Get Low & Winter's Bone

On Saturday, I went to Harrisburg's Midtown Cinema to see "Get Low." You may remember my being very excited about this movie based on the trailer(s) a few months ago. I've also recently attended the Midtown Cinema to see "Winter's Bone." The two movies bear a comparison.

"No Damn Trespassing."

Let me start by recommending "Get Low." Robert Duvall and Bill Murray turn in amazing performances. The movie itself is nothing special; a period piece based on a true story featuring a few outstanding shots and mediocre pacing. It is, in some ways, a mystery movie. Duvall's character (Felix Bush)'s intentions are never clear, and the all events that follow might, or perhaps might not, be his doing. Bill Murray is the money-loving undertaker who is willing to go the extra mile for... Felix's sake? for his own sake? That mystery also unfolds, though is resolved much less satisfactorily than the story's central mystery: What lies in Felix Bush's past? The reveal (don't worry, I won't spoil it) is a masterpiece of acting. Duvall stands onstage and tells a story and the camera shows admirable restraint. We see him telling his story. We see the reactions of the important characters. We see no flashbacks or cutaways. This movie knows its strengths, and uses them well.

"Winter's Bone" has some similarities: a story set in rural America that unfolds into a suspenseful mystery. The difference is that Winter's Bone is set in the contemporary Ozarks in the midst of a meth-cooking extended family. When her father posts her family's house as bail, Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) sets out to find him in order to save the family.

The guy on the left is not Viggo Mortensen, but he could be.

Unlike "Get Low," the mystery here is simple: where is he? Unlike "Get Low" this movie's strength is in its atmosphere. The acting is believable, the suspense works, at time achieving Hitchcockian proportions (e.g. The scene when the cops pull over the pickup truck. That's all I'll say).  The movie's greatest success, though, is in selling this slice of rural America. At times feeling like a mob movie, at times like a noir, at times like a coming-of-age story, it maintains its cold blue gaze on Ree and her extended family, and 

the minutiae that define their lives (sharing recently-killed vension, teaching a five-year-old to hunt squirrel, first-name familiarity with the bail-bondsman). It is this atmosphere that makes "Winter's Bone" a memorable movie, and (I hesitate to say this, considering how much I hyped "Get Low") the better of the two.

But go see them both, and let me know what you think.

P.S. I really wanted to title this post "Got Low," but then I decided to incorporate "Winter's Bone" as well. Just wanted to let y'all know.

A Few Links

...now that I'm back in a place with regular internet access, and my computer is not buried deep within my backpack.

I.
I was talking (with somebody who cares about such things) about how testicles became synonymous with courage, as in the contradictory "she's got balls." Here is an answer.

II.
A fun article about a family bonding experience. My favorite part: He goes into Wal-Mart and needs a nap afterwards.

III.
And I just watched this movie. SPOILER ALERT: the shot at 0:38 ruins what was, for me, the biggest surprise of the film, namely, what are those orange things for. It sounds like I am being sarcastic about the (lack of) suspense in the movie. Be assured, I am not.

The True Adventurer

As those of you who know me know, I like adventures. I also like to to think about adventure. I made a movie that, for the purposes of this blog, I'll frame as being about the sustainability of adventure (in terms of emotional, not environmental, resources). [NOTE: I tried to embed the video, but blogger was being a pain, cropping the player window. Anyone with blogger experience know how to resolve this?]

This summer is particularly interesting to me, as I'm doing a lot of traveling around (adventuring) but doing it (mostly) based out of my parents' house (home). In "On The Road," Sal Paradise (aka Jack Kerouac) frequently returns to his aunt's (actually mother's) house between cross-country journeys. So are home and adventure compatible or is Kerouac a sellout for relying on parental resources?

What is adventure anyway? White people bushwhacking into "uninhabited" jungles and subjugating the (surprise!) inhabitants? Is adventure necessarily counter to the forces of law and order? Is it worth it to go adventuring when some people cannot eat? Can you adventure from a sedentary (living-in-one-place sedentary, not laying-on-the-sofa sedentary) lifestyle?

Basically, as I begin to plan the next stages of my vagabond summer and of my (vagabond?) life, I'm wondering if adventure is a worthwhile goal to pursue. Thoughts?