Beasts of the Southern Wild: WTF?

Beasts of the Southern Wild:
This is a film I have very, VERY mixed opinions on. It's a grimy, depressing mess, or: a beautiful, somewhat funny, somewhat sad look at a fantastical life from the view of a little, tomboyish girl. The plot follows Hushpuppy, a six-year-old girl, living with her alcoholic, bipolar, water-loving dad Wink, in a fictitious Southern wetlands community called "The Bathtub", populated by only what I can describe as "If Deliverance's villains were portrayed as good people". The Bathtub is cut off from the big city by a levee, and when a storm floods their home, the remaining survivors sail in their modified homes to blow up the levee, and stick it to the man. Many critics are giving this film endless praise, which puzzles me. Yes, it's a good and well-shot and acted film, but it's definitely not as whimsical or lovable as the trailers and critics portray it. It is a dark, gritty, grimy, raw film, where at no time do the residents of the Bathtub ever look clean. Even in a heartwarming scene at the end, the characters still look greasy, grimy, and nasty. It's an uncomfortable, unpleasant film to look at because of this, so the beautiful camerawork and special effects on the "beasts" in the film are wasted. That's another thing, there's this metaphorical subplot where, in Hushpuppy's mind, the ancient prehistoric beasts called aurochs have thawed from the ice caps, which Hushpuppy believes melted and flooded their home. The aurochs appear throughout the film as a metaphor for what's happening. At the end, Hushpuppy has a fantasy where she meets the beasts and tames them. The cast is good, but the characters they play are truly odd. Quvenzhane Wallis plays Hushpuppy, who, strangely, is being raised like a boy. Now I'm not saying that girls should be little pampered prissies, or that girls can't be strong or tough. But Wink, the father, constantly tries to toughen her up, beats her when he's drunk, and constantly calls her "the man", and makes her flex her muscles. Dwight Henry plays Wink. He's a weird character, at the beginning he's a loving father, which he is during the entire movie, but he switches from a loving guy, to a violent and crazed drunk. He also throws shit at Hushpuppy, and has her live in a separate trailer across from his, when she burns it down, he lets her sleep in his house, under strict rules. The others I can't remember, but they try to make people in this movie likeable, but they're really a bunch of, in my best possible words, stubborn, inbred freaks. They drink moonshine and let their kids drink alcohol, to toughen the kids up they let them curse. (Bathtub residents and kids call people who live in the city or use medical help "pussies") They have missing teeth, don't take help from doctors (because they represent an uptight society?), they barely use silverware, and they eat crabs straight from the shell, and let the kids lay on the shells as a bed. Everything about this film, besides the camerawork and special effects, is ugly, weird, and crazy. And people think Wes Anderson makes odd movies. The acting is great, if you look at it as a portrayal of stubborn, backwoods crazy people. Beasts of the Southern Wild was okay, but definitely not one of my best films of the year. Maybe it will be though, because the cinematography alone gets props, and the acting from that little girl is astounding. A six-year-old gives a convincing performance of a strong, yet weird character? Who would've thought? 3.5/5 stars.