Thoughts on "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

So last night I finally saw "Beasts of the Southern Wild," the strange new film by director Benh Zeitlin and Court 13. I was a huge fan of his short film, "Glory at Sea," which came out a few years ago (check it out at the link!). And I was vaguely aware of this new project as they were working on it over the past three years. But the short film was so striking and original and wonderfully compact, I was also somewhat skeptical about how they would approach a longer film with very similar ele...