Frozen River (2008) - Courtney Hunt debuts with freezing social realism border crime drama

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+ Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year  + Best Social Realism Movie of the Year

A sparse and cold, yet also evocative and curiosity-sparking poster for Courtney Hunt's Frozen River

Ray has been left by her husband in her trailer home with two children, debt and a crummy discount store clerk job in upstate New York near the Ontario border, when she learns that she can earn some much needed money by trafficking illegal immigrants.

Frozen River is the debut for Tennesseean writer-director Courtney Hunt (The Whole Truth (2016)). It takes up some exciting topics and handles them with freezing, crude realism. The aesthetics are regrettably Dogme-like, - ugly, - and some of the amateur performances wobble a bit here and there.
To its credit as a social-realism drama, Frozen River features no great villains. Melissa Leo (Prisoners (2013)), Misty Upham (Expiration Date (2006)) and often also Charlie McDermott (The Middle (2009-18)) as Ray's son TJ are excellent as the ill-starred folks. Frozen River is a powerful, thrilling and unpredictable drama.

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here, which starts after Quentin Tarantino awards the film a prize at the Sundance Film Festival

Cost: 1 mil. $
Box office: 5.4 mil. $
= Big hit (5.4 times the cost)
[Frozen River premiered 18 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. Hunt based her scripts on stories she had heard from her husband's family of Mohawk Indians smuggling cigarettes across the frozen Saint Lawrence river. Shooting took place in freezing weather in New York and Ontario, Canada in 24 days in March 2007. The film opened #33 in 7 theaters to a 70k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #29 and in 96 theaters (different weeks) and grossed strong 2.5 mil. $ (46.3 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.2 mil. $ (22.2 %) and Spain with 722k $ (13.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to two notches better than this one. It was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Actress (Leo), lost to Kate Winslet in Stephen Daldry's great The Reader and Best Original Screenplay, lost to Dustin Lance Black for Gus Van Sant's masterpiece Milk. It won an AFI award, 2/7 Independent Spirit award nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards, a Sundance award and many other honors. Hunt returned to directing on TV-series In Treatment (2009-10) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2011-13) and theatrically with Keanu Reeves-starrer The Whole Truth (2016). Leo was in 9 titles in 2008! Two of them short films and one a TV-series, - wildly impressive. She returned theatrically in Lullaby (2008). Frozen River is certified fresh at 88 % with a 7.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Frozen River?

August: Osage County (2013) or, A Shot of the Oklahoma Family Blues

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+ Best Ensemble of the Year: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Margo Martindale, Juliette Lewis, Chris Cooper, Misty Upham, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard

Matriarch Meryl Streep goes down on the poster for John Wells' August: Osage County

John Wells (The Company Men (2010)) has directed this adaptation of Tracy Letts' (Killer Joe (2011)) 2007 play of the same title, adapted by Letts himself. August is a plush ensemble piece:

The Weston family gathers in the home of their pill-addicted matriarch, as her husband Beverly has gone missing, and old resentments quickly dense the air.

Oklahoma is the flat, seemingly endless, unbearably hot setting, at times seeming like a backdrop devoid of real dimensions, in August, which has pressure cooker similarities to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), another play adaptation.
The dinner scene of the film is particularly great, and the star-studded cast glitters: Meryl Streep (Heartburn (1986)) and Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman (1990)), Oscar-nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, act together for the first time here, (losing to Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine (2013) and Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave (2013), respectively); also Ewan McGregor (I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)), Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)), Margo Martindale (Heaven Is for Real (2014)), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers (1994)), - who is outstanding and tragically funny in the film, - and Chris Cooper (The Muppets (2011)) and Misty Upham (Frozen River (2008)) are all terrific. Upham's relatively young life ended sadly as a real life tragedy, as she disappeared and was found dead at age 32 in 2014.
August seems like an homage to the depressing family gathering and bleakness in general. - With such good forces involved, some good music choices to boot, from a great play, such a shot of pessimism (containing some laughs as well) is highly welcome, and I repay it with generous 5 ♥.

Related posts:

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) or, He's GAY, Ya Get It?!?

 Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 74.1 mil. $
= Box office success
[Filming took place from October-December 2012 in Oklahoma and LA. It premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, opened limited in the end of December and wide on January 10 to a 7.1 mil. $ first domestic weekend and mixed reviews, as many critics reacted against the darkness of the film. It grossed 37.7 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross) in North America.]

What do you think of August: Osage County?