We finally got around to seeing Beasts of the Southern Wild and a wild adventure it is. Little Quvenzhané Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a 5-year-old girl living in what seems like a post-apocalyptic world. Later, we learn Hushpuppy, her mentally ill father Wink, and the other scavengers who live in ruined buildings are actually residents of the fringe of New Orleans called “The Bathtub.” Beasts of the Southern Wild, believe it or not, is Benh Zeitlin’s first feature film. It’s based on a screenplay and stage play by his collaborator, Lucy Alibar. Filmed in post-Katrina locations among the ravaged bayous of Louisiana, this movie will jar you with its energy and its unique vision. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a terrific movie! GRADE: A
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
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I’ve been reading faux-Jack Vance novels lately. Matthew Hughes comes closest to emulating The Master. Last week, I recommended Ray Aldridge’s “The Emancipator” series that contained echoes of Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series. Today, I’m recommending L. Warren Douglas’ Stepwater: An Arbiter Tale which will remind some of you of Jack Vance’s Alastor Cluster series. Stepwater is the first book in a trilogy (The Wells of Phyre and Glaice are the other books in the series) which revolves around The Arbiter, John Minder, who needs to keep the peace on a thousand planets with minimum resources. Many of those planets are inhabited by genetically engineered humans who can adapt to less than Earth-like conditions. Douglas channels Jack Vance’s whimsy and diplomatic cunning in these tales. Well worth reading! 
Dwayne Johnson (aka, The Rock) plays the owner of a trucking company. Johnson’s teenage son is entrapped by a “friend” into accepting a UPS delivery of drugs. The son is arrested and faces many years in prison. Johnson tries to persuade Federal Prosecutor Susan Sarandon of his son’s naivete, but gets nowhere. Sarandon plays a politically ambitious prosecutor who’s willing to reduce Johnson’s son sentence if Johnson brings her a bigger drug dealer to enhance her position with the media. Johnson meets with a drug dealer and offers to use his long-haul trucks to transport drugs. Snitch shows how untrustworthy the drug dealers and the Feds are in keeping promises. Most of you know Dwayne Johnson as an action hero, but in Snitch his role as a caring father who’s willing to take Big Risks to help his son is convincing and moving. The soundtrack is pretty good, too. GRADE: B+
Last week I reviewed Mark Binelli’s Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis. Despite the horrific descriptions of life in Detroit, I admired Binelli’s historical perspective and optimism. Charlie DeLuff’s Detroit: An American Autopsy presents a darker portrait of the embattled city. You know the stories are going to be dark and twisted from the first quote in the book by Marvin Gaye: “Detroit turned out to be heaven, but it also turned out to be hell.” Charlie LeDuff finds a body frozen in ice while exploring one of Detroit’s many abandoned buildings. He travels to daily fires with Detroit’s beleaguered firefighters. Arson is rampant. At the core of Detroit’s plight is the issue of whether the current dystopia belongs solely to the city or is it the future fate of other Rust Belt cities like Buffalo and Cleveland. You can hear an interview with Charlie LeDuff 
