3.5 stars out of 4

(released 2010)

Starring Jennifer Lawrence in a break-out, Oscar-nominated performance, this well-paced, hyper-realistic film follows Ree, a teenager left in charge of her impoverished family, as she tries desperately to find her drug-dealing father.

This film was adapted from a novel and its depiction of hard-scrabble life in the Ozarks feels real.  Ree is tough and shrewd, but she’s still young and not sure of the rules that the other characters play by, which makes each encounter suspenseful.  As a viewer, I really felt that I had been immersed into a foreign world.

Jennifer Lawrence, as Ree, appears in virtually every frame and is riveting.  You can see why the producers of The Hunger Games saw Katniss in her – actually the characters have a lot of similarities – but this performance is the one that really shows off her talent.