Winter's Bone 2010

Michael Phillips, At the Movies: This lead performance [from Jennifer Lawrence] is excellent. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This unblinking look at America's Red State Crystal Meth Belt is an instant Southern Gothic classic. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: For all the horror, it's the drive toward life, not the decay, that lingers in the mind. As a modern heroine, Ree Dolly has no peer, and Winter's Bone is the year's most stirring film. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Spectacular for its humanity, austere beauty and heart-stopping urgency. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Both a whodunit and a coming-of-age tale, dominated by Jennifer Lawrence's luminous performance as the resourceful, much-tested Ree. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Granik has no taste for noir archness, opting for a chilly, shot-on-decaying-locations naturalism that feels as lived-in as Lawrence's performance. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Winter's Bone is a genuine triumph, a great movie with astounding performances so natural, so genuine, that you forget it's a movie. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The gritty, desperate Ozarks milieu of Winter's Bone feels so real, so right, that you only slowly realize you're watching a detective movie. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The social detail of a 21st-century mountain community is completely persuasive, heightening the drama immeasurably. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The way Lawrence captures a young woman's fear and resolve, often non-verbally, well ... this is a considerable talent well on her way to a great career. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: For Jennifer Lawrence, she's probably the most gifted actress of her generation. How wonderful that, so young, she has already found a role worthy of her talent. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A masterpiece of sparseness. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Jennifer Lawrence gives a stirring turn in a gift-of-a-lifetime role. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The result is a film and a character of unusual strength. Pity Ree, question her decisions, wonder about her future. But the girl does not quit. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Lawrence is the movie's blooming discovery, a mesmerizing actor with a gaze that's the opposite of actress-coy and a voice modulated in the low, almost monotone cadences of local ways. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Intense, immersive and in control, Winter's Bone has an art house soul inside a B picture body, and that proves to be a potent combination indeed. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: 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. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: What we've been waiting for: a work of art that grabs hold and won't let go. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Granik makes something real out of all of it. And even, against all odds, hopeful. Because, yes, this is a hard and stony land. But the life that manages to take root there tends to survive. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The main reason for Winter's Bone to exist is that it delivers a little voyeuristic thrill -- a bit of poverty porno -- for the critics who awarded it their highest honors at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's been a long time since a film has conveyed a culture, and a sense of place, with such telling precision. At the same time, Winter's Bone thrums with suspense. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Winter's Bone is a welcome reminder that thrillers don't have to be loud and boisterous to grab the attention and keep it captive. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There is a hazard of caricature here. Granik avoids it. Her film doesn't live above these people, but among them. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Every once in a rare while a movie gets inside your head and heart, rubbing your emotions raw. The remarkable Winter's Bone is just such a movie. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: An absolute knockout. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: With Winter's Bone, Granik has morphed from a director worth watching to one who demands our undivided attention. She's got mine. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: In an impeccable act of sympathetic imagination, director Debra Granik has entered into the soul of debt-ridden Appalachia. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Winter's Bone is the best film of the year. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: This is a world out of time and, despite the trappings of flinty realism, the film too unfolds like an elemental myth from the stormy past -- a Greek tragedy driven by dark fates and struggling toward a catharsis. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The dialogue is so sparse and the plot is so lean in Winter's Bone, it requires acting of exemplary strength, and the movie delivers in spades, chiefly in the performances by Lawrence and Hawkes. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Granik balances the pace and intrigue of a mystery thriller with total compassion for Ree, played with much skill by Lawrence. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Winter's Bone sometimes feels like a haunted house, where only extreme deference to scary people will save you. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Every so often a film gets under our skin with its haunting authenticity, reinforcing our faith in the wonderfully transporting power of cinematic storytelling. Winter's Bone is unquestionably that film. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Following its brave heroine (an outstanding Jennifer Lawrence) as she seeks to uncover the truth behind her father's disappearance, the film employs the structure of a whodunit to take a tough, unflinching look at an impoverished Ozarks community. Read more

Dan Kois, Village Voice: Lawrence gives a guarded and watchful performance. Read more