'Where the Crawdads Sing': Ignore the review aggregators; this film deserves all thumbs up

by Brandis S.

The 2022 mystery/romance movie “Where the Crawdads Sing” refers to a place “far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters,” and boy what a story occurs there. The protagonist in the movie, Catherine Danielle Clark, also known as Kya, was a woman who raised herself in the marshes of the Deep South and became a suspect in murder of a man with whom she was once involved. Her life is defined by isolation, self-reliance, and a deep affinity with the natural world. Although the film, adapted from a novel of the same name published in 2018 by Delia Owns, garnered a mere 4.6 rating summary on Google and only a 34% “fresh” ranking according to RottenTomatoes.com, “Where the Crawdads Sing” is in fact a beautiful, touching, and empowering movie.

First of all, a young girl raising herself for years in a deep marsh all alone makes for a compelling story as does the plot, which revolves around a murder. After Kya’s dad abused her mother her whole life, she leaves her husband, and soon all her kids slowly follow behind her one by one. All follow except young Kya who’s pride wouldn't let her go, until one day her drunken, narcissistic, abusive father leaves just as everyone else. He leaves Kya by her lonesome and wishes she was the one to escape. The movie is written in two alternating timelines. The writer of the movie Lucy Alibar, who bases the movie off the novel, has the movie flowing seamlessly between Kya’s rough childhood and the mystery of a murdered man. The writing is smooth and exquisite, as she blends the transition between two different stories while connecting them in startling ways. In short, the plot involving an independent child and a murder hooks the reader, but the way the details are woven together both seamlessly and unexpectedly through the duel are what really make the story shine.

Next, the message behind the whole film is meaningful. The film’s theme revolves around the powerful role nature can play in our lives. While Kya lived most of her life without a family, she eventually makes a bond with the marsh and luckily finds companionship in nature, but also uses the marsh to find strength and praise her femininity. She is curious, brave, stubborn, and due to her childhood trauma, she generally has a hard time in contact with society. Kya uses nature as her teacher since she lacked formal schooling and adults in her life. She starts to see herself as part of a family of wild creatures. Towards the end of the movie Kya thinks about how most of what she knew, she learned from the wild. Nature nurtured, tutored, and protected her when nobody else would; it can do the same for each of us too.

All in all, a crazy shocking plot twist often catches the audience's attention and takes everyone by surprise, and “Crawdads” is no exception. To be fair, a spoiler is coming. After going on trial for the murder of her former lover, Chase Andrews, with her intelligent, try hard lawyer, Tom Milton, Kya was found not guilty in the homicide. Fast forwarding years ahead, after we witness Kya’s quiet death, her now husband Tate Walker discovers a piece of evidence from her trial, which she was said not to have had in her belongings. This is such a plot twist because this piece of evidence proves Kya to be guilty for the murder of Chase Andrews after all even though she was wrongly proven “innocent”.

Although I’ve given you plenty of valid reasons why the movie “Where the Crawdads Sing” is a great movie, some critics refuse to feel the same way. One of the reasons some people don’t see the film as great is because they think it portrays the black characters as stereotypical. Critics felt like the novel and movie implies black people are unintelligent. Additionally, some critics have alleged difficulty understanding what Kya says sometimes. In the film Kya uses a broken, Southern dialogue. As she learns to read and becomes more educated her dialogue structure becomes more recognizable. In the film, as well as the novel, the writers are using the same “broken, Southern dialogue” for the educated black characters. The reason this isn't valid criticism, however, is because the black characters in the movie, Jumpin and Mabel, were not that stereotyped. Plus, they were portrayed positively in several other ways. They were the only family Kya ever had, they never abandoned or betrayed her. They provided what little parenting Kya ever had. Mabel would collect clothes and other essentials for her, and they even helped hide her from social services to avoid her going into foster care or something. I don’t understand how the black characters portrayed anything other than love and kindness, and the way they and Kya talk is irrelevant to this fact.

Students at AHS have their own opinions of the movie. “I really enjoyed “Where the Crawdads Sing” because Kya was able to get through a lot as a young girl, as well as when she was an adult. I think it was her bravery that made me enjoy the movie the most,” states Allicen C, a new freshman here at Airport. “It was overall a good movie, but sad,” says Taylor B, one of my former classmates. Like me, most teens appear to like the film. Why critics disliked it when audiences don't is an interesting phenomenon.

Despite the less-than-stellar average rating on “Where the Crawdads Sing”, this empowering movie will leave a mark on your heart. The abandoned little girl, then the shocking plot twist, to the meaningful message discovered behind the film, make it both emotionally powerful and engaging plot-wise. If you’ve yet to come across this movie go search for it and always remember to explore “yonder where the Crawdads sing”.