Frozen River (2008)
Trailer
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Meta Critic: 82
"Incredibly compelling and intense…I can't think of another film that's this small and powerful." - Don Lewis, Film Threat
“This is a debut feature, though you'd never know it from the filmmaker's commandingly confident style, or from the heartbreaking beauty -- heartbreaking, then heartmending -- of Melissa Leo's performance.”
- Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
"As the summer heats up, let Frozen River wash over you; let its bracing drama and the intensity of its acting restore your spirits as well as your faith in American independent film." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"A first-rate thriller, maintaining a high level of suspense." - J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
"Does what too many independent American movies only pretend to do: Takes you to an unnoticed corner of our country and shows what it's like to actually live there." - Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Courtney Hunt's feature directorial debut Frozen River – nominated for two Oscars (Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay) and the winner of 2 Independent Spirit Awards and the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Film - is a powerful, unflinching tale of two women, who, driven by economic hardship, form an unlikely partnership smuggling illegal immigrants across the Canadian border. Melissa Leo (The Three Burials, 21 Grams) turns in a gritty performance as Ray, a struggling dollar-store cashier and mother living in a trailer home in upstate New York, who forms a fraught and unlikely partnership with Lila (Misty Upham), a Mohawk Indian from the Mohawk territory near the frozen St. Lawrence River that forms part of the border between the U.S. and Canada.
Within a stark, mostly minimalist screenplay, Hunt seamlessly works in contemporary anxieties - economic recession, immigration, and trafficking - but never puts too fine a point on social relevance to the detriment of a compelling storyline. Frozen River is more than a somber meditation on lives in peril: it's a complex portrait of women from different walks of life struggling to find their ethical bearings in a harsh, unforgiving, and corrupt world.
97 minutes
Comments
There are no comments at this time.
Leave a comment
Comments have been disabled
IAM Screening Series
The IAM Screening Series focuses on overlooked masterpieces, thought-provoking classics, and movies worth re-watching!