Winter's Bone (2010)

All Critics (161) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (154) | Rotten (9) | DVD (6)

Debra Granik's bleak little film is as tough, unflinching and fascinating as the characters who eke out a life amid its cold, gray hills.

January 31, 2011 Full Review

Connie Ogle

Miami Herald

Top Critic

Granik balances the pace and intrigue of a mystery thriller with total compassion for Ree, played with much skill by Lawrence.

September 15, 2010 Full Review

Dave Calhoun

Time Out

Top Critic

This unblinking look at America's Red State Crystal Meth Belt is an instant Southern Gothic classic.

July 28, 2010 Full Review | Comments (3)

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

Winter's Bone is a genuine triumph, a great movie with astounding performances so natural, so genuine, that you forget it's a movie.

July 23, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

Bill Goodykoontz

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

What we've been waiting for: a work of art that grabs hold and won't let go.

June 28, 2010 Full Review

David Denby

New Yorker

Top Critic

With Winter's Bone, Granik has morphed from a director worth watching to one who demands our undivided attention. She's got mine.

June 25, 2010 Full Review | Comments (2)

Amy Biancolli

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Peyton Place meets Deliverance in a meth lab.

July 11, 2012 Full Review

Dan Jardine

Cinemania

In moments of confrontation [Jennifer Lawrence's Ree] is as fearsome as Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, taking on monsters to protect the small and the vulnerable.

June 12, 2012 Full Review

Jeffrey Overstreet

Image

Jennifer Lawrence is dazzling as the film's protagonist as she struggles to uncover the truth between her addict father's disappearance.

August 15, 2011 Full Review

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

Winter's Bone is an absorbing and socially conscious piece of work, underwritten by the constant threat of violence.

June 30, 2011 Full Review

Ed Whitfield

The Ooh Tray

Gritty and real...

May 21, 2011 Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

Granik... proves a dab hand with the camera, capturing the starkness of the Ozarks and Ree's situation in a free-flowing and pensive way that transfers the chill of it all on to the screen.

May 18, 2011 Full Review

Matt Neal

The Standard

Not having been to this part of the country, I can't say for sure whether Granik has captured it accurately. The point is that it feels genuine.

April 4, 2011 Full Review

Eric D. Snider

EricDSnider.com

Granik pays deference to the curious ways of the mountain folk, rejecting the prevailing hillbilly clichés to depict people with hardy survival instincts in the grip of financial hardship and addiction.

March 30, 2011 Full Review

Fiona Williams

sbs.com.au

An unflinching portrait of shabby life in the Ozarks, this powerful indie drama features an Oscar-caliber turn from Jennifer Lewis, a real discovery who's only 20, in the lead.

March 26, 2011 Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Winter's Bone certainly has its redeeming qualities, particularly its cinematography and a superb lead performance by Jennifer Lawrence, but man, does it feel EMPTY until a gripping sequence near the end.

March 13, 2011 Full Review | Comments (9)

Gabe Leibowitz

Film and Felt

An acutely gripping, grimly authentic thriller.

March 10, 2011 Full Review

Jason Best

Movie Talk

full review at Movies for the Masses

February 24, 2011 Full Review

Joseph Proimakis

Movies for the Masses

Un retrato realista, crudo y duro de ambientes y personajes que viven al margen de la sociedad, de la ley y la moral, y que crece en intensidad como un thriller de suspenso. Estupendas actuaciones de Jennifer Lawrence y John Hawkes.

February 19, 2011 Full Review

Enrique Buchichio

Uruguay Total

Uma narrativa densa e multifacetada que permite que aquelas pessoas desafiem nossos preconceitos e se apresentem como indivíduos imperfeitos, sim, mas jamais unidimensionais.

February 14, 2011 Full Review

Pablo Villaca

Cinema em Cena

There is a profound sense of Neorealism percolating beneath Winter's Bone's noirish mystery plot.

February 10, 2011 Full Review

Shaun Munro

What Culture

... consciously attempting to avoid clichés can erode authenticity. To director Debra Granik's credit, realism permeates every frame of digital imagery

January 28, 2011 Full Review

Matt Kelemen

Las Vegas CityLife

A gripping movie that graphically portrays poverty as the worst form of violence in the life of a 17-year-old heroine struggling to save her family.

December 29, 2010 Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality and Practice

• 1. Teardrop: Is this gonna be our time?
  – Submitted by Joe P (44 days ago)
• 1. Merab: You was warned. Why didn't you listen?
  – Submitted by Daphne M (9 months ago)
• 1. Teardrop: I already told you once with my mouth.
  – Submitted by Zach D (13 months ago)
• 1. Ree: What I really can't stand is the way I feel ashamed... for dad.
  2. Teardrop: Well, he loved y'all. That's where he went weak.
  – Submitted by Sami A (14 months ago)
• 1. Ree: Never ask for what oughta be offered.
  – Submitted by rob g (2 years ago)
• 1. Ree: 'd be lost without the weight of you two on my back. I ain't going anywhere.
  – Submitted by rob g (2 years ago)