winter's bone

Sometimes the influence of film noir can be found in the most unexpected places. Debra Granik's bleak survival picture Winter's Bone, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell, focuses on the rural poor in the Ozarks. When Ree Dolly's (a steely Jennifer Lawrence whose flat, toughened speech recalls Lauren Bacall) father disappears, she must find him or she and her family, her young siblings and her mentally fraught mother, will be homeless. The journey Ree ends up taking tracing her father, who cooks meth and may or may not be dead, is a harrowing one. She goes house to house, asking for help, advice, the use of a truck, anything. Yet in an environment where everyone is so strapped, desperate to protect themselves and aren't looking out much for the sake of others, she is met with many odds. Once embroiled in a dangerous situation with a group of dealers, her father's abusive, drug-addicted brother Teardrop (a haunting John Hawkes) figures as an unlikely ally.

The topical subject matter of Winter's Bone isn't necessarily what makes it so wonderful. Like Courtney Hunt's marvelous Frozen River, the emotional resonance comes from the scrappy, richly realized female protagonists who are fighting to survive against tough odds. There are a lot of details pertinent to the locale (bluegrass, squirrel hunting, satellite TV, auctions). Yet, where one could have made something exploitative, Granik proves herself as a vivid, careful filmmaker. It shows greater sophistication than her previous Down to the Bone. It may help that the script is based upon a novel informed both by spareness and Greek mythology (intended or not, Ree's journey is a feminist monomyth). The suspense builds beautifully and the characters are vividly imagined. Akin to his name, Teardrop is a sad, plaintive wreck of a man (once a great player, he is unable to strum a guitar by the film's close) who displays some bouts of tenderness. The story of Ree's father comes out gradually through the stories and reactions of the locals. With all of this, Granik does a lot with the skill of her actors and the power of suggestion on a paltry two million dollar budget. In recent years, it has been inspiring to see female directors such as Granik, Hunt, Kathryn Bigelow, and Lisa Cholodenko getting notice for making powerful films on limited resources.

In his review, Kyle Smith criticized Granik's film as a "little voyeuristic thrill--a bit of poverty porno." This was also leveled against Precious and Frozen River: other notable films to come out in recent years about the poor in contemporary America. This smug, tiring attack seems rooted in the critic's own discomfort with watching the lives of America's poor played out onscreen (Smith notes that he was "chilled by the smeary atmosphere -- the junkyard desperation -- of an economy based on critter stew and meth labs"). It is indeed chilling and exactly the point. ***1/2

-Jeffery Berg

Great A.V. Club interview with Granik.

Interesting Washington Post interview with John Hawkes.

top 10 films of 2009

For film lovers, this will likely be remembered as the year of Avatar. James Cameron's sci-fi action romance is already a towering global phenomenon. But that film does not make my Top 10. There was a lot of unusual works that relied less on CGI and more on authenticity, good writing and good acting. Those were the films that moved me the most.

Here's my top 10. What are some of your favorites?

10. Seraphine

Martin Provost's sublime, loving film shows the relationship between an artist who literally lives on and through her work and the man, Wilhelm Udhe, who by happenstance discovers and nurtures her talent. It's an illuminating picture and never condescending.

9. Bright Star

Jane Campion's dramatization of the romance between Fanny Brawne and John Keats is a lush, sweet and ultimately tragic affair.

8. Broken Embraces

Not Almodovar's best by any means but still a masterly depiction of lost, unfinished art, a doomed affair and a film within a film within a film.

7. A Serious Man

Funny use of the Book of Job in the life of Jewish professor in Minnesota suburb. One of the more personal Coen Brothers films with wonderful cinematography by Roger Deakins.

6. Crazy Heart

Familiar but surprisingly lithe country singer redemption tale with a career best performance from Jeff Bridges and a rousing T Bone Burnett score.

5. Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino's cinematic revenge on the Nazis recalls screwballs like To Be or Not to Be and spaghetti westerns.

4. Up in the Air

Pertinent to our era, George Clooney is perfectly cast as slick corporate assassin who begins to realize his alienation.

3. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Powerful, unsentimental drama of abused teen who is awakened through reading and writing. Mo'Nique gives an unforgettable performance as abusive mother.

2. The White Ribbon

Unsettling look at the roots of evil as mysterious events unfold in a German village on the eve of WWI.

1. The Hurt Locker

The skill Kathryn Bigelow displays as a director in the film's bomb dismantling sequences are at times breathtaking. But this is also a careful and unusual character study that refreshingly offers no answers or simplistic depictions.

There were a lot of perfectly good films in '09 that didn't make this list. All of them are unique visions and worthy of some kind of praise.

They include

Goodbye Solo, The September Issue, An Education, The Cove, Everlasting Moments, The House of the Devil, Invictus, Me & Orson Welles, 35 Shots of Rum, In the Loop, The Headless Woman, (500) Days of Summer, The Last Station, District 9, Summer Hours, Away We Go, Drag Me to Hell, The Girlfriend Experience, A Single Man

precious discovery

For those who haven't seen Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, you're in for a rare treat. Just how many films come out with a predominantly black female cast? There are many breakthrough performances in Precious but the real discovery is Gabourey Sidibe.

My friend Chantelle sent me this video from CBS Evening News. It's amazing to see some footage from Gabourey's audition and the way she transformed her personality and her voice to be Claireece 'Precious' Jones.

precious

Precious is the girl some may laugh or gawk at or turn their eyes away from. Overweight, abused, illiterate, 16 and on her second baby (her father's), Sapphire gave her an utterly convincing and arresting voice in the 1995 novel Push. In the captivating and ambitious new film adaptation by Lee Daniels, we are invited visually into Precious's harrowing story. Set in 1987, at the peak of the Reagan/Bush era and the AIDS crisis, it's a distinctly grim American tale of the marginalized but also a hopeful look at the strength of the human spirit. Shut out from learning at an overburdened and out-of-touch public school system, Precious is stuck in junior high, unable to rise above the second grade reading level. At home, she is sexually abused by her father (whose face is absent throughout the picture) and her mother (played with ferocity by Mo'Nique). When Precious is given the chance to attend a small vocational school for other female outcasts of the system, a teacher (an angelic but steely Paula Patton) named Blu Rain guides her out of illiteracy and into the world of self-expression through writing.

It's a stunning film and a difficult one to write about. There are few films like it. Melodramatic, raw and at times, funny, Precious has a sort of European, lives-by-its own-rules flair. Daniels moves out of the horror of Precious's predicament into sequences of fantasy. These are skillfully but not smoothly done. In one scene, Precious looks at herself as a white girl in a mirror adorned with Cyndi Lauper cutouts. In another, Daniels puts Precious and her mother in Two Women (the Italian Sophia Loren film about a mother and daughter who are raped). Some critics have seemed to have missed the meaning of this reference, assuming a poor black woman wouldn't be watching a subtitled film on television. All at once, Daniels suggests why not, maybe not, and who cares? The scene is funny and moving. These touches of the surreal made me think of other directors like Gus Van Sant, Truffaut and Bergman. And yet, why compare Lee Daniels to other white directors in order to "validate" his work? Here he proves that he is uniquely and bravely his own filmmaker.

Anyone who can pull such an unfussy, solid performance out of Mariah Carey certainly has a gift. Stripped of cosmetics and ditz, she is completely convincing in a small but pivotal role as a hardened social worker. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe as Precious is a natural. She delivers poignant voice-overs, movements and expressions. But the standout really is Mo'Nique. The comedienne's devastating turn is worth the hype. Not only through her broad, operatic anger and emotional breakdowns but in more subtle ways as well. In a stunning scene, where she dons a wig and switches personalities to appease a social worker, we watch her character's desperation and cunning manipulation. Besides the principals, the whole cast is brilliant.

I wonder if my strong views of the film could be shaded by my film-going experience. A sold out showing Friday night at Lincoln Square, the crowd was thoroughly engaged and the response afterward, rapturous. This is rare nowadays for such a potent drama. I remember a gentleman once telling me about his experience watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in the theater in 1966 ("it was electric"). After the film, Lee Daniels graciously took to the mic to take questions. This will obviously be a huge hit (it already broke records for per-theater-weekend average) and so far, 2009's likely Best Picture winner. I hope this film will be groundbreaking in inspiring studios to finance black filmmakers. It may spurn much debate over race, social issues and character depictions (for this, please read insightful thoughts on Jezebel and Racialicious). But for now, I'm just happy to have witnessed such a great new American film. ****

-Jeffery Berg

precious painting

New oil paint poster for the film Precious.

precious

Lee Daniels's new film Precious looks so good. Especially the performances by newcomer Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Mo'Nique, and Mariah Carey. My friend Rio was lucky enough to see it at Sundance where it swept the awards (winning the Audience and the Grand Jury Prize and the Dramatic Jury Prize for Mo'Nique's performance). She has high praise for the film as well. I'm reading the book Push by Sapphire now. It's very vivid and blunt. It's eerie how the sets in the trailer look similar to the ones in my mind while I was reading.