Film rec: Winter's Bone
If you are anywhere near one of the theaters that's playing Winter's Bone I am offering you a money-back guarantee! Really. Go see this and if you feel you wasted your time and money come back here and tell me. I'll reimburse you the ticket price.
Please notice, however, that I made no promise you would ENJOY the film.*
It's sparse and bleak, and depressing as hell for all it ends about as well as possible given the events of the film. This is Country Noir set in a poverty-crippled, drug-infected rural America that most of us fly over or whip past without wanting to see. It is a dark film but it is also filled with loyalty and courage, and a dogged refusal to give up that may just signal hope. Jennifer Lawrence is stunning as seventeen year old Ree, trying to hold her family together and track down her Meth-cooking father before he misses a court date, forfeiting their house and timberland to the bond company. The whole cast is amazing (and several are just folks living where they were shooting), the writing spare to the point of elegance, and the images haunting. The women here remind you that while sometimes when you beat something down it shatters, sometimes it is transformed into something strong and nigh unbreakable instead.
Early on, Ree admonishes her young brother "Don't ask for what ought to be offered."
This is me, offering, because you need to see this film.
* eta: Full Disclosure I DID enjoy the film but I don't mind art making me profoundly uncomfortable, am often melancholy, and listen to bluegrass and Richard Thompson to cheer up so ymmv.
Please notice, however, that I made no promise you would ENJOY the film.*
It's sparse and bleak, and depressing as hell for all it ends about as well as possible given the events of the film. This is Country Noir set in a poverty-crippled, drug-infected rural America that most of us fly over or whip past without wanting to see. It is a dark film but it is also filled with loyalty and courage, and a dogged refusal to give up that may just signal hope. Jennifer Lawrence is stunning as seventeen year old Ree, trying to hold her family together and track down her Meth-cooking father before he misses a court date, forfeiting their house and timberland to the bond company. The whole cast is amazing (and several are just folks living where they were shooting), the writing spare to the point of elegance, and the images haunting. The women here remind you that while sometimes when you beat something down it shatters, sometimes it is transformed into something strong and nigh unbreakable instead.
Early on, Ree admonishes her young brother "Don't ask for what ought to be offered."
This is me, offering, because you need to see this film.
* eta: Full Disclosure I DID enjoy the film but I don't mind art making me profoundly uncomfortable, am often melancholy, and listen to bluegrass and Richard Thompson to cheer up so ymmv.