Film Review – Wendy

Writer/director Benh Zeitlin made his big debut with “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” a restless study of fantasy and childhood that managed to trigger a response at the box office and collect a handful of Oscar nominations. But that was 2012. It’s been quite some time since Zeitlin made a movie, building expectations for his follow-up, and he’s settled on the story of “Peter Pan” for “Wendy,” a reworking of J.M. Barrie’s beloved book and play, which once again returns the helmer to a restless study of fantasy and childhood. Content to repeat himself, Zeitlin uses “Wendy” to dig deeper into his favorite themes of youth and aging, working with an amateur cast to best summon a special level of excitement and raw emotion. The vision for the feature is there, but the execution is fatigued and familiar, straining to summon a dark magic with screen poetry we’ve seen before, and in a much better film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com