Beasts of the Southern Wild

Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner “Beasts of the Southern Wild” ventures into the brave, imaginative world of a child named Hushpuppy who struggles through the fictitious, marshy island called the Bathtub — a bayou slowly drowning in post-Katrina wreckage.

This survival story is “Where The Wilds Things Are” meets “The Pursuit of Happyness,” intertwined in the savage and beautiful bayou, host to seething, colorful seafood montages and untamable creatures, against a killer soundtrack — an amalgam of whimsical and creole.

In a brutish father-daughter narrative, the plot of “Beasts” wanders in the most satisfactory way, wowing the audience with the shock of an undomesticated community. The elegance in poverty and a poetic script doesn’t rely on dialogue.

Hushpuppy is a protagonist to go down in the ages — conquering the task of growing up too young, subserving masculinity as a means of survival and understanding how animals talk.

Quvenzhané Wallis was 5 when she auditioned for the role, and her performance was tear-jerkingly, awe-inspiringly good. She is the undeniable icon for a movie that does not underestimate the caliber of children, who are capable of handling things much, much bigger than themselves.

By Francisco Tirado