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By: Ella Taylor

Published:
Friday, June 10, 2010

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127536626

Writer-director Debra Granik made her film debut in 2004 with a fact-based, verite-style feature about a young mother grappling with drug addiction in a dreary blue-collar backwater of upstate New York. Perhaps because it ran against the grain of inveterate American optimism, the grimly persuasive Down to the Bone didn’t last long in theaters. But it lit a fire under the career of its electrifying lead, a relative unknown named Vera Farmiga, who last year won an Academy Award nomination for her drily witty turn as George Clooney’s sometime lover in Up in the Air.

With any luck, Granik’s new film, Winter’s Bone, will work similar wonders for the resume of Jennifer Lawrence, a talented 19-year-old best known for a recurring television role on The Bill Engvall Show. Lawrence has the sweet, vulnerable features of an ingenue, but she brings a quietly indomitable bull-headedness to the part of Ree Dolly, an Ozarks teenager who has a week to find her missing father or face eviction from the wooded house where she raises her two small siblings and cares for a near-catatonic mother. Like many others in this economically blighted but closely knit rural community, Ree’s father is a drug addict who cooks and deals crystal meth for a living; after he’s busted, he posts his home as bail bond and disappears.

Adapted for the screen by Granik with Anne Rosellini from a visceral novel by Missouri writer Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone tells the story of Ree’s journey through familiar territory rendered strange and menacing by the lies, evasions and defiant silence of those around her.

On its face, Winter’s Bone, like Down to the Bone, is a bleakly realist drama about a community decimated by poverty and hopelessness, yet bound together by deep ties of class, gender and blood. Yet for a director whose prime influences have been European neo-realists, the film also represents a formal leap into fable that’s suggested, but never made explicit, in the novel. Searching for clues to the fate of her errant father, Ree traverses a landscape of grungy beauty, of lowering skies and burned-out shacks strewn with accumulated junk that functions as weird sculpture, accentuated with a slow banjo played by local musicians on the soundtrack. The haggard, stubbornly withholding faces Ree encounters — most scarily that of her Uncle Teardrop, a wired, potentially lethal loose cannon played with understated menace by character actor John Hawkes, and of a secretive matriarch (Dale Dickey) who hurts and helps Ree in equal measure — are carved out of craggy Southern Gothic. And Ree, a delicately filigreed fox by comparison, is a kind of Ozarks Alice — beaten, battered and dropped down hole after hole in a Wonderland of dead ends until, in a burst of gruesome black comedy, she finds out what happened to Dad, and makes a fateful decision.

Winter’s Bone isn’t much of a thriller, but in its way this atmospheric, jolie-laide indie offers a new kind of women’s picture. Women drive the action, sometimes brutally so, and Ree, who in another kind of movie might be made to soften into an innocent victim or roar like some avenging angel, makes a wonderfully complicated feminist heroine. At once part of and estranged from her milieu, in an early scene she stands in a doorway at school, gazing at her likely future choice between Army maneuvers and childcare classes for unwed minors. Later, when Ree pleads in one achingly painful moment for wisdom from her blitzed, unresponsive mother, we see that she’s still a girl.

To the end, Granik deftly sustains the balance between far-out fable and gritty slice of life, a hint, perhaps, that in this forgotten corner of America the real and surreal may not be poles apart. As rites of passage go, Ree’s journey to womanhood is unusual to say the least, the stuff of a Grimm fairy tale. Her victory, as in all realist stories worth their salt, is as tenuous and unspectacular as they come. (Recommended)

Contact: Mike Hearod FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
E-mail: press@codyshilohbrown.com
Web Site: CodyShilohBrown.com

ST. LOUIS –While St. Louis was abuzz with George Clooney fever, another Missouri-based film was quietly in the works featuring area actors and promoting Missouri film production. This January, “Winter’s Bone”, a film set in the Ozarks, will be competing in the Sundance Film Festival. The film was chosen from 3,724 submissions and is up against 15 films in the U.S. Dramatic category.

In “Winter’s Bone”, an Ozark girl named Ree desperately searches for her backwoods, methamphetamine-making, bail-jumping father in order to save her family’s home. The film, an adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel by Ozark author Daniel Woodrell, wrapped shooting in April.

Cody Brown, a Springfield-area actor and University of Central Missouri alumni, was cast in the supporting role of Floyd. Brown, 23, says the film will provide priceless experience and exposure, both for the actors and the area.

“It was exhilarating working with professionals from the business. There’s not a lot of film opportunity in this area,” says Brown. “It was amazing that something like this came here—an unbelievable opportunity.”

In the film, Brown’s character is married to Ree’s best friend Gayle. A subplot of the film focuses on Floyd and Gayle’s marriage, an obligated union from Gayle’s unexpected pregnancy.

“The love is gone,” Brown said, “but the kid is there.”

The ‘Winter’s Bone’ cast also includes Casey MacLaren who, like Brown, attended high school in Nixa, MO. The actors were trained at the Creative Actors Workshop in Springfield along with Lauren Sweetser, who plays Gayle.

Debra Granik, the director of “Winter’s Bone”, chose local actors with authentic accents and dialects to add legitimacy to the film. Granik last directed “Down to the Bone” in 2004, which won seven awards including the Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance.

“It always helped to have someone local, like when they had improvs about hunting, about fending for your family. I know what it’s like to cook and kill my own food, things like that,” Brown says. “The cast and crew that weren’t local were greatly helped by having some people from the area involved because we were valuable examples, references, and inspiration for those inexperienced with the Ozarks.”

Brown was thrilled to see such a large production on Missouri, where most acting opportunities remain in live theater. He plans on moving to L.A. to continue expanding his resume, but hopes that Missouri sees more film production in its future. He’s not the only one.

The Missouri Film Commission and Missouri tourism officials hope “Winter’s Bone” can promote the Show Me State’s potential in the film industry through the film’s success, word of mouth recommendations from the crew, and tax incentives. In Missouri, for every $1 million a production crew spends, it has the potential to receive $350,000 in tax credits.

Crew members stayed in nearby Branson during filming in the Ozarks. Local hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions were grateful for the economical boost. Local crew members were also hired, a trend that the Missouri Film Commission hopes to continue.

Future plans to create a “business climate” for the film industry in Missouri include technical training programs for production jobs, as well as a Web site listing local crew members and other local resources for filmmakers.

“We want to attract more people here and want to employ more people here,” Missouri Film Commission chairman Bill Lennon told The News Leader last year. “This (movie) is a really good start.”

“Winter’s Bone” is produced by Anonymous Content and Down to the Bone Productions. Anonymous Content has produced films like “Babel,” starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” The film will premiere at Sundance in January, 2010.

Sundance Film Festival announced Winter’s Bone as one of the 112 feature-length films selected for the 2010 competition. Winter’s Bone was selected out of 3,724 film submissions composed of 1,920 U.S. and 1,804 international feature-length films.

Cody Brown was cast as Floyd in a supporting role for the independent feature film.

Winter’s Bone is up against 15 other films in the U.S. Dramatic category.

Read the full press release: 2010 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FILMS IN COMPETITION

Download press release in PDF format.

The IMDB.com (Internet Movie Database) site has just added Cody Brown’s film profile. Check it out by pointing your Web browsers to http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3256698/.

Follow the progress of his latest film project, Winter’s Bone, here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399683/.

Cody Brown breaks from his busy schedule for a little Q & A on inspirations.

Q. What got you interested in acting?
A. The chance and ability to live as different people in different realities broadened my comprehension of the interconnectedness and similarities of us all. Existing, even for a moment, in another’s situation has given great introspection to my own life.

Q. Which actors have influenced and inspired you?

Q. Which actors would you most like to work with?
A. Any and all of the previously mentioned who are still living

Q. Favorite Movies?

Q. Favorite Music?

Q. Favorite Authors?

Q. Special Skills/Interests?
A. I enjoy playing guitar, didgeridoo, harmonica, and djembe. I like riding horses, motorcycles and pretty much anything I can hold on to.

I like drawing, sculpting, painting, woodwork, stonework, and most other artistic mediums. I love to contact juggle, poi, and hacky sack.

I can’t get enough of hiking, climbing, biking, camping, and most anything outdoors. I take great interest as well in reading, conversing, and meditating.

Winter’s Bone actor Cody Brown answers a few questions for the Christian County Headliner News.

Favorite Actor/Actress?
Jack Nicholson, Gary Oldman and Benicio Del Toro

Hometown?
Nixa

Do you have any pets?
A black lab, Onyx

Romance, Comedy or Horror?
All of the above

Who inspires you?
People who never lose that pursuit of enlightenment and growth

Favorite part you have ever played?
Probably Norman Bulansky in “The Boys Next Door”

Where is you favorite place to travel?
So far, the Badlands in the Southwest

What is your pet peeve?
Incompetence at simple jobs

Hobbies:
I do macramé, I play the djembe and the didgeridoo. I also like reading and doing anything outdoors.

What’s your favorite thing about being an actor?
The freedom

Have you ever:
Bungee Jumped – Yes
Gone Skinny Dipping – Yes
Laughed Until You Cried – Yes

How many plays/movies have you been in?
Two “real” movies and more than 20 plays – I’ve been doing this since my freshman year in high school.

Favorite high school memory?
Probably winning the state competition with “The Boys Next Door” which is part of what made it my favorite character.

Name something crazy – A duckbill platypus
Memorable – Barack Obama as president
Shocking – Our Economy

This excerpt is from page 15A of the May 13 2009 issue of Christian County Headliner News. www.ccheadliner.com

By: Amelia Wigton, associate editor ameliaw@ccheadliner.com

Originally printed at http://swm.neighbornews.com/articles/2009/05/15/ccheadliner/news/doc4a09a6132dbf7800843981.prt

click image to enlarge

Nixa residents Cody Brown and Casey MacLaren dream of the day they pack their bags, tell their friends and family they’ll call when they get there and gaze out on the Pacific Ocean.

While they each have separate dreams, each hinges on a move to Hollywood—and they hope “Winter’s Bone” will be the ticket.

“It’s possible to make it in this business,” said Brown, a 2003 Nixa High School graduate, “but you have to add something to your career every day.”

Brown and MacLaren, a 2005 Nixa graduate, were cast in the independent feature film “Winter’s Bone,” a critically-acclaimed fiction novel by Ozarks author Daniel Woodrell. Certain scenes of the movie were filmed in eastern Christian County near Oldfield and Chadwick in February.

“This is the first feature-length film I’ve ever done,” said MacLaren. “It was almost surreal. The first day I was on (the) set I just realized this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Brown and MacLaren said the experience they gained while filming was amazing.

“I gained the experience of working with true professionals, people who do this for a living,” Brown said of his two days of principal shooting. “Everyone was very cooperative and just working to make their portion as perfect as they can. It was really not what I expected from the business-types from New York and LA.”

“Winter’s Bone” is Brown’s and MacLaren’s first paid gig. A gig that not only cemented their passion for acting, but one they hope will further their acting careers and fulfill their dreams.

“It was one of the most rewarding experiences in my life because I took so many things from that entire thing that I can use in every aspect of my life and in my acting career,” MacLaren said.

“It’s like an artist selling their first painting,” Brown said of getting paid to act. “It was exhilarating working with people from the business. There’s not a lot of film opportunity in this area. It was amazing that something like this came here—an unbelievable opportunity.”

Bill Townsend, Nixa High School drama teacher, had MacLaren and Brown in class and said he is very proud of his past students.

“I’m a big fan of all my students, whether they continue in the field or use their performance skills in the business world,” Townsend said. “I am looking forward to seeing the movie. It is being produced by an award-winning team.”

Cody Brown

Brown discovered his love for acting when he was in junior high—a love that has grown through the years.

“In junior high I was involved with a performance in theater for the first time—it was like a speech and debate tournament. That was what got me interested,” he said. “I’ve been a people person for a long time before that.”

Brown, who graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and performance theater, was involved in every play possible in high school. Townsend said he is not surprised that he will soon get to see Brown on the big screen.

“He was used extensively as a character actor. He was able to handle the more mature roles. He had a real honest approach to all his roles,” Townsend said. “If anyone can make a career out of acting, Cody is smart about the choices he makes. He will do well.”

Brown said he loves acting because of the freedom it gives him.

“I have a general empathy for people in certain situations. It’s easy for me to pick up on certain human qualities,” he said. “I found acting as a vent.”

Although he doesn’t have a timeline in place, Brown, who attends the Creative Actors Workshop in Springfield, says his future plans lie west.

“I’m definitely going out to California. It’s just a matter of doing it at the right time,” he said. “I’ve been through the whole acting experience that Missouri has to offer, which is mostly stage at this time. But I’m looking to change that and a place like LA is a hub where there’s the most exposure.”

Casey MacLaren

MacLaren said she remembers watching her older brothers perform in a Nixa High School play when she first caught the acting bug.

“It’s so weird that I remember this, but I was 7 years old. When I saw them on stage, I said ‘This is what I want to do,’” she said.

MacLaren never strayed from her dream. She was involved in the Nixa High School theater department throughout high school and is now in the Creative Actors Workshop in Springfield.

“Casey was a pleasure to have in the Nixa Theater Department because she was always willing to do whatever role to make the show a success,” Townsend said. “As she gained confidence we were able to use her in the more worldly adult roles.”

MacLaren said she loves acting because it allows her to be anyone, do anything.

“I think the most appealing thing about acting is that I can be anything that I want to be,” she said. “This is the only career that I can be anything—I can be a doctor, a firefighter or a police officer. I just go be that character and play pretend. I can portray somebody else’s life but it can still be my life at the same time.”

MacLaren hopes to spend her summer saving money and move to LA in August. And she’s glad that “Winter’s Bone” will be on her resume.

“It’s very rewarding because I’m just doing what I love to do and people are paying me to do it,” she said. “I’ve wanted this forever. I just know that as long as I believe in myself and I work at it, I know I’ll succeed.”

Ryan Bowling, Nixa XPress editor, contributed to this story.

—

“Winter’s Bone”

The film follows Ree, who’s forced to raise her two younger brothers in the absence of her parents. Ree’s father is arrested for running a meth lab and has skipped his bail. In the process, the family home is given up as bail collateral.

To avoid becoming homeless at the onset of winter, Ree sets out to find her father. Her own estranged family, as well as families who’ve feuded with the Dollys for generations, make the journey rough, but finding her father stands between her and her Army enlistment, which is her last hope to escape the rural dregs.

“Floyd is a good ole boy,” Cody Brown said of his character, who’s married to Ree’s best friend Gayle. “He loves NASCAR and hunting and fishing.”

Floyd and Gayle are an intriguing subplot, he said. Pregnant at an early age, Gayle and Floyd married not for love, but because it seemed like they should.

“The love is gone,” Brown said, “but the kid is there.”

Nixa resident Casey MacLaren’s character, Megan Milton, is Ree’s cousin.

Kentucky native Jennifer Lawrence is Ree Dolly, a 16-year-old poverty-stricken Ozarkian. Lawrence already boasts an impressive resume, with several movies to the 18-year-old’s credit as well as appearances on “The Bill Engvall Show” and “Monk.”

“Winter’s Bone” is directed by Debra Granik, who last directed “Down to the Bone” in 2004. That film captured seven awards, including the Dramatic Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival that year.

The film is set for release in 2010 with plans to enter most major film festivals.