{"id":7280,"date":"2019-04-19T07:37:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T11:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7280"},"modified":"2019-04-19T07:38:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T11:38:00","slug":"review-little-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7280","title":{"rendered":"Review: LITTLE WOODS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nia DaCosta\u2019s feature film debut evokes the hard-scrabble conditions of America\u2019s poor and desperate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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After being busted for selling proscription drugs, Ollie (Tessa Thompson) decides to go straight. Of course, life as a law-abiding citizen has its drawbacks. When Ollie discovers that the bank has accelerated foreclosure proceedings on her late mother\u2019s home, she might have to go back to her old ways.

Ollie\u2019s adopted sister, Deb (Lily James), has problems of her own. Deb\u2019s been living in an RV with her middle-school aged son. It\u2019s not the best place to live, and while she struggles to make ends meet, she discovers that she\u2019s pregnant. And because she has no health insurance, having a baby will break her financially. Plus, her ex, Ian (James Badge Dale), is living in some kind of rehab and is no help. Deb looks to Ollie for answers.

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Tessa Thompson plays someone real in “Little Woods.”<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the narrative suffers from more than a few overly familiar elements, together with some jumps in logic, \u201cLittle Woods\u201d works mainly because of the committed performances, notably the work of Thompson. Also, the mood brought forth by the ever colder visuals is spot-on. Cinematographer Matt Mitchell crafts an image that perfectly captures the desperation. And the images gel well with the tension-filled performances.

Writer\/director DaCosta’s script combines crime elements with a medical care theme. There is an earthy authenticity to the world explored in “Little Woods” that captures the mundane, but undeniably real moments in down-and-out American’s lives. At one point, Deb visits a clinic and is told the detailed cost of having a baby, something like eight or nine thousand dollars. She elects then to terminate the pregnancy, but that too is costly. And with her sister\u2019s assistance, the two embark on a trip to Canada for the procedure. It\u2019s this sequence that provides some chills and a key emotional moment.

Regardless whether or not everything in \u201cLittle Woods\u201d works, the film is well-made and directed. It\u2019s easy to understand what Jordan Peele saw in DaCosta when picking her to direct the upcoming \u201cCandyman\u201d reboot. If she\u2019s able to infuse the ominous tone that she\u2019s created so well in \u201cLittle Woods,\u201d we\u2019re in for it in 2020 when Peele\u2019s reimagining of that horror semi-classic hits theaters.

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Tessa Thompson and Lily James play sisters in earthy dramatic thriller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1434,856,1159,559,1432,1433,407],"class_list":["post-7280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-candyman","tag-james-badge-dale","tag-jordan-peele","tag-lily-james","tag-little-woods","tag-nia-dacosta","tag-tessa-thompson","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7284,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions\/7284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}