FilmSnobReviews

Title: White Bird in a Blizzard
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Gregg Araki
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins

What It Is: Kat Connors (Woodley) lives a very blase life style her father Brock (Meloni) who is an unassuming man. Her mother is a housewife who seems bored by her suburbia, and on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Kat has a boyfriend named Phil (played by Shiloh Fernanadez) whose kind of a loser. Everything seems status quo. That is until one day her mother disappears. No one knows what happened to her, and most assume she just left her husband. While coping with this disappearance she (Kat) not only begins to devolve into some rather seedy, and ill-intended actions. All the while she has lucid dreams about her mother, whom she assume is this woman in the blizzard of her mind.

What We Think: This far exceeded by nil expectations. Shailene Woodley takes on a very VERY different role for her. Most of the times she plays this sassy good girl. Here Kat is pretty slutty. She is voyeuristic in her sexuality, and likewise just as blunt about it. Take nothing away from that though because Woodley maintains her good level of skill, and it obvious she’s talented. Christopher Meloni is great here as is Eva Green and the two have worked together on two very different films, the other being the awful Sin City sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. What really shines here is the writing, and while you may think you see the ending coming it’s so well-written it’s still a surprise.

Our Grade: B-, Solid, solid film. It’s got interesting characters, who are a tad under-cooked, good writing, and it’s most of all well acted. The “best friend” roles in this one of which is former Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe are super annoying. They’re not interesting and you don’t care about them. I mentioned Green was good here but sometimes she came off as far too actressy. It convolutes itself within it’s own melodrama, and that throws the audience a bit. Still you should see it even if you aren’t familiar with the source material. If you are then definitely check this out!