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: The Fighter

It seems sometimes that when you've seen one boxing movie, you've seen them all. The main character has to overcome stuff and then get a shot at redemption in some way. "The Fighter," starring Mark Wahlberg as a real-life fighter, "Irish" Micky Ward, is no different. Ward has to overcome his family. There's his brother Dicky Ecklund (Christian Bale), a former boxer who is now his trainer, but is also a drug addict, and his mother (Melissa Leo), who serves as his manager. Not to mention his seven loud, obnoxious sisters, who apparently travel everywhere in a pack. They're sending his career down the toilet until he stands up for himself with the help of his new girlfriend (Amy Adams). It is well-acted, and I particularly enjoyed Adams' performance. There's some Oscar hype for this movie, but it's not quite at that level. And I hate when a biopic takes liberties with the real story and "The Fighter," according to this article, took quite a few. My grade: B.