Lawless (2012)

If you watch the 1930s-set backwoods gangster flick “Lawless” and don’t know better, and you’d be a major idiot not to know better, you might think tiny, mountainous Franklin County, Va., is over the hill and through the woods and one covered bridge over from big bad Windy City Chicago. Director John Hillcoat and screenwriter (and rock god) Nick Cave, who previously collaborated on the excellent “The Proposition” and the very good “The Road,” likely believe so.

But I digress, as I always do with the details. 

The duo has taken the wonderfully titled non-fiction family-history novel “The Wettest County in the World” by (my proximity) local author Matt Bondurant and drably re-titled it as “Lawless.” It follows a backwoods trio of Bondurant brothers (Tom Hardy, Shia LeBeouf, and Jason Clarke) who moonlight as moonshiners, selling the vile-looking homemade hooch during the days of Prohibition. Sure enough, things go wrong. In the span of just a few weeks, a (1) former go-go dancer, (2) infamous mob boss, and (3) corrupt federal agent -– all from Chicago, all on separate missions in life -– end up in wee Rocky Mount, and onto the brothers, they respectively, 1) Land a job at the family diner/gas station, 2) Sniff out killer booze to sell back home, and 3) Terrorize the siblings with endlessly wicked means of unlawful law enforcement. The newcomers are played by 1) Jessica Chastain, 2) Gary Oldman, and 3) Guy Pearce. 

The Rocky Mount and Chicago depicted here each must have one only dirt road going out, and it meets in the middle, and provide light-speed travel a la “Star Trek.” Hell, today in real life, it takes roughly 12 hours to get from Rocky Mount to Chicago. Here, pre-Interstate, pre-cruise control, it is magically faster. How fast is to get to Philadelphia? Does the title refer to liquor running, or the rules of physics, time, and distance?

But no matter these logic lapses, nor the cliché dialogue, “Lawless” floats and sinks on the acting. I’ll focus on the guys as the women (Mia Wasikowska also co-stars as a love interest) are only allowed to look “purty” and be supportive to their menfolk. Tom “Bane” Hardy grunts most of his scenes to ill-advised comic effect, while Clarke howls madly with his slimly written character. LeBeouf, former son of Indiana Jones, gives his best as a wimpy runt who must become a hardened man, but his character arc is foolish in the end. Oldman’s nasty scenes are a mere but oh-so-welcome series of cameos.

It’s –- shocker -- Pearce that near kills this film. “Proposition,” “Memento” and “L.A. Confidential” are each new classics, and he excels in all. Here, he overacts himself right out of the movie as a sissy snot named Rakes, channeling Dennis Hopper playing Dame Edna playing an endlessly psychotic version of super-agent-man Elliot Ness with a subscription to GQ for Sadists. Sporting ridiculously greased and parted hair, and shaved eyebrows, Rakes fears blood, and yet –- it is inferred -– gets his thrills raping crippled boys after he murders them in the woods. In a gangster flick in the New York of Mars by David Lynch on full-tilt “Wild at Heart” craziness, his character would stick out as a ridiculous clown. Here? Please.

Oh, one piece of divine greatness: Legendary bluegrass singer and Southwestern Virginia native Ralph Stanley covers the Velvet Underground’s “White Light /White Heat” at film’s end, and it’s an absolutely riveting, soul crushing performance that deserves a far better movie to precede it. For that matter, the entire music score, led by the genius Cave, elevates the movie, especially a breath-taking church singing which hits the soul dead center with pure joy-of-God beauty that can uplift an agnostic. The film misses. C

Bully (2012)

“Bully” is a brutal documentary look at five stories of youths bullied, beaten, and taunted by peers, and ignored by clueless or uncaring adults. It brings anger and tears, especially for a guy who was himself heckled. Three stories (a lesbian, a boy with cognitive/emotive issues, and a poor girl pushed to violence) are told in present tense; two in past tense as the tormented committed suicide rather than live miserable. Director Lee Hirsch takes inside schools, on buses, and into the homes of its subjects. He shows an 11-year-old’s casket, and a broken father whisper, “We need to tuck him in one last time,” to his wife as they follow behind it. Brutal. Its strength lays in damning school administrators who dismiss the concerns of parents and youths, opting to say “just get along,” outright lie, or change the subject and talk about their new grand baby. But, hate to pick, it’s not a full-rounded film: Every story is set in rural America, no cities whatsoever, and Hirsch never confronts the bullies. Why not? Last thought: It’s a crime the MPPA bullied “Bully” with an R-rating, when “Hunger Games” got a PG-13. Senseless. B+

Winter’s Bone (2010)

“Winter’s Bone” is as bleak as a film can get. It makes one long for the small joys found in such fare as “The Road.” Set amid the rural mountains of Missouri’s Ozarks, this is the tale of a 17-year-old girl desperately trying to crawl out of a hole of absolute poverty while dodging a constant threat of violence. It is a far-distant cousin to last year’s “Precious,” but without the lofty dreams. Don't let this opening be an interest killer. "Bone" is among the year's best films. It kicked butt at Sundance, and also should win some awards-time love.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Ree Dolly, the teen who might as well be 35. Her meth-maker father is either dead or running from the law. Her mother is lost in a mental void, caused by stress or maybe bad drugs. There are no doctors to help. The Dolly family has two more children, six and 10. Ree is their substitute mother. The film follows Ree as she hunts her missing father’s whereabouts, going from one relative to another. In this forgotten landscape of America, everyone is related somehow by blood. But meth, cocaine and booze are thicker than blood. They count. Kin don't.

Ree is repeatedly told, “Don’t bother. Don’t look. Shut up.” She refuses. The first major threat comes from her uncle (John Hawkes), also a drug user/supplier. Ree is scared of this man, who could break her neck or set her on the path of a better life. There is no good life. Only shades of bad, and better than bad. (Hawkes of TV’s “Lost” is amazing in the role.) The men rule with absolute authority, to the point that women will visit violence upon one another to prevent their men’s rage from uncorking.

At one point a man tells Ree not to tell “stories” about him. She retorts: “I never talk about you men.” Ree knows her place, and that of all women, here. She is no fool. A clueless right-wing writer at “American Spectator” slammed the film as “feminist” and anti-man. Since when did a woman wanting to live and feed children become “feminist”? That doesn’t mean there is no commentary here. At the Dolly house, an American flag hangs forgotten and tattered. I think it’s meant to represent the American dream for such desperate people. This is not a red state/blue state issue. We have poor in both states, and in both political parties.

Few films capture how some people can crawl up or slide down the pole of humanity. Characters here move, grow and change. Director Debra Granik, who co-wrote the screenplay from a book, makes every detail real –cluttered houses, yards and emotions. She provides sinking-stomach suspense, with no tricky editing, music or gun play. A late-night car ride that climaxes in a cold river needs no such help. That a chainsaw is involved makes it all the more harrowing.

Lawrence gives a forceful but quiet performance. If a big name were in this film, much ink and 1s and 0s would be spilled over how Ms. X went grungy and starved to give the performance of a lifetime. Lawrence will never get such lofty accolades. Similar to Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious,” Lawrence is too unknown, real and convincing in her environment to let us see her “acting.” Her last line is a heart-breaker, but beautifully told.

“Bone” is no box office firecracker, but it’s a must-see for anyone interested in the most hidden parts of America and the people stuck there. A