Showing posts with label Debra Granik. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debra Granik. Show all posts

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Winter's Bone (2010)

This is one I've been meaning to watch for a long time. It was the only Best Picture nominee since 2010 that I had missed. Prompted by Debra Granik's powerful Leave No Trace this year, I caught Winter's Bone. And I admit I was a little disappointed. I thought it was kind of boring. This is the movie that made Jennifer Lawrence a star. She is an optimistic figure in what is otherwise a bleak Ozark landscape in a relentlessly brutal movie. I just wasn't in the mood for this kind of movie.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Leave No Trace (2018)

This movie takes my fear of camping to the next level. It's one-part Captain Fantastic, one-part American Sniper. It's not a very explicit movie. It leaves much to be inferred about the main character, but we know just enough to understand that this veteran with PTSD cannot reintegrate into society. What Thomasin McKenzie does is to add another dimension of tragedy to this: a young daughter who cannot integrate into society either because of her father's attachment to her combined with his affliction. McKenzie gives a quiet but deeply moving performance.