IR: Winter's Bone

Young Ree has to look after her brother, sister, and near cataonic mother in the rough terraine of the Mussouri mountains. When her father jumps bail, having left their home for the capital, she needs to find him before they are all left out in the cold.

Winter’s Bone is a near-perfect film. The central character is a 17-year-old girl who needs to find her bail-jumping father in order to keep her family home. Parallels with True Grit have just occurred to me, and I am told Jim is covering that as I type.

In all the film, there was only one thing that made me feel critical (I won't mention what it was as it might spoil it for you), and considering I habitually watch films scouring for imperfections/ ‘reality checks’, that is very good. Also, it was slightly too long; I felt it was the end long before it actually was, so it dragged a bit before the conclusion wrapped it up.

Things that I liked about it were the consistency and believability of the scene and the characters, the strange woodland community and its society laws. I liked that most scenes had no exposition so you had to pay attention to keep up.

Squirrel spotting
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I liked the nice army careers officer, who gave us an anchor for an idealised morality to let us gauge just how hostile and awkward the woodland dealings were. I liked seeing the odd background characters that gave the setting with their unattractive faces, and I liked seeing perfect nail varnish on a dirty dealer.


The atmosphere was gritty and wary and on-edge, a bit like The Road but we didn’t come out feeling so low. It did take me a few minutes to feel like talking though, so it did have an emotional impact. I would recommend this film to people who enjoy non-mainstream films.

5 Stars


Watching Winter's Bone only a week after True Grit brings to mind the interesting parallels between the two films. Both are set in desolate landscapes and townships with the stink of poverty hanging over them. Both feature amazingly competent and brave heroines who have, in their fathers' absence and their mothers' inability, become heads of their households. Both are carrying out missions related to their fathers, and both are befriended (if that is the word) and in parts assisted by dangerous older men.

Not in a creepy sweet-giving way.
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There is a lot of the western about Winter's Bone in the pacing as well. It is slow and steady, with an all-pervasive sense of fear, unease and dread. It is shot with a wonderful bleached quality, and the location is absolutely real,a living, watching, decaying place. Winter's Bone brings into solid existence a world so far from my own comforting materialist middle-class bubble it might as well be on Mars and makes it instantly 'knowable'.

The acting is superb, and with as much low-key brilliance as everything else.
The extended 'family' who make up Ree's world are akin to pack animals. Haunted, weather worn, grizzled and grim. They are laconic and soft spoken, as if they fear that someone is always listening. They are also canny, cunning and mean, and any time they are on screen you feel that fear in the pit of your stomach that something terrible could happen at any moment.
There is a massive amount to say about this film, far more than I can fit into a review. It works on the level of social commentary on crime, drug use and poverty, parable, explorations of values and hidden 'codes of honour', a straight-out narrative about bravery and strength, an analysis of what it means to be family and what familial love really is. I could easily write an essay on it.
This is what you need to know: Jennifer Lawrence is awesome, Debra Granik knows how to direct actors like crazy, and you should never go asking questions to people who don't want to answer.

4/5

IR: True Grit

I wasn't really thrilled to be seeing True Grit, since I have the preconception that all Westerns are just about a load of mean ugly men being stand-offish in the dust. However, it was actually really good, and though it did include ugly men and dust, the film made up for it in other ways.


The main character is a girl (!!) of fourteen, who has taken it upon herself to avenge her fathers death since she figures no-one else is up to the task. She reminds me of Tiffany Aching from the Terry Pratchett books, being very brave and resolute and taking on responsibilities that grown men shy away from.

Jim told me she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, which is absurd, since she is plainly in the leading role.

The acting is solid, and the locations, costumes and houses look faithful enough. It also reminded me of Carnivale, with the faith and the dirt and the cruelty and the strange people. I think I recognise one of the actors from it even - the clerk at the beginning could be the man in Carnivale who makes the white masks. They managed to source people with actual interesting faces, flobbly chops and skinny noses and the like, which added to the authenticity.

Pictured: Realism
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The storyline had a few poignant moments that I thought would never happen, for instance...

SPOILER ALERT
the girl ends up spending non-fighty time with her fathers killer.
SPOILER OVER.

Only one bit bothered me, which was that Matt Damon at one point has his mouth smashed up being dragged along by a lasso, but a few scenes later his teeth have regrown and it is perfect again. Overall though, brilliant film, and I am looking forward to seeing it again when it comes out on DVD.

4 stars


I can't remember when I last left a cinema feeling so satisfied.
True Grit delivers on every level, striking a great balance between morality and lawlessness, gore and heroics, the real old west and the old west of fantasy.

The central trio of two lawmen and an unbelievably badass 14-year old girl are all very well drawn and well acted. Rooster Cogburn is morally questionable, undeniably filthy but also downright indomitable which makes him worthy of our admiration. Jeff Bridges plays him with a voice like a sack full of gravel being dragged around in a deep well, which I love. Matt Damon(as LeBeouf or 'LaBeef') is wonderfully dandyish and full of high-falutin Texan verbosity. And finally Hailee (eeeee) Steinfeld is amazing as Mattie Ross, who is smarter than a horse-seller, brave as a ranger and considerably tougher than old boots.

Not as tough as Mattie Ross.
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She does more, and more believably, than an actress twice her age generally gets to do in a dozen mainstream films. She rides a horse, shoots a gun, gives everyone a thorough dressing down and of course seeks revenge for her murdered Daddy. The fact that she was not nominated for a best actress Oscar (only best supporting actress) is quite atrocious, especially since she is not only the main actress but the main character.

The settings are impeccable and long term Coen-colloborator DOP Roger Deakins deserves merit for shooting such an authentically western Western.

I could go on for ages deconstructing the costumes, lighting, dialogue, baddies, moral issues, comparisons with other great westerns (not to mention the original John Wayne version which I haven't seen) and so forth, but it would simply end up restating my first point: this film delivers on every level.

You will come out feeling like you want to go and watch it again, and I certainly plan on doing so.

5/5

IR: Tangled

Rapunzel has lived nearly 18 years in a tall tower, her 'mother' seems overly concerned about her chances out there in the big world. But Rapunzel wants to leave to see one thing: the beautiful lanterns that appear every year for some reason...on her birthday. Enter the tricksy Flynn Rider, on the run from the law and with something very valuable in his satchel...

Tangled was very sweet and entertaining. It follows the basic storyline of Princess and lovable criminal get together (Maid Marion/Robin Hood, Jasmine/Aladdin etc.) However it is fresh and bright and fun and a bit more grown-up and insightful into troubled mother/daughter relationships. Rapunzel herself is creative and self-motivated and sweet which I liked, because yay art and boo swanning about putting on make-up all day. It continues the current trend of self-satirising cartoons which try to twist the classic story-telling to show that it identifies what it is and humorously references this within the story. For example, the 'Mother' at one point spells out for us, “Fine, I'm the bad guy now” and male lead Flynn self-consciously tries on the smouldering handsome man look that in earlier Disney films would cue a smooching scene. The rest of the film includes lots more grood (great/good) parts, like when Rapunzel talks to a horse like he's a dog (who's a good horsie?! Yes you are!) and going to a pub called The Snuggly Duckling (I love ducklings! Awwww! Me too!).

There is no caption, only cute.

We cried a few times at the emotional bits, and laughed at the yay bits. Picked it apart a bit on the way home but nothing damning, it is a very fun film and I would happily see it again!

4 Stars

Since I missed out on the Princess and the Frog, this is the first Disney film I have seen in a while. And I gotta tell ya, they still got it.
This was a genuine solid piece all the way through. It had all the requisite stuff; action, cool animals, romance and a bona fide happy ending...plus one of the best female lead roles I have seen in a while. Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is definitely up there with the best of the Disney Princesses with the added bonus that she kicks ass with her hair and a frying pan.
The supporting cast are all well done, but more on that in a mo.
We saw it in 3D which was pretty pointless. Hardly anything jumped out at you, literally...the most beautiful scene in the film (about half way through) was mostly not in 3D and the bit that was was the rubbish bit. Still, the whole thing is impossibly gorgeous in digimation, especially the aforementioned heroine and her teasy-squeeze Flynn Rider (Zach Levi off of Chuck- who knew? IMDB, thats who!). Speaking of which there is some serious fetish fuel in this movie- forget the hair, Rapunzel spends the whole film barefoot. Quentin Tarantino probably wants some of that action.

These little piggies had a massage.

The reason I say this piece is 'solid' and 'good' and not 'great' were the following: the songs, though up to a fair standard, felt more like filler than anything. They weren't bad by any means, but I every time the singing started I wished (and bear in mind I LOVE musicals) that they'd just get on with the plot. I remember studying musicals, and how the key to a good one is that a song number is an integral part of the plot rather than a decoration. Maybe I'm being unfair.
Next, Zach 'Flynn Rider and Chuck' Levi is an alright voice actor but...meh. There seems something a little lacking in his dialogue. In Disney heritage terms his character is closest to Aladdin, a lovable thief with a heart of gold. But there just wasn't the snap to his lines there was with Scott Wienger in Aladdin. Maybe its the direction. He brightens up in the third act but by then he's become more responsible. He doesn't quite make the loveable rouge thing work.
Finally, the plot.

Not as 'tangled' as you might think, schnah schnah!

Tangled is probably the most grown up of the Disney films I have seen because it HINTS that things are not always as easy, simple and carefree as they might seem. But crucially NOT ENOUGH. I want subversion and post-modernism, damn it! With Shrek now 10 years old and Disney getting the crap deconstructed out of it, we need the original to get smarter. Particularly in the relationship between Rapunzel and her 'mother', which seems like it might be interesting and ambiguous, but ultimately falls back on the wicked step-mother mythology the Bros Grimm immortalised back in 1812.
Like I said, I haven't seen Princess and the Frog, but going from Tangled it seems Disney are still a little behind the curve...but not by much.
See it, laugh, shed a happy tear and dream your dream.

3/5