Saw 'Winter's Bone'......

[FAST FRED]

....via NETFLIX and thought it was quite worthwhile for me and very recommendable to the right audience.

The Link

This is a gritty, cerebral crime drama from that Land Down Under featuring a dark, slow moving story about a criminal family and the cops working as fast as they can to catch them while the plot twists with interesting surprises coming from all sides.

I suggest you use the subtitles.

Aussie Jacki Weaver is Academy Award nominated for Best Supporting Actress and she's very good, initially providing motherly and grandmotherly compassion, sheltering and understanding to her amoral criminal clan until her role grows.

Plus, Guy Pearce plays a detective which greatly adds to the interesting vibe which I think this flick shares with "L. A. Confidential."

This movie also reminded me of "American Gangster," starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, because of the sudden violence and the duality of the criminal/detective story.

And some similarities to Casey Affleck's excellent tour de force, "The Killer Inside Me," also came to mind.

However, in "Animal Kingdom" the storyline is much more tortuous and less fully explained than in those movies, which may leave more impatient viewers confused or bored and make anally analytical movie watchers pucker as they discern "plot holes" that the director probably consciously chose to leave uncovered.

I was personally content allowing the moody soundtrack and less than crisp editing to work toward increasing this film's tension for me, but others might find those particular cinematic elements' long lingering usage here to be overbearing and underwhelming.

So, I believe patient fans of this genre, who can enjoy languorously observing movie making methods being used, sometimes as much as seeing the completed result, will appreciate "Animal Kingdom" the most, while those who require or prefer their movie storytelling use a back story or a satisfying final resolution, while employing lots of chase scenes, gun play, nudity and other such excitement, should probably choose another flick.

However, if you found the profound desperation and stark bleakness so realistically depicted in "Winter's Bone" worth your watching time as a video voyeur, perhaps this is another slowly rewarding, on screen offering you'd enjoy savoring in the safe, protected, comfort of your home.

Anyone seen it?

 

[Namewithheld]

FF, I saw it this summer in Nashville and it was an excellent but very dark film. You left the theater thanking God for your situation no matter how bad it is.

I heard that most of the people in the film were from that area and if they were actors before that movie they all shouldn't been nominated for some award because they played meth-heads to a "T". The main character was spunky and didn't take **** from anyone but that also almost cost her her life. Still walking out of the theater to sunlight was glorious!

 

[Third Coast]

Haven't seen it yet, but I've been impressed with Jennifer Lawrence's other work - particularly "The Burning Plain" and The Poker House". She is a rising star in my opinion.

 

[bevo barry]

Glad to see John Hawkes get an Academy Award nom...he is one of my all-time favorite character actors. Doubt he has a snowball's chance of beating out Christian Bale, though.

I really liked the film, but doubt I could watch it again...too damn bleak.

 

[Longhorny630]

I think Winter's Bone hit me pretty hard last night

 

[Perham1]

Agree that Winter's Bone is very good. I know some people up in that area and to them this movie might seem more like a documentary.

Anyway, thanks for the tip on Frozen River. Just added it to my netflix queue.

 

[OldHippie]

For some reason I didn't think the movie was nearly as depressing as "The Road" or "Precious", probably because I spent my early years in rural Tennessee. The Lucinda Williams song "Greenville" comes immediately to mind. The acting was a bit spotty but I really liked uncle Tear Drop and he seemed quite real to me. Three and a half stars from this geezer hick.

 

[buckhorn]

I loved this film.

Tried to pimp it last summer.

See it.
The Link

 

[RomaVicta]

Watched it last night. Very well done if maybe a little overly bleak movie. The cast is great. I just looked up Dale Dickey on imdb and see she has done a number of horrifying characters in things I've seen before. She plays Thump's woman in WB.

I'm glad you mention Frozen River. It's another winter movie with a lot of bleakness in it, but the bleakness is not unrelenting.

 

[SunBurntOrange]

Watched this movie last night. Thought the storyline was a little depressing and slow moving, although I would assume it was pretty accurate in is depiction of life among the predominantly white meth addicted poor and poverty stricken folks of the region with nothing resembling happiness among them. I understand why this type of film may not appeal to everybody, but as for me, I was hooked into it within the first five minutes. It reminded me at first of the old movie “Where The Lilies Bloom” with an older sibling taking care of two younger ones in similarly tough conditions, before it goes off into its own direction. However, it was so very well acted by the entire cast that it should appeal to anybody who can appreciate such. And Jennifer Lawrence was just off the charts. Anybody who knows me personally knows that I am a big fan of Natalie Portman and her abilities to take any of her roles to the highest levels. And I was very glad to see her finally win her Best Actress award at last month’s Academy Awards, even though I have not seen Black Swan. Very hard to see how it could have been better than Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in this movie. Very real and very convincing. To me it is such an unconventional movie by Hollywood standards to be such a good movie.

 

[FAST FRED]

When I was editing, cutting and pasting my review of Winter's Bone," probably back in February, it appears that i transposed my review of "Animal Kingdom" onto the beginning of this thread.

The forum won't let me correct it now, but here's the right "Winter's Bone" review:




Saw "Winter's Bone" via NETFLIX and thought it was very good for me and recommendable to the right audience.

The Link

This dark, gritty, simple, mostly slow moving drama introduces the viewer to seventeen year old "Ree Dolly," who's trying to find her methamphetamine cooking father after he goes missing from their rural Missouri home.

The Academy has nominated this interesting, bleak, indie flick for Best Picture, plus Jennifer Lawrence as Best Actress, John Hawkes for Best Supporting Actor and it's on the ballot for the Best Adapted Screenplay.

Jennifer Lawrence's fine portrayal here, of a young girl facing whatever Life requires of her, creates a heroine every bit as self-reliant, stubborn and tough (and because of all that strength, vulnerable) as Hailee Steinfeld's "Matty" from "True Grit."

"Winter's Bone" also reminded me a lot of "Frozen River," which garnered Melissa Leo a Best Actress nomination in 2008.

Now Melissa's nominated for Best Supporting Actress this year.

And, if I let my movie comparing, overly active, imagination run even wilder about "Winter's Bone," I think of Danielle from "American Pickers," searching for Mike and Frank of that same peripatetic TV show, visiting hope-drained, back road locations and finding threatening and dangerous, but unavoidable, situations not so unlike those seen in the recent, disturbing film made from Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, "The Road."

Depressing, realistic stuff.

Kind of like if "Precious" (and her dysfunctional family) visited the Ozarks.

Anyone seen it?

Sorry for the mass confusion and utter despair which my egregious error has obviously caused.