Todd Wright – Google

I just watched this film for the third time, and it still resonates as the most authentic snapshot of time in a young, sensitive, trying-to-fit-in, person's life. Molly Ringwald has stated this is the best, most accurate teen film in history, and she just might know a thing or two about films depicting a teen's travails. I am only writing this short review as Eighth Grade has made my top 5 films of the 21st C. A quarter century has elapsed and this film is fantastic today, and will remain so. It's a triumphal achievement, and it will take something very special to bump this out of my top 5.

Eighth Grade

This film, like other Debra Granik films, is beautifully realized, with compelling cinematography, and is quite a realistic slice of life ... this time in the Ozarks. It's simply wonderful storytelling that was cast to perfection. I grew up in a poor rural area east of the Mississippi, and this is quite nearly a documentary about the hardscrabble life in mountainous regions of the US. Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes are both wonderful and entirely believable here, as is every other member of the cast. This film is more of an ensemble cast -- as life really is, and doesn't disappoint on any level.

Winter's Bone

8 likes

I loved this book. David Graeber(RIP) and Wengrow gave me lots of material to ponder and for that reason alone it would be remarkable, but the volume is so much more. I have always appreciated public intellectuals when they come down from the tower and write in readily accessible manners, and Dawn is among the finest of this sort. If you want a real page-turner on popular anthropology, this is the one. It's quite long, but well worth the time as there is something of interest on nearly page. I could expound much more, but no spoilers here.

The Dawn of Everything

Girl in Pieces