haha, goole also started the thread on miracle at st anna, which was part 2 of my beat the heat double header yesterday. it, like winter's bone, was disapointing but better than being outside.
― mizzell, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 19:21 (fourteen years ago) link
? is that still in theaters? or did you d/l winter's bone?? OR WHAT???
― goole, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 19:24 (fourteen years ago) link
it (and she's gotta have it) played at the brooklyn acadmey of music yesterday, where they show first run and repertory films.
― mizzell, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 19:27 (fourteen years ago) link
lol nyc, the streets paved with film cans...
― goole, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 19:27 (fourteen years ago) link
pretty bad movie, that one, btw
― goole, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 19:28 (fourteen years ago) link
i thought this was pretty good, not great. except john hawkes - he was great. agree with mizzell that the noir mystery elements didn't really add up to much. i guess you could argue that's true of a lot of classic noir too though, so maybe i missed the point. there were def some good images along the way.
tbh my favorite scenes were ree teaching the kids to kill squirrels and eat them and stuff like that.
― alter ego salsa (another al3x), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 20:41 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah as a straight mystory or 'noir' it's not exactly high-tension or anything. imo the movie works on two mysteries at the same time, and doesn't have very conclusive answers for either one: "what happened to my dad" and "why the hell is life like this here"
― goole, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 20:43 (fourteen years ago) link
More or less agree with salsa - lots of great elements, not a truly compelling whole. V. curious to see what Granik does next, mind.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 7 July 2010 06:34 (fourteen years ago) link
john hawkes is great in this. kinda blew my mind when i realized that i recognized him from eastbound and down. very solid movie.
― Moreno, Saturday, 10 July 2010 21:32 (fourteen years ago) link
oh this is that movie set in the ozarks right? i want to see this. i'm a big ozarks fan.
― del griffith, Saturday, 10 July 2010 21:59 (fourteen years ago) link
haha
― goole, Saturday, 10 July 2010 22:04 (fourteen years ago) link
you'll like this then. ozarks are the star of the movie. and squirrels.
― Moreno, Saturday, 10 July 2010 22:37 (fourteen years ago) link
Young lead is real good, John Hawkes too.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 25 July 2010 15:06 (fourteen years ago) link
liked this quite a bit
― i'm the kind of challop that's built to last (latebloomer), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 02:10 (fourteen years ago) link
lead was very good!
― i'm the kind of challop that's built to last (latebloomer), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 02:13 (fourteen years ago) link
squirrel cleanin' scenes second-to-none
― i'm the kind of challop that's built to last (latebloomer), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 02:14 (fourteen years ago) link
This movie wins a few Indie Spirit awards and fried squirrel comes to Williamsburg
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 04:06 (fourteen years ago) link
saw this. loved it. almost seemed to be the opposite of the noirish movies South America has been putting out -- very low key, grim atmosphere, and a lack of likable characters outside of the main protagonist family.
― San Te, Sunday, 1 August 2010 23:20 (fourteen years ago) link
I almost watched it this afternoon but I made the mistake of reading Stephanie Zacharek's review first: she was not very impressed with how it wallows in darkness as a sign of its seriousness.
― balls and adieu (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 1 August 2010 23:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Instead I hung out by the pool.
I loved this. Really good.
― no turkey unless it's a club sandwich (polyphonic), Monday, 2 August 2010 00:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Seeing a screening of it this week, looking forward to it.
― VegemiteGrrrl, Monday, 2 August 2010 00:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Loved this. It's gonna haunt me for a while though, definitely grim stuff. I mean, jeez, you wanna talk about coming of age.
― VegemiteGrrrl, Thursday, 5 August 2010 20:11 (fourteen years ago) link
she was not very impressed with how it wallows in darkness as a sign of its seriousness.
that's just stupid. the movie is very much a "country-noir" kind of flick, and the story IS pretty dark. it didn't feel like it was "wallowing" in anything!
― caek boss (latebloomer), Friday, 6 August 2010 00:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Otm. It felt more like a matter-of-fact portrayal of a hard way of life. The girl, Ree (?) spent the whole movie trying to keep things from getting worse! "Wallow" my ass.
― VegemiteGrrrl, Friday, 6 August 2010 01:05 (fourteen years ago) link
don't really agree that it was a matter-of-fact portrayal... i think it's like latebloomer says, a more stylized noir kinda thing.
― the itsytitchyschneider (s1ocki), Friday, 6 August 2010 01:27 (fourteen years ago) link
This was pretty good. Loved the old biddy who plays the closest thing to a villain.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 August 2010 18:47 (fourteen years ago) link
She was great! She played the town hooker in My Name Is Earl.
― VegemiteGrrrl, Friday, 6 August 2010 18:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Didn't recognize Sheryl Lee!
― jaymc, Sunday, 8 August 2010 22:11 (fourteen years ago) link
I didn't either! Wow.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 8 August 2010 22:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Laura Palmer was in this?! Who did she play?
― caek boss (latebloomer), Monday, 9 August 2010 03:45 (fourteen years ago) link
She's in one scene, as the woman Jessup was having an affair with.
― jaymc, Monday, 9 August 2010 03:47 (fourteen years ago) link
ohhhh ok! damn!
― caek boss (latebloomer), Monday, 9 August 2010 03:48 (fourteen years ago) link
agree w/ Soto on that supporting actress
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 August 2010 04:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Recognized that actress as the meth head from that episode of Breaking Bad w/ the ATM. Didn't recognize Sheryl Lee at all.
― Chris L, Monday, 9 August 2010 04:22 (fourteen years ago) link
it was good, but i expected more. a little overrated.
― Zeno, Sunday, 17 October 2010 21:03 (thirteen years ago) link
that's true, but i'll take what I can in the current American environment.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 17 October 2010 23:23 (thirteen years ago) link
i thought this was great. it could have been improved by seeing a little more humanity among all the folks that ree has to deal with - everyone's either a monster or a brooding shut-in or both. country people are usually a lot funnier. i was also thrown by a lot of music that i think of as appalachian ("farther along", "high on a mountain") but i guess hillbilly country extends farther than i'd imagined.
it's not a noir in the classic sense though, right, because the protag isn't someone who made bad decisions that are now coming back to haunt her? i feel like noir protags are usually morally compromised somehow.. anyway, nice tidy story, great acting, especially (as has been said) john hawkes and the lead actress. had no idea hawkes could be so intimidating.
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 5 December 2010 14:58 (thirteen years ago) link
i was a little confused by the money at the end. i'd like to talk about it but maybe a SPOILER tag would be in order..
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I was confused for a second too until I remembered that, even though we don't know the full story, we know enough of it to have a pretty good idea.
― fields of salmon, Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:36 (thirteen years ago) link
I think the implication was that someone anonymous had bailed her dad out of jail so the baddies could then kill him. The money was put up for bond, which meant the money gets returned (minus commission) once he turns up in court/morgue. So when he was proved a goner, she got the money. Which I did think was too tidy an ending for a movie whose protagonist - despite being smart and tenacious - already more or less just had to stick around long enough and wait for everyone around her to suddenly help her despite repeatedly professing their disinterest in doing so. And, you know, in some cases trying to kill her.
Regardless, still like a lot about this. Shame the actress is following it up with a mutant role in the fourth X-Men movie. Another one bites the dust.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:37 (thirteen years ago) link
like that precludes her from acting in other movies?
― It's Ong Like Donkey Kong (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Sort of shows her priorities, doesn't it? Never a good sign when a potential Oscar nom for a breakout role leads to the heavily made-up fifth lead in the fourth film in a comic-adaptation tent pole. Pays the bill, sure, but it's a delicate balance. Ask Halle Berry.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:51 (thirteen years ago) link
you are a schmuck
― It's Ong Like Donkey Kong (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:51 (thirteen years ago) link
hate that bullshit elitism. who gives a fuck what she does? I WILL DEFEND HER HONOR UNTIL I DIE
― It's Ong Like Donkey Kong (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:52 (thirteen years ago) link
sorry for calling you a schmuck, that was unnecessary. just really hate that armchair "THIS is what this actor/musician/artist should be doing" crap.
― It's Ong Like Donkey Kong (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:55 (thirteen years ago) link
you should be her manager.
― It's Ong Like Donkey Kong (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:58 (thirteen years ago) link
No, that's cool. She may be awesome in the X-men movie (as have been other Oscar winners/noms)! I'd just rather her be awesome in a movie that's not the fourth X-men movie, because the last one was dire, and I don't see how playing Mystique will show off her talents. Has the potential to staunch her, well, potential. (Ha, she's apparently in "The Beaver," too). She can do whatever she wants, of course, but Hollywood rewards success over talent, and the lack of the former can allow the latter to languish. No matter how good you are.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 December 2010 16:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm sure her manager told her to take the X-Men gig, because the $$$ will be potentially multiples the Winter's Bone budget. George Clooney has credited Batman & Robin with allowing him to do whatever he wanted with his career. But again, Hollywood is more forgiving of male stars than ingenues. There are too few good roles written for women in Hollywood as it is.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 December 2010 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link
I wouldn't find it so offensive and condescending if there weren't so many examples of actors bouncing back and forth between indie movies and studio genre flicks. The paternalistic "aww, what a shame this girl isn't living up to her potential tsk tsk" tone is something that sets me off like nothing else. Maybe you didn't mean it like that, but it sure sounded that way.
― It's Ong Like Donkey Kong (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 December 2010 16:14 (thirteen years ago) link
he's gonna be a lot more noticeable soon thanks to that new flick where he plays a cult leader, methinks.
― Simon H. Shit (Simon H.), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 01:03 (thirteen years ago) link
xp haha, wow, sad
― Nhex, Tuesday, 10 May 2011 01:12 (thirteen years ago) link
i've been saying "cut them thirty year o' timber down to nuuubs" to myself for a couple days now
― goole, Tuesday, 10 May 2011 01:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Thump was creepy as hell in this movie
― starland vocal banned (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 01:35 (thirteen years ago) link
When you finally see him he looks like a backup bass player in the Charlie Daniels band and somehow that makes him even scarier.
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:10 (thirteen years ago) link
hahaha YES
― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:20 (thirteen years ago) link
lol
― starland vocal banned (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:22 (thirteen years ago) link
come to think of it there really wasn't one character other than Ree in the movie where I looked at them and said "y'know, this person has their head on their shoulders, really upstanding individual"...
Her neighbor.
― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:24 (thirteen years ago) link
The ones who apparently sit around mournfully singing "Farther Along" to each other all day long??
/RAGE
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:39 (thirteen years ago) link
(sorry)
Wait which ones where that? I meant the lady who took the horse in an brought her the deer meat and vegetables.
― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Did she sing?
Oh I think you mean the one's who were having a birthday party when they went to talk to Jessup's ex.
I'm going to read this thread later cause I can't stop thinking about this movie.
― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:51 (thirteen years ago) link
the lady who took the horse in an brought her the deer meat and vegetables
Oh yeah, forgot about her.
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:52 (thirteen years ago) link
me too. I think it was because with the way the movie would go, i half expected her to turn into a villain and then forgot about her when she disappeared from the movie.
― starland vocal banned (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 04:47 (thirteen years ago) link
posted these comments in bits and pieces in another thread several months ago. always meant to assemble them here, so...
this is one of the best recent american genre films i've seen. winter's bone aims primarily to capture and, in a way, to honor, focusing on the details that characterize a way of life - and on the sorts of lives that might be lived within that characterization. the film's strength is largely dependent on place and texture, on careful observation more than wild imagination, and for that reason it might not appeal to viewers who demand sleeker and more aggressive thrills.
winter's bone builds its central mystery up from a good documentarian's directness and self-effacement, and i liked the relationship between that approach and the more genre-bound mystery plotting. i loved this movie for its richness, humanism and empathic integrity. i loved too its evocation of the bonds that entwine families and communities, both strong and weak, clear and subtle, the way such bonds both define and contend with our sense of moral obligation. the deliberately rough, pseudo-documentary style might seem superficially flat, but the film's off-the-cuff naturalism allows for an offhand beauty that never feels self-indulgent or showy.
we don't necessarily expect an unusual depth & subtlety of character & theme in a mystery story, or a strikingly personal relationship with place & culture, but that's what i felt i got here. i liked the things this film chooses to pay attention to and the way it pays attention to them. it contrasts the poignancy and fragility of domestic affection - the foolish bubble of innocence and joy we try to build around our families - with the fundamental threat and uncaringness of the larger world in which family exists. i liked that and feel that i don't see it explored anywhere near enough in american cinema. i liked, too, the way winter's bone balances its empathic streak with a hard-eyed look at the sacrifices that this sort of domestic maintenance can require.
― always have time for the crystalline entity (contenderizer), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 05:27 (thirteen years ago) link
this is on netflix instant! its pretty good!
― max, Saturday, 13 August 2011 12:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Just finished it. Wow, i fucking loved this movie. Cried like 5 times but then I'm weak that way. Must find book.
i was also thrown by a lot of music that i think of as appalachian ("farther along", "high on a mountain") but i guess hillbilly country extends farther than i'd imagined.
No, my family all come from the South Dakota prairie and my mom and her sibs sing most of these same songs when they get together.
― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 13 August 2011 16:10 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah gonna rewatch this in netflix. there's another on there as well by the same director, 'down to the bone'
― ☝ (am0n), Saturday, 13 August 2011 16:19 (thirteen years ago) link
its "funny," for a drug plague that is reportedly pretty devastating it doesnt seem like there are a lot of meth movies out there. this and breaking bad and...? or am i just not paying attention to the burgeoning meth movie scene
― max, Saturday, 13 August 2011 16:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Loved this film, incredibly atmospheric and A+ performances all round.
>Must find book.
My wife bought me the book as a gift, inspired by my raving about the film. It's superb, totally recommend it.
― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Saturday, 13 August 2011 16:37 (thirteen years ago) link
i liked 'down to the bone', the portrayal of heroin addiction here isn't ott like in most films, so it ends up evoking more empathy than gross-out. and vera farmiga is hot.
― ☝ (am0n), Sunday, 14 August 2011 22:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Well, there's Spun and...yeah. Meth's not a sexy or funny drug.
― Mucho! Macho! Honcho!: Turn Off The Dark (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 15 August 2011 04:24 (thirteen years ago) link
neither is crack, though
― max, Monday, 15 August 2011 12:23 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean youd at least think thered be movies about meth _gangs_ or something
― max, Monday, 15 August 2011 12:24 (thirteen years ago) link
i think i remember finding post-OD mia wallace uma thurman v attractive in pulp fiction, & am glad that vera farmiga apparently maintained being v attractive even throughout her character's addiction arc in this movie
― bruce actual springsteen (schlump), Monday, 15 August 2011 12:54 (thirteen years ago) link
this movie is a mess structurally and its depiction of poor rural arkansas is pretty ridic. C-
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 15 August 2011 13:51 (thirteen years ago) link
i liked this line from A.S. Hamrah: "In Winter’s Bone, people are poor and dangerous, which is to say they have dignity."
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 15 August 2011 14:02 (thirteen years ago) link
it's rural Missouri, but just across the line from AR.
― leave me alone, i was only zinging (rip van wanko), Monday, 15 August 2011 14:07 (thirteen years ago) link
ozarks whatever
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 15 August 2011 14:08 (thirteen years ago) link
pfft whatever D+
― ☝ (am0n), Monday, 15 August 2011 14:32 (thirteen years ago) link
p.s. you're a mess structurally!
― ☝ (am0n), Monday, 15 August 2011 14:33 (thirteen years ago) link
:]
― ☝ (am0n), Monday, 15 August 2011 15:13 (thirteen years ago) link
so when she gives the hands to the sheriff she says someone dumped them on her porch. why didn't they actually do that? i mean do they just make her fish him out to fuck with her? i feel like i'm missing a plot point here.
― caek, Friday, 28 September 2012 23:21 (eleven years ago) link
they make her fish him out to fuck with her
― Mordy, Friday, 28 September 2012 23:27 (eleven years ago) link
they didn't give a shit about her losing her home (iirc that was why she needed the body?) - probably couldn't be bothered
feel like this could've been more visually interesting with mise-en-scene and stuff. most of the time it was kind of uninteresting visually, then there were some really incredible shots that underscored how boring the rest was.
― LaMonte, Saturday, 29 September 2012 01:20 (eleven years ago) link
the scene where she's at the - idk slaughterhouse? and running across the beams after the guy: i often find myself remembering it
― Mordy, Saturday, 29 September 2012 02:16 (eleven years ago) link
Debra Granik's new film at Sundance
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5309-the-daily-sundance-2018-debra-granik-s-leave-no-trace
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 22 January 2018 21:35 (six years ago) link