By Jacob Mertens. Sown from the fabric of tragedy, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild ravages through the primeval swamp of the Louisianan bayou with a camera that shakes and slips out of focus. The characters construct shanties from scraps of metal and forgotten rubbish, while their old homes […]
Central Thematic Conflict in 21 Grams and Babel
By Anna Weinstein. Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga is best known for writing ensemble films about the effects of tragedy on human life—how tragedy can both pull apart and bring together. His scripts present a kaleidoscopic view of human interconnection, that people across cultures, borders, and class systems are, when all is […]