Beasts of the Southern Wild

Quvenhane Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly - Dir: Benh Zeitlin

Beasts of the Southern Wild was very much the little engine that could at this year's Oscars. It was far and away the smallest-budgeted film nominated but, despite coming away empty handed there (it has won many other awards), the magical tale held its own proudly amongst esteemed competition.
Simply – and it is a simple film – the story takes place in a fictitious location, hinted at as being similar in ways to the Louisiana gulf coast. It is called The Bathtub and living in this community are Hushpuppy, an indomitable six-year-old girl and her father, Wink. He practices what seems to be very tough love, trying to prepare her for the upcoming storm and for life without him. We see the film from her perspective so strange magical things are happening all around.
And if the story is, in retrospect, less than the sum of its parts, then the way it is told amply makes up for that. The imagery is strong and memorable, the performances are lovely – the young girl, Oscar-nominated, really is extraordinary - and the whole film feels like a glimpse of another world, transporting you into a place where life is simpler and more elemental. It's an invigorating experience.

Many people are going to enjoy the marvellous documentary The Queen of Versailles. It is a fascinating glimpse into the 2008 financial crisis, but from a fresh and unusual perspective. It follows the Siegel family, top of the heap with the wealthy and politically influential, David Siegel runs the successful Westgate Resorts time-share business and his beauty queen wife, Jackie. They are building the largest private home in America ('inspired” by its namesake). Then comes the crash. It's hard not to feel a certain amount of schadenfreude as these ghastly gauche people are forced to curtail their grotesquely ostentatious lifestyle and the film's accumulation of small telling detail (and hints at the underlying immorality of the initial business) is engrossing.

The Sessions is a film based on the true story of Mark O'Brien, nearly completely paralysed and confined to an iron lung since childhood, university graduate, poet, and journalist. And, when we meet him in 1988, a man wanting to have sex. Thanks to a witty humane script and a cast working at the top of their game, it is a delightful and inspiring movie. Australian John Hawkes is brilliant as O'Brien, flat on his back but instantly a person we know and like; Helen Hunt is fearless as the sex surrogate he employs and William H Macy is fresh and sympathetic as his common sense priest. Touchy stuff, beautifully handled.

Wreck-It Ralph is much better than I expected. For a film with a set-up that could read 'Toy Story in a video arcade” it manages to be both very funny and tick that difficult box marked Fun For Both Kids and Adults. The titular character is the 'bad guy” in a game called Fix-It Felix. But of course he dreams of being the 'good guy”. This leads to wandering through various other arcade games – which will be a joy for fans of that medium – before accidentally unleashing a threat against the whole arcade. No surprises will come from me revealing that this gives him the chance to fulfil his dreams and reconcile his character issues. A big improvement from Disney - I liked it.

Seven Psychopaths is a fantastically eccentric comedy thriller from the writer/director that made the rather wonderful In Bruges, Irishman Martin McDonough. It's a manic ride starring, again, Colin Farrell, this time as a Hollywood screenwriter in need of inspiration for his script (about seven psychopaths). Things become complicated after a couple of his patently unreliable friends kidnap a gangster's prized Shih Tsu. It's fast, it's furious, it's very funny, and it has a great cast: Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Waits, Olga Kurylenko, amongst others. Good rockin' fun.