"Winter's Bone" and "Spring Breakers"

"It's been a while" - Stained (band) a.k.a. the voice of my generation.

Sorry for the delay (as if anyone cares) but I've been quite busy and not feeling so hot all week so this weeks post comes at the very tail end. I don't consider that late. I consider it being lazy and uninspired.
But then, two nights ago, while lying in bed sleepless. I had two great movies come to mind that you guys might enjoy. Let's rock and roll.

Winter's Bone - Directed by Debra Granik (2010 / USA / 100m / Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Drama)

Sometimes in a great while a movie gets inside your head and heart, rubbing your emotions raw. The remarkable Winter's Bone is just such a movie.

Director Debra Granik has adapted the 2006 novel by Daniel Woodrell into a brutally honest movie about secrets that fester among families in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. The setting in the film really helps sets the mood and tone in profound ways.

Jennifer Lawrence plays a 17 year old woman named Ree in her first film role. Long before
"Hunger games" and the wonderful "Silver Linings Playbook" Miss Lawrence hit her first home run. She is absolutely excellent and gives my favorite performance by her to date. I think thats saying a lot. The young woman has some serious acting chops.

Teardrop (the always excellent John Hawkes) plays Ree's Uncle. This may be the scariest character on screen to also look emaciated. In his first scene he says to his wife "I already told you to be quiet with my mouth." (implying of course the next time might not be so non-violent)

The driving force of the plot is that Ree must find her father so he shows up to court. He put up the house and property as collateral for his bail so if he doesnt show, Ree, her 2 younger siblings, and her incapacitated Mother will be homeless.

Ree goes on a search looking for everyone she knows asking about the man. Everyone essentially tells her to fuck off and if she doesn't, she'll end up in a world of hurt.
Half of me really want to tell you how everything turns out but in the interest of "NO SPOILERS BRO!!" I simply wont.

I will say however that it is gritty, gruesome, real, and unflinching.
The social detail of a 21st-century mountain community is completely persuasive, heightening the drama immeasurably.

Granik handles this volatile, borderline horrific material with unblinking ferocity and feeling. Winter's Bone is unforgettable. It means to shake you, and does.

trailer (it's a quite good trailer and shows you what you're in for)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O8F8JtSVmI

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars


Spring Breakers - Directed by Harmony Korine (2013 / USA / 94m / Crime, Drama)

"Spring Breakers" is a movie about four "hot young co-eds" (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine) who are trying to gather the money necessary to make it down to St. Petersburg, Florida for the time of the lives. The do eventually the money. I won't say how because it's quite shocking and sets the tune for the rest of the film.

So our breakers make it down to Florida and are generally having (all be it illegal and questionable) fun until the inevitable run in with Johnny Law. At this point they are out of money and given the option to pay a fine (which they cant do) or serve 2 days in county jail.

Enter Alien (James Franco) to the rescue. He sees these 4 from the back of the court room and decides to bail them out. His motives seem pretty clear. Would he be doing this for four arrested frat bros? I think not.

What happens next is Franco introduces them into his life of crime. "I'm from right here in St Pete's and I'm a strait G Ya'll, I hustle!" I must say Franco is absolutely excellent in this part. 

3 of 4 of them are down to party with Alien and his shadiest of shady crews. ! takes the bus back home.

It's campy and comic at times, but Korine also gives the film a downbeat, melancholic edge, with voiceovers, pointed repetition of dialogue and images, and hallucinatory camera work, sound and editing.

The movie is highly stylized. It mixes gritty realism with slow-motion beach scenes of half nude college kids fuled by alcohol to a dub-step backing track. Sounds like that is a receipe for disaster but this one actually works, for me at least.

One scene I'd like to include is pretty great (even though the screen is dark at the edges, unlike in the real film, you'll get the idea. The song they sing is Britney Spears' "Everytime"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7n3gF7j2V4

This movie confirmed many beliefs I already had: Spring Break was never for me and I was right to stay away (too much pale skin and anxiety.) Florida is a scary, scary place and I plan to avoid it the rest of my life. 

Is this a cautionary tail? I don't really think so but you can be the judge of that. I just believed it's a highly stylized film that can easily turn people off who don't have the openness of mind to just relax and enjoy without projecting their own standards of how life should be lived onto the on-screen characters. 

I must say that this film was not widely acclaimed. It sits at a mere 65% amongst critics and a lowly 39% from audiences. But keep and open mind and this movie is great. In my humble opinion, of course.

"Spring Break forever, bitches."

My rating 5/5 Stars
A New feature I'd like to add is movies I'm really looking forward to seeing. First would be "Boyhood" which is Richard Linklater's new movie which was filmed over the course of 12 years, using the same actors. This seems to give to meaning to the idea of a "coming of age" movie. It opens August 8th in my town of Albany and Ill be sure to review it the following week.

Another is "A Most Wanted Man." This was Philip Seymour Hoffman's final completed film before his untimely death this past winter.

Thanks for reading, Back next week. Also, please let me know if you have ideas for films you'd like to see talked about. I am at your service.