WINTER'S BONE

There's a quote in the Drive-By Truckers documentary where the guitarist, Mike Cooley, basically notes that most of America is peppered with shelled-out backwoods places decimated by poverty, yet it's a stereotype that seems to stick to the south. Or in this case rural southern mountain folk. Doesn't make it any less accurate, of course.

The depiction, that is.

There were a small number of people who lived w this kind of poverty where I grew up, which isn't remotely southern or mountainous. It's pretty rural, though. And I don't think any kind of drug culture had taken hold although I guess what do I know.

But I remember being told about kids my age who lived in a one- or two-room...probably "shack" is appropriate. The story had it that they put all their clothes in a pile at night, and whoever got up first got to pick what to wear -- and there was only enough to go around. I remember being in class with one of those boys, but as a kid you just don't understand what it means.

nice to see some deadwood crew in something good, though i didn't place the sheriff (francis wolcott/jack mccall) until the end

it seems like all of television these days is comprised of the deadwood crew - the shows I watch, at least

(loved WB btw)

Garret Dillahunt is everywhere

Everyone above is otm about John Hawkes in this, too

pretty mediocre if you've read the book tbqfh

like i know that's not fair but

How come?

Because film is inherently inferior to fiction? *sniffs brandy*

Don't get me wrong, the film is merely good, but was bound to overpraised given the amount of absolute shit on domestic screens this year.

Actually, I'd really like to know what the book is like, since it seems like the kind of story that would benefit from a glimpse into the way her mind works.

eh essentially (and i totally *get* why they did this) the film trades the majority of ree's interior life for ugly scenery and added scenes that i guess are supposed to give you a feel for the place, instead of the character. the book is mercifully light on descriptions of junked cars and trailer homes. mostly the ree in the film is a bit of a cipher, where the book suggests that she's an outsider not just because of her fearlessness but also because she just kind of thinks differently from the people surrounding her.

one particular added scene that drove me fucking nuts was w/the army recruiter--the whole point of her character is that she is not naive!

also on a basic production choices level i don't really get some of the changes they made--maybe they couldnt shoot in snow due to logistics but the book is extremely snowy. why did they make one of her little brothers a sister? why did they change her clothing (in the book she wears old print dresses or skirts with combat boots and a gigantic winter coat) which is key to imagining her tramping around the ozarks?

i mean, it's a fine movie, not that much wrong with it, i don't really know how i would have rated it if i had seen it before reading.

It's harder – not impossible – for films to suggest a character's interiority. Many times it's up to the actor to think in character – one of the signs of a good actor for me, actually.

yeah, again, i understand why they dropped a lot of stuff, but for sure some of it could've been worked in

one of my fav details--when she's splitting wood w/headphones on--she likes to listen to new age "sounds of the rainforest" shit. would've been an easy add imo

the film didn't really trade in counterintuitive details like that, unfortunately

Okay I'm reading the book now. You made me. I mean not NOW now but I'm going to go find a copy.

itll only take you like half a day, i had a good time (nb i don't read much fiction anymore especially newer fiction)

lol at the sheriff - possibly reprising his role as a Terminator? When Ree meets him for the first time she asks him 'why are you here?' and was just expecting him to say 'I'm looking for John Connor.'

CAD otm about the changes to Ree and the atmosphere in general, also missed the tense aftermath of her beating (Uncle Teardrop and other relatives standing guard outside the house) but I felt like even the novel kind of ran out of steam at the end, like Woodrell couldn't figure a better way to resolve Ree finding her father.

yeah i'd agree with that

felt like something you'd see on tv. it wasn't bad or whatever, but there wasn't much to this film besides a narrative, and the story was actually pretty boring. as a study in showing some types of people you don't see in other films then yeah it was grand, but ultimately forgettable imo.

saw this tonight. relentlessly bleak in a way that i generally don't enjoy but there were some genuinely interesting things about this film. in particular kept thinking about gender and how there appeared to be two gender hierarchies. up until a certain point every time ree tried to deal with the men she was rebuffed (generally by the women) and women kept interceding on her behalf or sending her forward. this obv comes up again when the women beat her. it made me think a lot about questions of domesticity + who controls what kinds of power/influence. that obv women were generally living under the shadow of these brutal men (and it seemed clear to me that this was a milieu with lots of domestic violence -- even that scene w/ ostensibly the good guy, hawkes' character indicated that), but that they also had their own understandings between them and representations of power. one of the issues for ree is that she was taking on some of the roles men in this family were expected to take (and they even make a point of asking her at one point, 'aren't there any men that could do this for you?') and that she constantly runs up against certain expectations for what she can/should do -- but then also those other avenues for representations of power are how she's able to do a lot of these things.

I find your post more interesting than the film...I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and I just couldn't get into it. I found it more dreary than bleak. Someone whose opinions on films I respect a lot picked it as his #1 film of the year on his blog, so I was surprised when I didn't like it.

Pretty much felt like killing myself after I watched this yesterday but thought it was excellent. Ree (sp? I obv haven't read the book or this thread) was excellent and I think I'm sort of in love with John Hawkes. He was incredible! What an actor. I think this was the best movie I've seen in a quite a while tbh.

ok so i was talking to a friend of mine about this movie and how i'd avoided it because i'd heard it was a debbie downer and he was all no it really isn't, it's on some ~real lyfe~ shit but it's hardly melodrama or anything that's gonna leave you shell shocked. his theory was that since the ending is just kinda "welp we're done" and w/o closure (NB I HAVE NOT SEEN THIS) it scans to ppl as a bummer when in fact it's actually just what happens in real life.

also nb my friend is an actual card-carrying poet

Maybe you should see it and then analyze it afterward.

yeah my poet friends love this movie. fuckin' poets.

hardly melodrama or anything that's gonna leave you shell shocked

I'd definitely say that's true. I didn't cry at any point but was really out bummed for a while last night. I think the "real lyfe shyt" it's on is what makes it so bleak. It's just really . . . grim. That said it was awesome and you should watch it just maybe plan to go to the circus or sniff some babies heads afterward or something.

Maybe you should see it and then analyze it afterward.

― reggaeton for the painfully alone (polyphonic), Monday, May 9, 2011 3:35 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark

chill winston

I have "issues" w/r/t the unremitting bleakness of it but that's my own baggage - what it's doing totally works.

Yeah John Hawkes, what can you say really? There are so many incredible actors and actresses that Hollywood is just too dumb - too retrograde - to figure out how to use.

chill winston

If I wanted to read people pontificate about films they haven't seen I'd delete my Dr. Morbius greasemonkey script.

Given the amount of real life shit in, you know, real life, I'd be pretty sad if it took this movie to bum you out. Can't remember its name, but there was a great PBS (?) doc out several years ago that focused on two high school kids in rural, poor, mountain Arkansas, and the struggles they went through just to go to school each day.

Think it was "Country Boys," and it was set in dirt-poor rural Tennessee, but same idea.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/countryboys/

Shit, I mean Kentucky. Anyway, this is real-life "Winter's Bone" and available at that site online.

I have "issues" w/r/t the unremitting bleakness of it but that's my own baggage - what it's doing totally works.

otm

Yeah John Hawkes, what can you say really? There are so many incredible actors and actresses that Hollywood is just too dumb - too retrograde - to figure out how to use.

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Monday, May 9, 2011 11:16 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

lol he gets run over by a truck 2 minutes after his character gets introduced in Miami Vice

he's gonna be a lot more noticeable soon thanks to that new flick where he plays a cult leader, methinks.

xp haha, wow, sad

i've been saying "cut them thirty year o' timber down to nuuubs" to myself for a couple days now

Thump was creepy as hell in this movie

When you finally see him he looks like a backup bass player in the Charlie Daniels band and somehow that makes him even scarier.

hahaha YES

lol

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.

The ones who apparently sit around mournfully singing "Farther Along" to each other all day long??

/RAGE

(sorry)

Wait which ones where that? I meant the lady who took the horse in an brought her the deer meat and vegetables.

Did she sing?