Little Woods

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.

"Little Woods" (2018 release; 103 min.) brings the story of sisters Ollie and Deb. As the movie opens, Ollie is burying a package of some sort in the woods somewhere in North Dakota (only much later do we learn what is in that package). We get to know Ollie, as she is coming closer to ending her probation (for dealing opioids). "You are so close, please stay out of trouble", her probation officer implores. But Ollie's house is about to be foreclosed on. Meanwhile Deb is in an even tougher spot: she lives in a trailer on a parking lot, along with her young son. Then she finds out that she is pregnant... At this point we are less than 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the feature-length debut from African-American writer-director Nia DaCosta, and what a debut this is! Almost from the get-go, the situation is tense, and the mood is grim, as Ollie and Deb are coping with a tough playing field (or as John Mellencamp once observed: "doing the best they can"). The odds are stacked against them, and it never seems to get any better, on the contrary. The movie benefits enormously from the lead performers: Tessa Thompson is masterful as Ollie, and I doubt we will see her again in such a small indie movie anytime soon ("Men In Black: International" is next up for her, if you get my drift). British actress Lily James plays Deb, and she also is clearly on her way to bigger things (next up for her: "Yesterday"). When deep into the movie Ollie and Deb assess their situation, which looks dire, Ollie wryly comments "Your choices are only as good as your options". DaCosta captures it all perfectly, and this is frankly an amazing and impressive debut film that had me on the edge of my seat throughout.

"Little Woods" premiered at last year's Tribeca film festival, yes over a year ago! No idea why it has taken this long to get a theatrical release, but better late than not I suppose. The movie opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at was not attended well (5 people, including myself), which is a darn shame. Hopefully the movie will find a larger audience as it is released on other platforms. If you are in the mood for a tense family drama with outstanding lead performances, you could do a lot worse than "Little Woods". Of course I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

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.

"Little Woods" feels like a modern twist on a western which is cool, but I just couldn't get into it. I felt lost throughout.

In this drama, two sisters work outside the law in order to better their lives.

Overall, "Little Woods" is not a horrible film but not as great as people are saying it is. Tessa Thompson ("Annihilation") is terrific and powerful and Lily James ("Baby Driver") delivers a complex and emotionally draining performance. For these two lead actresses, I'd say that "Little Woods" is a huge stepping stone but as a whole film, I couldn't dive into it the way I had hoped.

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