For those who are tired of FX extravaganzas and predictable Hollywood formulas, there's Winter's Bone. A low budget story about a 17 year old Ozark girl who is responsible for her two younger siblings and her nearly catatonic mother, this is sort of like Deliverance from inside the culture.
This Ozark outback is dominated by rural meth lab "hillbilly" gangsters and Ree Dolly's missing husband has bail bond debts that will cause them to lose the minimal home they have, so Ree goes off in a hazardous search for her husband that is sort of an odessey through the dangers and small kindnesses of this blighted environment. The tension throughout this entire movie is palpable, violence is never more than a heartbeat away and the acting is completely convincing. It was filmed in a place that looks not unlike the place being portrayed, using locals as extras. Sometimes the accents make the dialog difficult; it almost needs subtitles. Nevertheless, this is one of the best flicks I have seen in a while, well worth a viewing. I had to catch my breath when it was over.
