This is a really, really divisive film and you have to be a very specific kind-of audience to watch it and in a very specific kind-of mood to like it. It doesn’t have a “plot” so much as a loose story and how much you like it will probably depend on what you go to the movies for.
This is an “experience” movie that follows the story of Hushpuppie, an adorable 6-year-old girl trying to live long enough to grow up on a small island off the coast of New Orleans. This is an isolated, very “off the grid” type of place where most people have been born and raised there and electricity is for snobs. Hushpuppie is being “raised” by her mentally unbalanced father, who is more or less exactly the type you might expect to find living in this type of environment. This is set roughly during Hurricane Katrina, and an approaching storm threatens to sink the island…as do giant, prehistoric beasts (they look like boars the size of elephants) approaching from Antarctica…I told you, this is a different kind-of movie.
What Works: I don’t go for “cute kid” movies, but Hushpuppie really is adorable. She’s in pretty much every scene of this warped fairy tale and you do wind up rooting for her to have a happy ending. And the movie’s desolate scenery (Hushpuppie’s dad’s “boat” is the bed of a pickup truck) is beautiful.
What Doesn’t Work: The movie is short but feels long, and that’s because there isn’t so much a plot to this movie or any driving force as there are themes and feelings that stretch out into 95 minutes. Also, the tone isn’t consistent. One minute, we’re engulfed in a fairy tale, the next we’re watching Hushpuppie’s father scream at her for five full minutes. I get that the prehistoric beasts are an allegory for changing times threatening the island’s way of life but the movie could have used a bit more surrealism for balance. As is, it feels like we’re watching this super-realistic film that inexplicably has these giant horned pigs roaming around.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Shit, who knows? Cut Hushpuppie’s screaming father from twenty minute monologues to ten minute ones? Doubled the number of elephant-sized horned pigs roaming around? Either extended or cut entirely the sequence on a boat of prostitutes? I can’t say…All I know is the scenery was nice, the lead was cute, and the ending was strong, other than that I’m just glad I didn’t pay to watch this but others might feel differently.