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Winter's Bone (2010)
Director: Debra Granik Release date: 17th September 2010 Genre: Thriller/Drama/Mystery
External Review:
Reviewer: Frank Ritz
Winter’s Bone is an unflinchingly gritty Neo-noir thriller. From the trailer it looked absolutely stunning and was high on my list of movies to see this year. Now, after seeing it I can tell you that, while it is a fine film, I wasn’t completely bowled over.
Winter’s Bone is about 17 year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence). She lives in the Ozark Mountains with her mother (who is completely distant from reality) and her two younger siblings (boy and girl). She acts as the man and the woman of the house, taking care of herself, her brother and sister, and her mom. But when her drug-dealing father skips a court date and puts the house, in which Ree and her family lives in, up as bond, Ree has only a week to either get her dad to court or prove he’s dead, like so many believe.
Ree embarks on a devastating journey through the crazy redneck infested backwoods on a search for her father, while still doing everything in her power to keep the family together. This is a very slow, but somehow intense film that has a few flaws that prevents it from being great.
The film was directed by Debra Granik (whom I had never heard of prior to this movie). She directed one feature length film, Down to the bone, prior to this, but as far as I know it wasn’t very good. Then Winter’s Bone hit the Sundance circuit and ended up going home with two prizes: Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Now, not knowing what it went up against I can’t tell you if it deserved the wins or not (mostly not for the latter), but it definitely deserved to be a candidate for the former.
The direction from Granik stays inside no boundaries and goes where it wants to. It depicts the life in poverty for the family expertly; I wouldn’t be surprised if she grew up in this kind of horrible situation. They live in a very crappy home, I’m not even sure if they have running water. The only form of entertainment is an old trampoline; work must always be done. Granik exquisitely portrays this with her camera — bringing these images to life and sorrow to our souls. She also has a style that is in the vein of a classic Noir film and a new gritty urban drama. She never does anything too flashy to distract from the story, but instead guides Ree on her quest for glory and search for knowledge. Granik’s direction is very powerful in this film, and I guarantee we will be seeing more from her.
The acting is pretty outstanding too. Jennifer Lawrence is a good (albeit quiet) lead. She doesn’t have long memorable monologues, she isn’t a crazy action hero busting bullets into everyone, and she isn’t a hard-ass either. She is just a teenage girl doing her duties. This is the first time I’ve seen Lawrence in a movie and she is unprecedentedly great. She plays the role with a stern reassurance throughout that makes us believe she is Ree, and she is in her incredible situation.
But the two best performances are almost two completely different roles. They go to John Hawkes as Teardrop, Ree’s father’s only brother, and Dale Dickey as Merab, a crazy southern redneck lady who kicks ass then asks questions. Hawkes performance is by far the most memorable and most powerful. It has a deep core of emotion, with a layer of protectiveness, bad-assedness, and one of no emotion (a.k.a., Pure Evil) that only comes out once or twice. All he wants to do is help Ree, find his brother, and be a good person, but has a hard time achieving all of those. He is definitely a candidate for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. As for Dickey, she is just a crazed woman trying to protect Ree from herself, and has a very odd way of doing it. Her performance is powerful and mean and also full of emotion.
The writing is where Winter’s Bone is flawed (it won a screenwriting award?). It was written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini, based off the novel of the same name. This is the first time the writers have collaborated and the outcome is . . . interesting. It is a great premise in a good blend of genres; Neo-noir, Gritty Crime/Detective, Matriarchal — but there are several shortcomings. For one, the pacing is very shifty; sometimes it’s very slow, and sometimes very intense — there is no in-between. Also, just the general flow of things are too manicured; sometimes Ree will just think of somewhere to go, go, find what she was looking for, then move on. It just seems too clichéd and not thought out enough. Sure the movie would have been longer (the 100 minute running time felt like 200) but maybe the extra time would have helped. And lastly, sometimes the characters and their motives were hard to identify with (maybe it’s because I don’t live like them, but not everyone does).
Overall, this is a strong movie that sadly stumbles due to some major writing inconsistencies. Everything is good otherwise; therefore I recommend one to definitely take a look at it, if possible. That being said, Winter's Bone is not, however, a contender (in my eyes) for any accolades or awards other than Best Supporting Actor.
Today was pretty successful. We got all the filming done...again....due to the fact that Jess came in today with a different set of clothes. This means that if we used the footage we filmed last lesson and used it with this lessons film then Jess would of suddenly changed outfits half way throughout the film.
This has taught me that when filming, the actors need to wear the same clothing/outfits otherwise when we start filming, they could look a lot different to when we filmed last. We overcame this because today as we knew what, where, and how we would film our shots. We took in mind that the filming we did last time could be a "practice run through".
I think today's lesson went very well. We filmed all our shots however I believe that when it came to our conversation I believe that the filming could of taken less time as James wasn't that happy with what we filmed, so many outtakes arised.
Below are some camera shots/ angles which I will tend to use when it comes to my future productions in this Media Course. These angles/shots are very common in the media world.
High Angle
Low Angle
Over The Shoulder Shot
Tilt Shot
Long Shot
Medium Close Up
Close Up
Extreme Close Up
Bird's Eye View/Shot
"Worm's" Eye View/Shot
Point Of View
Panning Shot
Tracking Shot
Here are some stills which shows what each look like:
High Angle:
Low Angle:
Tilt Shot:
Long Shot:
Medium Close Up:
Extreme Close Up:
Bird's Eye View/Shot:
Point Of View (reflection shows 'point-of-view' effect):
"Worm's" Eye View/Shot:
Panning Shot
Following shots include:
Actor: Yannis
Relationship: School friend and work mate.
My GCSE Grades:
English C
English Literature D
Mathematics C
Art & Design C
Religious Studies C
Science C
Additional Science C
I.C.T. Pass (C)
Geography B
Media Studies B
Hobbies I enjoy:
Playing the piano. I can play many songs but the ones which people will recognize are:
Set Fire To The Rain, Turning Tables, Hometown Glory, Rolling In The Deep - Adele
Paparazzi - Lady Gaga
You Found Me - The Fray
Clocks - Coldplay
You Need Me I Dont Need You, Lego House - Ed Sheeran
Kids - MGMT
You're Beautiful - James Blunt
And many, many, many more!
(Below is a video below showing me playing my own interpretation of "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga on piano)
I can also play many theme tunes aswell. These include soundtracks from Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings aswell as many more. Below is the video of me playing "The White City of Gondor" from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The most printed media I read has to be about the latest news on new upcoming movies such as The Hobbit, The Avengers, Kill Bill 3 (rumored) and also The Dark Knight Rises. I enjoy reading about what’s going on and when they will be released as movies. However, this is not really printed media I read. I like to read this information on the Internet as it is quicker, cheaper and also you can find out many opinions from other people.
I highly enjoy my music, as I can play the piano. I like to listen to musicians such as Adele who have that natural voice recording voice. I also like to listen to the following: Frank Turner, MGMT, Go Radio and also anything which has a good rhythm/beet to it. My music taste is rather “all over the place”.
I have a high opinion on illegally downloading content from websites and other programs via the internet for music. I believe that if a group, singer or a bang is “unpopular” or should I say, “Unknown to the world” then I believe that it is only right to pay for their songs and music. However, with big bands, singers and groups it is acceptable to a certain stage. What I mean by this is that if a musician has millions of hits and views/downloads for their songs then one or two illegal downloads is ok, but at some point the person who is doing this must pay for at least one thing as the popular musician has already made millions (money).
The music industry doesn’t have an influence on the way I dress, but maybe on the ways other people do. This is because they want to look like their idol or the latest pop star as some kind of escape from the world, you dress the same so that you can look like them, be like them, act like them. Musicians could also release their own fashion range too. This supports young people being able to wear clothes made by a certain artist or group.
There are other types of media I like such as video games. I own a PlayStation 3 (PS3). Some of my favourite games on PS3 are Star Wars the Force Unleashed series, uncharted series and lastly the Assassin’s Creed series. My all time favourite have to be Assassin’s Creed series which is based off some real events and people and also fictional, but my favourite is Assassin’s creed Brotherhood which is a game containing events which take place right after Assassin’s Creed 2 (this game is like version 2.3 in the story starting the series at game 1, and then going up to probably game 3) In this game you are a character called Desmond. He is around the age of 26, and is a “test subject”. However, this is not the only character you play as. Desmond is a family member of an Assassin called Ezio De Auditore. To do this Desmond must use a machine called The Animus. In this machine he can “re-live” as Ezio and view his memory’s as they have the same DNA. In the story of Assassin’s Creed series Ezio is fighting the Templars of the age but in the modern day world, Desmond is fighting the modern day Templars by using the memory’s of Ezio to find out history’s greatest secrets. In other words, the whole story of Assassin’s Creed is rather confusing. The only way to take in and understand it is to play the game in my opinion, but what I’ve said above should sum it up nicely.
Here's a trailer showing the upcoming Assassin's Creed Revelations:
Video games such as the Assassin’s Creed series can have a negative effect on people’s behaviour such as never going outside because they want to get to the next level, or maybe that if it’s a violent game then it leads fans of the game to create “weapon lookalikes” and show them off to people, some in which can be deadly if used wrongly, especially with all the new technologies we have today to make such things.
New technologies have changed the way we view and even use media in our world today. I believe that these new technologies such as The Internet and Mobile Phones/and other handheld tech. have all changed the way we view media. The Internet lets us view almost anything we want and in any way we want. On The Internet you can view videos on YouTube about the latest report, and you can also add them to your "favorites box" such as I do with comedy and interesting videos on my YouTube called "erestor629" for easy access. http://www.youtube.com/user/erestor629?feature=mhee
You can even read blogs about what’s happening in the world today to increase our understanding. Combining this with portable technologies it means that we can use and consume media almost anywhere with an Internet connection. The Internet isn’t the only way we can view media now. We have T.V. DVD’s, Blue Ray and other media devises which we can view content on.
The Internet isn’t the only way I like to view media; I also like to watch T.V. such as BBC 1 which holds many of my favourite T.V. shows. These include Miranda, Outnumbered, Doctor Who and Torchwood. I like this channel as the BBC doesn’t have any adverts during the shows they host on air. It can get very annoying when your watching a film shall we say on Film 4 and an advert appearing in the middle of the story.
My most favourite genre of television has to be either Comedy or Drama. This is because Comedy has a huge range from panel shows to stand up shows. I highly like these as they take very serious matters and make them understandably funny to take in and to catch up on the latest news. However, I also like Drama. Drama shows such as Spooks has to be my favourite show. It has everything which a brilliant T.V. show needs: Cliff-hangers, Story dramatically changes, Tension and many more twists.
The T.V programs I find the most memorable have to be for starters “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” This show I have to call has to be the bases of these new panel shows such as “Mock the Week”, “Nevermind the Buzzcocks” and also “Have I Got News for You”. The show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” stars 4 comedians in total and a panel host. In most episodes 2 of the comedians are “the regulars” and the other 2 are guests. I like this format.
Here is some clips from episodes of "Whose Line Is It Anyways?" to give you a teaser to what it's like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sztkEfoXxsM&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDKSyilX6k0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a55kjGzYem4&feature=related
If you'd like to watch "Whose Line Is It Anyway" on T.V. then it is on the channel:
"5 USA" on weekends at 12am.
Another show I find memorable has to be Doctor Who. Doctor Who has a different story each episode leading to a big massive season final near Xmas. It has a very unique style. The Doctor can regenerate 12 times which means that he can change his appearance before he dies. This means that many different actors can play The Doctor which gives this Character so much to play with when writing stories and scripts for the show as each Doctor is never the same but holds small characteristics to the past Doctors. On top of this, he has many different companions to travel on his adventures with. With each new Doctor, he says goodbye to his past self and companion and says hello to the new him and a new companion. This could mean that Doctor Who can go on forever as its format is one of a kind.
Enough about my favourite shows on T.V, I also highly enjoy watching films. Some of my all time favourite films have to be the Star Wars saga, Kill Bill and also The Lord of the Rings. Star Wars has such an epic one of a kind story with a unique feel to it. George Lucas released episodes 4, 5 and 6 before episodes 1, 2 and 3. Never have I seen this done before, releasing the parts 4, 5 and 6 deliberately so that the new technologies can be used for 1, 2 and 3.
I myself am not a media producer in film. However, I did work experience at Epic Studios in Norwich. There, I looked on how they did auditions for an Internet fashion show called “Event Dog” (you may still be able to see it on the Internet today.) I helped out with a discussion at the end of the additions with the producers about who was good and who wasn’t so good. Also because they thought that it would be ideal that a young person should comment as the show was aimed at younger audiences into fashion.
Eventdog bringing a blend of live internet TV, direct from Epic Studios in Norwich. Using and supporting new local talent within music and fashion. - Eventdog, Twitter.
Even through the media have its benefits to the world by viewing it over the Internet, portable devices and other such means. It has its bad side to. Such as there can be more violence, racism involved which can be seen, also, if you’reat home everyday, all day on The Internet then you would lose your sense of time and that you would/might gain weight as you’re not doing any sports.
Taking this into account if I had to create a piece of media I would do a film with a message about what the future may hold for people who use media in their everyday life via a phone, IPad, MP3 Player and the Internet. How it will affect their life and their living health by keep looking at screens for most of their life.
I have chosen media studies as an A-level subject because I highly enjoyed media studies at GCSE. I got a B grade at GSCEs and I thought that I should continue doing something I like and enjoy as well because I got a good grade for it. On the other hand, I also wanted to do Media Studies as a subject because it fits well with my other A-levels which are Animation, Photography and lastly Business Studies. I believe that this mix mach of subjects fits very well together as a whole and will lead me into the world of media.
