Where The Crawdads Sing (2022)

I am not going to pretend that I didn’t enjoy Where The Crawdads Sing. I did. While it was on, I thought the acting was fine and the storyline was engrossing enough to keep me actively engaged from start to finish. The magic started to fade after the end credits rolled though, and I am now bemused by the fact that it managed to win me over for most of the 125-minute runtime. Let’s put it down to the fact that it was a pretty comfortable “date night” movie choice. If you are after that then you could do worse than this. Otherwise, you would probably do best to avoid it.

Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kya Clark, a woman who lives alone in the marsh area of North Carolina. Flashbacks show us exactly how she ended up in this situation, and more flashbacks will show us how she ended up in trouble. Because Kya could be in a lot of trouble, all thanks to the discovered corpse of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). Standing trial for murder, Kya is defended by a local lawyer (Tom Milton, played by David Strathairn) who has to convince the local town residents that their own prejudices should not be enough to find this young woman guilty. Is Kya a murderer though, or is she a victim of some horribly coincidental circumstantial evidence?

Based on a popular book by Delia Owens, this was adapted into screenplay form by Lucy Alibar (her third feature), and the non-chronological structure works well for painting the big picture and keeping viewers on their toes. Director Olivia Newman presents everything well enough, it all looks picturesque and pretty, even while the setting isn’t really the prettiest place on the planet. This is only Newman’s second film, having amassed a body of work that includes a short or two and some episodic TV work, but the relative lack of experience behind the camera doesn’t seem to affect the final product, although I suspect both writer and director decided to stick closer to the source material than someone more confident in their own abilities (and this is just me speculating because, as you may have guessed, I haven’t read the book).

Edgar-Jones is good in the lead role. I haven’t seen her in too many movies so far, but I have liked what I HAVE seen. Strathairn is always worth your time, and he gives a typically enjoyable performance here. Dickinson gets to be a bit of a douchebag, which he does very well, but at least his character development is less ambiguous, and subsequently more enjoyable, than the other main man in Kya’s life, Tate (Taylor John Smith). Smith is a typical bland, safe, option popping in and out of the film, but some of his words and actions are enough to have you hoping that Kya realises she can just stay happy in her own company until meeting someone genuinely deserving of her affection. Garrett Dillahunt has a few scenes, and is excellent, as a resentful and violent “Pa”. Michael Hyatt and Sterling Macer Jr. are the last two people to mention, giving very enjoyable supporting turns as a married couple/shopkeepers who do their best to help and protect a young girl (oh, I should show some appreciation for Jojo Regina, playing young Kya) they realise is fending for herself.

This is escapist fare, and some of it works well enough, but it’s all very superficial, from the legal proceedings to the cherry depiction of a life of poverty that equates to a carefree young girls walking barefoot around some marshes. Nothing is as grubby and painful as it should be, and the twists and turns feel redundant when you start to figure out the foregone conclusion of the finale. It’s okay though, absolutely okay, although I doubt anyone would want to rush to rewatch it.

5/10

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Beasts Of The Southern Wild (2012)

Beasts Of The Southern Wild was well-received when released in 2012. It wasn't unanimously loved, however, and some of the backlash that appeared has never really gone away, with good reason. I enjoyed Beasts Of The Southern Wild for much of the runtime, but I enjoyed the performances and the moments of surreal dreaminess as opposed to the way in which the characters are viewed or treated. I may be wrong here, but there's just something at the heart of the material that seems very wrong. Director Benh Zeitlin, and writer Lucy Alibar (who worked with Zeitlin to adapt her play into movie form), walk a tightrope, and should have walked it with greater care, in my opinion.

There's no denying that Quvenzhane Wallis gives an extraordinary performance in the central role, as Hushpuppy, the young girl living in an area of Louisiana known as the "Bathtub" as she is raised by her father, Wink (Dwight Henry). Hushpuppy talks, in voiceover, of everything being connected and even the smallest piece needing to fit into the right place, and that sums up the movie. It's about lives connecting and it's also, in an obvious way, about ecosystems (The Bathtub is at risk of major flooding thanks to global warming, but there are also some big beasts that may end up freed from their frozen status as glaciers melt). Yet it's also about surviving, it's about having the courage to stand up and face whatever may be heading your way, and it's about poverty.

While I don't necessarily think Beasts Of The Southern Wild is a racist movie, as it's been tagged by some people, I do think that it's misguided and just a bit careless when it comes to its portrayal of the main inhabitants of The Bathtub. They look out for one another, true, but they do so in a very self-serving manner, and always seem to make time for drinking and general merriment. There are serious moments in the movie, scenes that show young Hushpuppy in immediate danger, that are then left behind and never given a second thought. The central relationship between her and her father is dubious, at best, and potentially dangerous. Yet viewers are supposed to realise that they simply love one another as they try to struggle through some difficult times. Sorry, but I ain't buying that kool-aid.

The acting is great from almost everyone onscreen, but the problems come from the script. Having not read the original play by Alibar, I am not able to say if there are problems here that were always inherent in the material. I can, however, say that the script here is more problematic than the direction from Benh Zeitlin. The dialogue and characterisations are the major flaws, the smooth and dreamy direction from Zeitlin does a lot to make up for those aspects.

Worth a watch, and very interesting for a number of reasons, but this is a difficult film to recommend to people. Opinions vary wildly on it, check it out some time and see whether you end up a fan or detractor.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beasts-Southern-Blu-ray-Quvenzhan%C3%A9-Wallis/dp/B009HUA1IA/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1374360892&sr=1-2&keywords=beasts+of+the+southern+wild