Posts Marked Kevin Breznaha

  • Winter’s Bone review by Tim Hayes

    July 9th, 2010

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Winter’s Bone (2010) dir. Debra Granik

    Screenwriter: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini
    Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin Breznaha, Isaiah Stone, Shelley Waggener, Ashlee Thompson, William White, Casey MacLaren
    Genre: Drama
    MPAA Rating: R (for some drug material, language and violent content)
    Official Website: wintersbonemovie.com

    “Winter’s Bone” won big at this year’s Sundance festival, where according to the cliche only grim indie films about miserable people in trouble go down well. And at first glance this one fits the bill: It is indeed a dour story of a determined young woman stuck in a jam with hardly a friend in sight. But it’s also tense, full of atmosphere, very well acted, and tough to forget. As downbeat and menacing character studies go, it’s one of the best.

    The young woman is Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), whose teenage life in the bleak Ozark hills consists mostly of looking after her mother and being a surrogate parent to her younger brother and sister, so it’s already no stroll in the park. Then an eviction notice arrives, and Ree really needs to find her absent dad in a hurry. But he, like most of the neighbors, is practically an outlaw, and finding him means asking a lot of very dangerous people about things they really don’t want to talk about.

    This is not the action-packed kind of thriller, but the sort that works up a head of unstoppable slow-burn tension and then just keeps going. Ree is unstoppable too, sticking to her guns and refusing to stop asking questions, even as the folks she’s asking get bigger, scarier, angrier, and more heavily armed. She’s ignored, warned off and casually beaten up, and that’s just by the wives of the local hard men. But it’s the wives who ultimately point Ree towards her goal and a grisly midnight discovery.

    That and Ree’s wish to put herself in harm’s way to protect her kids give the film a strong feminine aspect alongside its hard edges, and director Debra Granik has no trouble keeping “Winter’s Bone” firmly in position as a woman’s picture without giving up an inch of toughness. Jennifer Lawrence makes Ree seem like a thoroughly normal teenager from the school of hard knocks, tough and self-reliant, whose problems suddenly include her in-laws discussing whether to feed her to the hogs.

    READ THE FULL REVIEW AT The Critic’s Notebook

    July 9th,2010 Blogging, Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment