05 Oct 2011
USA
2010
100 min
Director: Debra Granik
Gritty yet poetic, Debra Granik’s portrait of life in the poverty-stricken Ozark Mountains is remarkable for the central performance of Jennifer Lawrence in her first film role. Ree Dolly (Lawrence) is the stoical youngster who embarks on a mission to find her absentee father before the family home is forfeited as a bail bond.
As she digs deep into a local community of ne’er-do-wells and small time crooks, she disturbs the predominantly masculine hierarchy and conspiracy of silence. At times feeling like a noir thriller, at others an essay on America’s blindness to its impoverished underclass, the film creates a world that the viewer cannot ignore.