Southern Gothic? Where the Crawdads Sing has some of that menace, prejudice, eccentricity, sexism, and violence that Southern literature, from Harper Lee, Tennessee Williams, and James Dickey through Flannery O’Connor have traded on. Crawdads also has a respect for survival and hunger for literacy that marks it as progressive fiction depicting a slowly evolving, reconstructing South.
I get lost in a swamp of Southern sentimentality sometimes with this alluring literature especially when a talented surviving girl is involved. I will be kinder than some of my peers by saying this thriller is an old-fashioned mix of To Kill a Mockingbird and Winter’s Bone with just a whiff of Deliverance to keep it scary enough but still entertaining for members of the family above eight years old.
Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), aka Swamp Girl by locals, strikes out for the North Carolina marsh and swamp to escape an abusive Pa (Garrett Dillahunt—playing in traditional Gothic mode), both of whom have been abandoned by the rest of the family. Adapted by Lucy Alibar from the Delia Owens best-selling novel and directed intelligently and gently by Olivia Newman, Crawdads draws on our prejudices about the rural South to surprise us eventually that there are softer, more considerate sides of locals who believe Kya killed her former boyfriend, Chase (Harris Dickinson).
The story doesn’t let us forget her fate at trial depends on persuading this local jury of her innocence. Because the Atticus-Finch like Tom Milton (David Strathairn) defends her if she will tell him about her life, the drama enfolds with flash backs and contemporary scenes that eventually show her a young woman of substance occasionally making the wrong choices but learning quickly enough to find love and her gifts as a naturalist.
Although I’m impatient with the repetitive romantic scenes, the minimalist trial and stunning cinematography of North Carolina provide beauty and danger enough to please the pickiest cinephile with its elegant retro filmmaking. As for the drama, many luxurious shots are infused with a love of nature and a respect for human nature that marries the wilderness to Kya’s sensibilities and produces volumes of her ornithological illustrations bringing the world to the swamp without compromising its balance.
Where the Crawdads Sing brings a regional awareness of nature in its eternal dance with humans’ awkward attempts to tame it. A story about a brilliant woman marrying the marsh to her evolving survival as a writer and woman must be seen by those who favor an aggressive modern female taming ignorance and preserving respect for marshland that refuses to be tamed.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Director: Olivia Newman (First Match)
Screenplay: Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild), based on Delia Owens novel
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People), Taylor John Smith (Cruel Intentions)
Run Time: 2h 5m
Rating: PG-13
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
