‘Dead of Winter’ & ‘Blue Moon’ Offer Compelling Character Studies | At The Movies With Kasey
As cold as this winter has been for much of the country, watching a film called Dead of Winter might not be on the top of your agenda. But the film, which landed on HBO recently, offers decent suspense and a solid performance from Emma Thompson. Just put on some thick socks before you press play.
In the film, Thompson plays Barb, a woman on a trip to a remote Minnesota lake in memory of her late husband. As she looks for the spot where the couple went ice fishing decades earlier, she stumbles into the middle of a twisted kidnapping plot perpetrated by a couple billed as Camo Jacket (Marc Menchaca) and Purple Lady (Judy Greer). Driven by memories of her own past, Barb commits to helping free the girl taken hostage, Leah (Laurel Marsden).
As I watched the slow-burning setup of Dead of Winter, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen this movie before. Finally, I realized that I was thinking of Lou, the 2022 thriller set in the wilderness starring Allison Janney as a cranky old lady trying to save a kidnapped child. If memory serves, I found that film pretty mediocre, even factoring in what a force Janney is. I feared that Dead of Winter would be the same.
What saves this film from that shopworn feeling is the softness of Barb’s character development and Thompson’s portrayal of her. She isn’t some tough, hard lady. She is grief-stricken, but from that emerges love and gratitude and a quiet determination to do the right thing in a scary and unusual situation. She’s an ordinary person who picked up a few skills over the years and is just trying to figure out this high-stakes problem. I’m not sure Thompson totally gets the accent right, but as she fumbles about in her coveralls, I think she brings authenticity to the character that prevents her from feeling like a caricature or a genre cliche. As Young Barb, Gaia Wise also carries crucial emotional scenes well. And Judy Greer is so fun as a bad guy.
Outside the plot of the kidnapping, several characters are dead, dying, or contemplating suicide. Ultimately, Barb spins these threads into a message about the importance of carrying on, but I think the difference between surviving a snowstorm and attempting suicide somewhat muddles the message.
Dead of Winter is a decent thriller and a beautiful character study. It has enough twists to keep the audience interested, but the real treat is yet another great performance from Emma Thompson.
Dead of Winter was directed by Brian Kirk and written by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb. It runs 98 minutes and is rated R.
On Netflix, you can now watch Ethan Hawke in his Oscar-nominated role as songwriter Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon. The film takes place almost entirely on March 31, 1943, the opening night for the hit musical Oklahoma! Hart has left the show early to wait for the reception and talk to the bartender, Eddie (Bobby Cannavale), while he seethes with jealousy and unrequited love, and tries to maintain his sobriety. You see, Oklahoma! is the first show cowritten by his former musical partner, Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), and his new partner Oscar Hammerstein. And Hart both hates the show and that Rodgers is moving on without him. Meanwhile, he pines for a young aspiring writer, Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley).
Blue Moon received Oscar nominations for Robert Kaplow’s screenplay and Ethan Hawke’s performance, both of which I thought were technically excellent. The screenplay is witty and feels like it has a lot of movement, even though it takes place almost entirely in one bar. The experience is almost like going to see a play. And, it is mostly made up of monologues, giving Hawke plenty of room to flex as the eccentric Hart. Margaret Qualley also shines. The camera loves her, maybe even more than Hart loved Elizabeth.
Still, I kept wondering why this story was told and why in this manner. Hollywood loves to make movies about the entertainment business, and sometimes they are interesting, but sometimes they feel like the product of an industry obsessed with itself. Like when watching Jay Kelly, I found myself thinking that the film is technically very good but left me feeling little.
Blue Moon was directed by Richard Linklater and written by Robert Kaplow. It runs 100 minutes and is rated R.
For something tonally very different, I watched Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, also on Netflix. The three-part docuseries takes a deep dive into the complicated legacy of the hit reality series with interviews from many of those involved, including Tyra Banks, Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker, J. Alexander, Shandi Sullivan, Tiffany Richardson, Ebony Haith, Keenyah Hill, and Danielle Evans. For those of us Millennials who were once obsessed with the show, the series is full of juicy details, insider knowledge, and cringeworthy trips down memory lane. At times, I think it could have gone harder, but directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan actually got Tyra to sit for an interview when she is basically the villain of the story. And that alone made the series worth watching.
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