I’m not the first person to make this observation, but it bears repeating – Winter’s Bone does for the Ozarks what The Wire did for Baltimore: illustrate a deep-seated web of corruption and moral ambivalence so pervasive that the usual notions of right, wrong, and legal are subordinated to the oldest law in the universe — survival. Cowriter/director Debra Granik doesn’t waste time decrying how broken the law enforcement system is; she doesn’t really even waste her breath on condemning the criminals and villains of this backwoods jungle. Instead, the film is a passive feat of empathy extended toward a single individual who has no chance of escaping this hellish muck. Continue reading
