First of all, I'm not a movie goer...movies in the theater aren't that compelling to me and I prefer watching them in the comfort of my own place. So when I go to the movies, I'm looking for more than just a "good" movie. I'm wanting gripping, intense, take my breath away...total suspension and immersion into a story and characters that put me inside the movie. Sorta like a Toni Morrison novel but in film. Beasts of the Southern Wild did it for me! I'm living with this movie inside my head since seeing it on Saturday. The story, the characters and the actors who portrayed them are fresh and vibrant, but the story! It is difficult for me to come out and just say "it is a movie about such and such"...the story is not simple and their lives are not simple and the cinematography is similar to an IMAX movie...it is pulls you inside the scene and is right there in your face. There is a community of people living off a coast in an area called The Bathtub...its about how they survive and the choices they make and the love they have for one another and the land...the lessons of life are not about judging but taking life head on and winning no matter what comes. It revolves around a family of a father and his young daughter and the tenacious spirit of love they have for one another.
There are only 3 other movies that I can think of at the moment that got inside of me like this one...Crash, Daughters of the Dust, and Bamboozled. Oh Brother Where Art Thou and The Color Purple I can re-watch (I seldom re-watch) over and over because of the story line that and genius script. So I'm telling you to go to the Beasts of the Southern Wild website and check the calendar to see when it will open in your area. It is worth a 2 hour drive to see!
Now, what have I been up to in the studio? Still plugging right along. I took yesterday off to stay in and rest but today I completed the quilting on one piece and made progress on this one...
This is one is set in a custom built wood frame. It is on a wood frame canvas and is permanently set in the custom frame...this is the 2nd small piece finished this way and I think it sets them off well.
the side view...
the back view...I need to attach eye-screws and hanging wire and it will be ready for the wall.
I'll get back into the studio tomorrow because I got to "BEAST IT!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Once I read about "Beasts of the Southern Wild", I KNEW I had to get out and see it... saw it about three weeks ago. I loved the characters so much, esp. the intrepid Hush Puppy, but I have to say that the scenery, which was repetitious (a budget issue?) and the overall lack of color in the film (did we watch a poor copy? I don't know) really, really disappointed me. I expected the lush greens and teals and blues of the tropics and instead it was pretty washed out. I expected the complex undergrowth and crazy forms and shapes of vegetation in a bayou, marshy landscape and instead we got the same four or five scenes over and over. Still, a great movie, and I will look out for what this young director does next!
ReplyDeleteHi Dee, all that you've mentioned is probably more a reflection of budget constraints but for me I didn't even notice those things until you pointed them out. I am taken with the story line and the angle...if it had been a hollyweird film, there would have been a "saviour" of sorts. I appreciated the absence of one and I loved that the focus was on the community and their right to exist on their terms and the suggestion that Hush Puppy's imagination was a result and coming of age at such a young age was a result of the life they lived...and the father's role was crude and intense, yet loving. It is a challenge to reconcile all of it in film and in real life. A few months ago I read the novel, Salvage the Bones, that had a very similar setting and sensibilities and was just as intense for me.
DeleteI would like to read the book. You mention so much of what made the movie great. I found the characters so completely compelling and believable and there was so much poetry, even in the midst of poverty and catastrophe and ravaging alcoholism. The right to exist on their own terms was so powerfully portrayed... it kind of turned me on my head.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I recently re-watched 'Amistad' which is a really powerful story about the early days of this nation and the rough, brutal intersection with slave trading. 'Daughters of the Dust' is one of my favorite movies of all time. You remind me that I should give that a re-watch soon.
Don't know 'Bamboozled' - will look it up now.
I'm chuckling...when we watch Amistad as a family, my youngest son was so taken with the African lead character, that we would hear him in his room going "give us free". This went on for months and then one time he did it while riding in the car when we were all quiet. He did it so much that he didn't realize he was saying it as much as he was. Daughters of the Dust I watched so often that my daughter and I had the lines memorized. I think it is the cinematography that is the draw coupled with unique stories.
DeleteLet me know how what you think of Bamboozled.