There was once a time when we looked to the Sundance Film Festival to present us with groundbreaking independent films that challenged and changed what we understood about contemporary cinema. But as the festival became increasingly infiltrated by major studios and A-list stars over the course of the ’90s, it lost its sense of revelatory edge; at its best, Sundance now gives well-known actors the opportunity to gain prestige and acclaim by doing smaller character-based films, and can usually be depended upon to introduce us to buzzy new ingenues and precocious young auteurs. But this year, a massively ambitious yet micro-budgeted film made by a principled collective in southern Louisiana hit the festival with enough impact to shake off decades of cynical atrophy. That film is Beasts of the Southern Wild, the feature-length directorial debut of 29-year-old Benh Zeitlin, and it is the full and total realization of the Sundance dream: not only does it introduce us to the staggering talents of new actors and filmmakers, but it majestically opens the gate to an entirely new and fantastical world. It is truly unlike anything you have ever seen.
