Winter's Bone (2010)

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D

...or Backwoods Women Standing Menacingly on Porches. Throw in some drug references, a lost papa, a chainsaw, & some scalding hot coffee & that about sums it up.

6/10
Z

Never one to break with tradition, here's a list of 15 films that deserved to be nominated for Best Picture more than Winter's Bone:

  1. Another Year
  2. Blue Valentine
  3. Cyrus
  4. Exit Through the Gift Shop
  5. Daddy Long Legs
  6. I Am Love
  7. Dogtooth
  8. The trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
  9. Animal Kingdom
  10. The Town (barely)
  11. Easy A
  12. Rabbit Hole
  13. Jackass 3D
  14. I Love You, Phillip Morris
  15. Charlie St. Cloud/ Letters to Juliet (the same movie, really...)

Here's a list of 2 films that didn't deserve to be nominated for Best Picture more than Winter's Bone:

  1. Biutiful
  2. Somewhere

So congratulations, "Bone", for not being the suckiest film of the year. By the way, it's called a subplot, and I suggest you get one... stat.

4/10
B

Winter's Bone is the chilling tale of a teenage girl who is threatened with loosing her home and family if she can't find her father to either take care of a legal situation or prove that he is dead. Rhea Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) goes on a dreary journey speaking to all kinds of impoverished simple folk. Though not a lot happens through the course of the film, the beautiful cinematography, the extremely naturalistic feel of the settings and people, and the occasional soulful country music performed by characters within the film makes this a cinematic treat.

This film has the feel of an extremely gritty southern rural myth without the magic. The "crank" dealers feel like alchemists, some of the women of the dwellings feel like witches and the ending has the feel of an original Grimm's fairytale in its grotesque almost unbelievable action. The pacing is slow, but suits the story in its building of the despair of the human spirit. Jennifer Lawrence is perfectly natural. The rest of the cast, though many do not give the best performances, still feels natural in a brechtian sort of way. In fact, almost every character speaks in a monotone voice, which adds to the bleak and bare natural quality to the film.

This is a tonal piece. I would suggest watching it for its art rather than for entertainment.

7/10