary beasts called aurochs.
You could talk with your children about how the resilient Hushpuppy uses her imagination to create imaginary beasts that help her make sense of and cope with the insecurity, heartache, chaos and turmoil of her everyday life.