DIRECTOR: Debra Granik

CAST: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes

REVIEW:

The third film from director Debra Granik and already an indie awards darling at the Sundance Film Festival, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone is a slow burn drama with some thriller elements whose indie sensibilities shine through loud and clear. Were this a sudio product, this would be pumped up with more conventional thriller elements, but here there’s no action sequences. There’s no overt straightforward conventional “villains” (albeit quite a few unsavory individuals), and the lead character isn’t an action heroine, just a 17-year-old girl with no extraordinary abilities beyond her wits and guts.