[psycho d]

Winter's Bone (2010). This unflinching flick of a world without smiles is perfectly set in the Ozark backwoods. The tone is an uncomfortable realism of moonshine hillbillies turned methamphetamine culinarians and the rampant destruction of the already tenuous infrastructure of this deeply disaffected culture. Our lead role, sublimely played by a resolute Jennifer Lawrence, reveals a willful and sadly precocious teen in a struggle that can hardly be reconciled by city-folk. As she tiptoes her way through the minefields of her kin's shenanigans, the essence of this alien world is illuminated sans the typical Deliverance stereotypes, a sort of third world habitat meaner than a chained-up pit bull. The direction was impressive, creating a world with adroit skill, a backdrop just as unimaginably entertaining than the story itself. The score was just as impressive, revealing that this might just be the real thing, a world whose typical mental fabrications usually involve inbred cannibals whose eyes are set on feasting upon each and every lost suburbanite come their way. Instead this is a flick centering upon the dark atmosphere of an America that would rather be forgotten than appreciated or succored.
Genruk