In case I haven't mentioned it before, I’m a huge movie fiend; I think that goes back to my childhood in Mississippi, when all there was to do on a Saturday night was go to the movies. I could get a child’s ticket until I was about 14 years old, and popcorn was only 50 cents, so basically I saw everything that came to town.
So last Friday afternoon I was checking the weekend lineup at Cine Cafe, a local theater and cinema, and I read about Winter’s Bone. Before I even finished the movie review, I told my husband about the film, and we jumped in the car to try to make the 5:15 feature. We were 5 minutes late, but, since we’d read a little background, we were able to pick up the story line. It’s a about Ree, a tough17 year old, fiercely protective of her younger brother and sister and their mentally ill nearly-catatonic mother. They live in backwoods, Missouri, in a dilapidated cabin surrounded by yard dogs, broken toys and relatives that make the hillbillies in Deliverence look friendly. We discover that Ree's father is a meth cooker on the run from the sheriff. Ree has to find him because he’s put their house and the surrounding timberlands up for bond, and her family’s about to lose the house. I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot because one of the best things about the film is watching the the dark thread of the plot unraveling. This low-budget backwoods gothic won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, as much as for its austerity as its authentic storytelling. The movie is visually mesmerizing and not for the usual reasons. It's stark. It's menacing. It's ugly. It's heart-breaking, but it's hopeful. I could watch this movie over and over again and never fully comprehend the damaged humanity of its characters. Every once in a while a movie gets under my skin, and Winter’s Bone is most definitely that film. You should go see it.
6 comments:
Sounds intriguing. I'll have to keep my eye out for it. Nice review. Thanks for sharing. I love a really good movie, also.
Tammy
This looks like a good movie-I'm going to put it on my Netflix list. I live in Missouri--I wonder where "backwoods" Missouri is--hmmm--southern Missouri or the Ozarks maybe???
Sounds great and since I'm playing catchup I love the work in your previous posts and congrats to you and that wonderfully sly hubby of yours. Hope you had a wonderful time.
Thanks for the great review. I usually like more of the smaller movies, Indy films, etc than a lot of the big star-studded ones that come out.
Thanks for the review. It sounds very interesting. I don't go very often to cinema and I don't know, if this movie will be shown in Germany, too.
just meandering around and found you thru Joyful Ploys--have been enjoying your artwork and totally understand the jumping from style to style. Had to comment here, though--Winter's Bone was fabulous--rip out your heart, stomp on it, and kick it into the gritty gutter fabulous!
Gail
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