Little Woods

Got to see it last year at the Heartland Film Festival and very much enjoyed myself. For a first time writer-director I thought Nia DaCosta did a terrific job. Tessa Thompson is always great but I was very happily surprised by Lily James! I had no idea that she was Cinderella in the live action remake. All around good film, cant imagine why people on imdb dont seem to like it.

Lily James and Tessa Thompson both deliver stunning performances and this film explains beautifully the hardships of a working class woman's life. It's very real, raw and sometimes also quite painful to watch. Nina DaCosta did a terrific job on her first film. Absolutely loved it. It's so powerful and intense and deep and a really good film.

This is a subtle, slow-burn drama with two fantastic lead performances at its core. Recommended.

In this film it is portrayed how life is not easy.

The film shows us that although everything may be against us, there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. It also exposes us the dilemma between doing the right thing or surviving, just as it shows that the lack of money leads us to do things we don't want to do. It also touches on issues such as abortion, the sale and use of drugs, and the disagreements between the family are resolved when a tragic event occurs. This movie has a lot of family drama that works because of the extensive development of the characters and the good performances of these, although there is no development of what led those characters to go through those situations, as well the movie shows how difficult it is to deal with the ups and downs of life but that fate always has something good in store for us.

This family drama gives us a portrait of the difficulty of life, without victimizing the characters, but giving them a good development that helps you empathize with them, just as the solid performances make this story realistic, even if it is dramatic, it is worth it to see it.

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our local library. While it is billed as a "western", set in North Dakota with trips to Canada, it in fact was filmed near Austin, Texas and small area towns like Taylor, Manor, and Luling, perfect locations for gritty, small town scenery.

Two sisters, one adopted, have recently lost their mom, the house is almost in foreclosure, the one sister already is a single mom with a small boy of 5 or 6 and finds herself pregnant again.

The sister not pregnant is 10 days away from the end of her probation for some past drug dealing, she is on a good track and hopes to turn her life around, but finds it hard when old dealers and customers occasionally approach her.

The spit hits the fan when foreclosure is begin, the bank says they need almost $6000 to catch up, after bargaining the bank will take $3000 within one week, and prorate the rest. With prospects for a new job in Washington state the non-pregnant sister just needs to get past this hump, surely she can sell a few drugs to preserve the home for her sister then be done with it.

The movie isn't pretty and it isn't fun to watch, but when it was over both my wife and I had the same comment, we are grateful we had hard working parents who gave us a secure home and always had funds for basic living needs. The fictional story in this movie illustrates how difficult it can be to live your life when choices aren't great and it is either do or die. Unfortunately way too many young adults are in that situation at any given time.

Good movie, gritty but realistic.