Quick Review (Oscar Edition): Winter's Bone

At the end of this post I'll rank the Oscar Best Picture nominees, now that I've seen them all. The one I had missed, "Winter's Bone," wasn't rereleased to theaters after its nomination, so I had to rent the DVD. (Not only is it the first time I've ever rented a DVD, although way back in the day I did rent VHS tapes, I got it for $1 from a Redbox machine. It would've cost $4.99 for On Demand rental from Comcast.)

The tension-filled "Winter's Bone" mostly held my interest well. I got up just once, to get a drink. (Being able to pause the movie just isn't possible in theaters, dammit!) 17-year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence, nominated for Best Actress) is taking care of her mother, younger brother and sister in severe poverty in a rural area. She has to set off on a desperate quest to find her missing father, out on bond after an arrest on meth-making charges; he signed over their house as part of his bail, and if he doesn't show up for court they'll lose the house. The search won't be easy; meth labs are a big business in these areas and those who may know her father's whereabouts, including his own brother (John Hawkes, also a nominee as Best Supporting Actor), keep warning her to keep her mouth shut. I kept waiting for some typical dialogue and action and overacting that we usually get from big-budget Hollywood films. It never came. This is a quiet but rather powerful story. My grade: B-plus.

So, now that I've seen all ten Best Picture nominees, here is how I'd rank them, although my hunch is that "The King's Speech" will actually win the Oscar:

1. Toy Story 3
2. The Social Network
3. Black Swan
4. Inception
5. Winter's Bone
6. The Kids Are All Right
7. 127 Hours
8. True Grit
9. The King's Speech
10. The Fighter

Quick Review: 127 Hours

It's pretty obvious that spoiler alerts aren't needed here: "127 Hours" is based on the true story of Aron Ralston, who was hiking in a remote canyon in Utah when a boulder fell and trapped his arm. Unable to dislodge the boulder, running out of food and water, with no search parties looking for him since he told no one where he was going before he left, he eventually did the only thing he could do in order to stay alive: he cut off his arm. When the movie was screened at film festivals earlier this year there were reports that some people got sick after seeing the amputation scene. I expected something a lot more graphic, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. James Franco, as Ralston, has to carry the movie as he's alone on screen for much of it. Other than in a few flashbacks (as he's looking back at his life and his choices while trapped) he's not interacting with anyone else. He's definitely up to the task. Some of the film work was a little distracting -- do we really need to see the point of view from the inside of a water bottle? -- but for the most part, even knowing the eventual outcome, the suspense still builds. My grade: B-plus.