16/50: Winter's Bone

Let me first start by saying that I did not see this performance coming from a million miles away. Mrs. Kano and I may have been two of the 25 people that actually watched "The Bill Engvall Show while it was airing on TBS. It was a pretty decent little family comedy - but by no means anything real special.

But, lo and behold, there was apparently a diamond in the rough. Because on that show starring as Bill's daughter, Lauren, is Oscar nominee for Winter's Bone Jennifer Lawrence.

She seemed like a great actress, the kind that come from the Disney Channel or soap operas, but honestly I had no idea that she could end up being this talented.

The movie itself has Lawrence's Ree taking care of her adolescent brother and sister, along with her sick-in-the-head mother in Ozark Mountain.

She finds out from local Sheriff Basking (Garret Dillahunt) that her drug making father, Jessip, had put up their house and land to post bail - and if he didn't show up for his hearing that they would lose all that they had left.

Some family members and friends offer to take care of the little kids, but not together. Ree, wanting to keep her family together, heads out to look for her father through some of the toughest parts of the county - dead or alive, as long as he shows, they can keep their property.

Ree doesn't get much help in her search until Jessip's brother, Teardrop (John Hawkes) steps in to keep some local tough guys away from Ree.

The film itself looks amazing, but very bleak. Top notch acting all-around; I spoke of Lawrence, but Hawkes, who I have liked for a long time, did a great job as Teardrop - and even Dillahunt as the local sheriff. Good to see these two "Deadwood" grads doing so well.

I had a tough time grading this because I feel the film deserves an Excellent, but due to rewatchability I was seriously considering giving it a Suspense is Killing Me. In the end, I went with my first thought and gave it what the movie deserved.

Grade:

Deadwood

During the summer I took a literature course at college that was basically using television shows as a form of literature.

The teacher was great and constantly said, "What makes good television?" The course was amazing and I came away with a number of new shows that I had never seen, but was now interested in viewing.

The first of those shows that I watched were all five seasons of The Wire and I curse myself for never watching it. However, I was very happy to be able to watch all five seasons consecutively without having to wait.

Well, I tossed in the second series that I found interesting during the course and that was Deadwood. I have never been a huge western fan, but I have to say I was immediately drawn to the characters in this show. And there were plenty.

The show focuses on the new town of Deadwood, South Dakota in the late 1800's and for the most part tries to be pretty close to true events. The shows characters are based on real life characters from that time frame, including well known characters that pop up like Wild Bill Hickock and Wyatt Earp.

The main characters of the show are Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), Sol Star (John Hawkes), Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie) and Alma Garret (Molly Parker). The show, however, is very eclectic with its characters as they stretch out almost as much as The Simpsons.

This show only stretches three seasons of 36 shows. It is very unfortunate that the show was canceled after the third season. Deadwood was amazing right from the start, however, the third season really was a gem and was building to something special - but it ended without a real conclusion. I feel season four would have been epic.

It is kind of fun to watch a town build out of nothing with no real rules, but some of the men around camp take it upon themselves to police the town - as long as it is in their own best interest.

There were rumors of a pair of Deadwood movies coming out, but that report has been squashed and it now appears that the show is finished as it is. It saddens me now that I have seen all of the episodes because like I said, the final season was building to an all-out battle between the Deadwood camp and George Hearst.

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