Winter's Bone: YIKES!

So Winter's Bone was one of the last movies of the 10 noms this year I had to tackle. And I was kind of putting it off because I heard mixed reviews from several different people. My friend, Landon Kirksey, watched it one night before I did. And what I heard rolling through my head was Landon's description of the movie: "It's a movie where nothing really happens until it does. And when it does, you're like WHOA!" (more genius tidbits from Landon later in this review).

 Based on a 2006 novel by Danielle Woodrell, it follows the story of some backwoodsy folks from the Ozarks. Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), is 17 and totally in charge of everything. Her mom is mentally ill, her father is a drug dealing "meth man" that no one can seem to track down. In fact, it's rumored by many (including Ree's uncle Teardrop) that Ree's dad is probably dead. In order to be able to hold on to the family house and land that Ree's dad put up as collateral when he was last arrested, she has to prove her father is no longer living. So...this is that scene Landon describes as WHOA! I'm about to use a word here I don't even like to use...OMG! I didn't know who Jennifer Lawrence was before this movie. Now I think she is an amazing actor. You wanna know why? I could never do what she did in this movie, let alone in real life. I fully respect her Oscar nod for best actress (even though I still think Portman should get the statue).

Is Winter's Bone Oscar worthy? Ahhh..on the fence. But since The Academy thinks it's cool to have almost a baker's dozen worth of nominees for Best Picture, then I'm okay with it. Certainly over some movies that movie snobs are saying were "snubbed" this year (i.e. The Town...come on, y'all? Really? The Town?) I'm happy to see the movie received a nom. If I were a cast member in that movie, I'd be thanking Jennifer Lawrence right now, because she's the reason this movie received so much attention.

Landon Kirksey is a great friend of mine. He's a "known Dallas comic" and it's been rumored* that people in other cities know who he is. He performs stand up comedy and improv comedy around DFW, and he also has a groovy podcast with another friend of ours, Shane Estep. Next time you see him, call him Lipton...he likes that a lot! You can read more about Landon HERE!


 LANDON KIRKSEY'S TWO CENTS: 
Winter’s Bone arrived for me under unfair conditions.  I rented it on Apple TV and for whatever reason, it took over 6 hours to buffer.  I’m still not sure why, as it’s the only movie that hasn’t started right away, but whatever the cause it meant that I was already somewhat flummoxed before the start of the film.  

I only mention it because the plot of Winter’s Bone itself can be a bit of Gordian knot.  It throws you into a fascinating world with it’s own complicated history and politics.  I usually love that stuff, but here I felt like there were bits of information that were being withheld as a service to the authenticity of the world and to focus the story of Ree trying to find her father.  Ultimately it serves it well and the build to the climactic scene is very well done, but through it all I find myself more interested in the bad guys and the real world stuff on which this is based.  I spoke to a friend of mine about it and he had a good point in saying, and I’m paraphrasing him, that the authenticity interfered with his dramatic interest in the film.  The underground world of producing and selling drugs in the Ozarks, and all of the characters that are introduced or hinted at in the process is just fundamentally more interesting to me than the story told here.  Which is not to say that the story is bad, because it’s really great.  And maybe the reason I’m interested is directly related to how little we know about them over the course of the film.  Or maybe it’s my obsession with any and all true crime docs.  

As a cathartic piece of art, Winter’s Bone excels.  I guess I’d just be more satisfied somehow with The First 48: Ozarks.