The Music of Beasts of the Southern Wild - Rolling Stone Magazine

"[Benh and Dan] have always worked together in that capacity, but Benh's made film his life, whereas Dan is a music producer by trade," says Gottwald. "But I think that Benh, having musical experience, when they come together they create something that is the product of both of them." The director "has a very good ear for storytelling in film, like the musical storytelling aspect," says Romer. "For a good two weeks, we were sitting together working 20 hours a day on this score, and it was like nine a.m. to five a.m. every day working. Just the level of artistry that he was outputting just made me want to work that much."

Explains Zeitlin, "We've just known each other for so long. I sort of understand his tendencies and he understands mine. Like everything else in the film, it turns out that what we needed was actually our family."

Read more at Rollingstone.com

'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' Soundtrack Hits iTunes Today - IndieWire

A heartrending, magical and extraordinary debut film about a six-year-old girl who leaves her ailing father and Delta-community home in search of her mother (though that feels like just the tip of the iceberg), equally exceptional and particularly striking is the film's wonderful score. Written by producer/mixer and composer Dan Romer and Zeitlin himself (they also both scored Zeitlin's acclaimed short "Glory At Sea"), in a recent interview with the director that The Playlist has yet to publish, the filmmaker told us the concept for the score was that it was the music that lead character Hushpuppy (played by Quvenzhané Wallis in an amazing breakthrough turn) hears inside her head.   Stirring, mournful, bewitching and anthemic, it's not completely off-base to say the score is Arcade Fire-esque in its energetic and rousing celebratory nature. And yes, on a close listen, it's all based on the same one-theme, but that's part of its emotional brilliance. However you want to describe it, we recommend you check it and the movie out as soon as possible.

Read the complete article on IndieWire.

Beasts of the Southern Wild - Best of New Orleans

"The thing is, all films come from Hollywood or New York," Zeitlin says. "Even when people come here, they're using a model invented somewhere else, which is a ridiculous thing. What other art form comes only from two cultures? There needs to be a movement to bring film outside of those places, and to make them with a different culture." Read the complete article on Gambit.

Review: Emotional 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' is extraordinary - Los Angeles Times

[Hushpuppy] is the film's central narrator and the dialogue the writers have given her reaches a level of poetic balladry that nearly sings of grit and determination. That tone is matched by the music. Composer Dan Romer and Zeitlin collaborated to create a more ethereal Cajun sound, as flavorful and lively as ever, but somehow softened by its orchestral seasoning. The Bathtub itself comes at us from ground level, a patchwork of scavenged tin and wood rising out of the mud. It's all a little larger than life as seen from Hushpuppy's point of view. Director of photography Ben Richardson, whose work drew special notice at Sundance, creates an energy field around Hushpuppy. The camera was hand-held but steady as a rock and the result is a lyrical grace that turns detritus and rot into things of beauty.

Read the complete review at LATimes.

She’s the Man of This Swamp - New York Times

Played by Quvenzhané Wallis, an untrained sprite who holds the camera’s attention with a charismatic poise that might make grown-up movie stars weep in envy, Hushpuppy is an American original, a rambunctious blend of individualism and fellow feeling. In other words, she is the inheritor of a proud literary and artistic tradition, following along a crooked path traveled by Huckleberry Finn, Scout Finch, Eloise (of the Plaza), Elliott (from “E.T.”) and other brave, wild, imaginary children. These young heroes allow us, vicariously, to assert our innocence and to accept our inevitable disillusionment when the world falls short of our ideals and expectations. Read the entire article at NYTimes.