I was probably not the best audience for Beasts of The Southern Wild (2012, directed by Benh Zeitlin). I've been dealing with my first really prolonged period of depression in almost a decade and the last thing I needed to see is a movie that reminds me that the world is winding down. That its vision of a post-capitalist apocalypse is filtered through the eyes of a six year old child only makes me want to sit that child down so I can tell her, "Sorry about the dungheap we've left for you. Hope you can make a life out of it. The odds aren't in your favor. Good luck." I also wasn't in the mood for yet another indie film that mistakes a tripod for selling out. Just because your camera wanders all over the frame looking for a composition doesn't mean that your film has any degree of gritty realism. It just means that it looks un-directed. This movie has mythological monsters in it, for fuck's sake! Hold the camera still for a minute! Anyway, handheld cameras give me a headache these days. I almost yearn for the days when art films used long static takes with not much motion in them.
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