Winter's Bone

Winter's Bone is a 2010 American independent drama film, an adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's 2006 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Debra Granik, the film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a teenaged girl in the rural Ozarks of the central United States who, to protect her family from eviction, must locate her missing father. The film explores the interrelated themes of close and distant family ties, the power and speed of gossip, self-sufficiency, and poverty as they are changed by the pervasive underworld of illegal methamphetamine labs.

Winter's Bone won several awards including the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also received four 2011 Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) looks after her mentally ill mother, her twelve-year-old brother Sonny (Isaiah Stone), and her six-year-old sister Ashlee (Ashlee Thompson). Every day, Ree makes sure her siblings eat, while teaching them basic survival skills like hunting and cooking. The family is destitute. Ree's father, Jessup, has not been home for a long time; his whereabouts are unknown. He is out on bail following an arrest for manufacturing "crank".

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress. Lawrence began her career in television, playing her first major role as a lead cast member on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show (2007–09). After transitioning into film, she gave her breakout performance in the independent drama Winter's Bone (2010). Her first major commercial success was playing Mystique in the fourth installment of the superhero franchise X-Men (2011–16).

Lawrence gained international fame for playing Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games film series (2012–15), which established her as the highest-grossing action heroine at that point. As a dramatic actress, she has collaborated with director David O. Russell on multiple films. Her starring role in Russell's romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook (2012) earned her the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, making her the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner ever. Lawrence also received Golden Globe Awards for her performances in Russell's comedy-dramas American Hustle (2013) and Joy (2015).

Mark Kermode

Mark James Patrick Kermode (né Fairey; 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, presenter, writer, and musician. He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is the chief film critic for The Observer, and a contributor to Kermode and Mayo's Film Review and Sight and Sound magazine. He also co-presents the BBC Two arts programme The Culture Show and discusses other branches of the arts for the BBC Two programme Newsnight Review. Kermode also writes and presents a film-related video blog for the BBC. Kermode is also a co-founder of the skiffle band The Dodge Brothers.

Early life

Kermode was born in Barnet, London. He was educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an independent boys' school in Elstree, Hertfordshire, a few years ahead of comedians Sacha Baron Cohen and David Baddiel and in the same year as actor Jason Isaacs.

He was raised as a Methodist, and later became a member of the Church of England. His parents divorced when he was in his early 20s and he subsequently changed his surname to his mother's maiden name by deed poll. He earned his PhD in English at the University of Manchester in 1991, writing a thesis on horror fiction.