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The movie heroes who affect me most are not extroverted. They don t strut, speechify and lead armies. They have no superpowers. They are ordinary people who are faced with a need and rise to the occasion. Ree Dolly is such a hero.
A girl of 17, she acts as the homemaker for her younger brother and sister. This is in the backlands of the Ozarks. Her mother sits useless all day, mentally absent. Her father, who was jailed for cooking meth, is missing. She tries to raise the kids and feed them, scraping along on welfare and the kindness of neighbors. The children, like all children who are not beaten, are cheerful and energetic, and love to play. They have not learned they are disadvantaged.
Celebrate Women s History Month with the best movies directed by women from the past 20 years: The films that entertained, transported us, and broke new ground.
A few weeks ago, in response to the release of Netflix’s adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy, the team at the Daily Yonder got together to make a list of some of our favorite rural-themed movies and shows. But since there are far more great rural stories than what we could fit in that original list, we asked you, our readers, to offer your recommendations.
Here are just a few of the suggestions that you’ve submitted so far. And be sure to keep your recommendations coming, using the form at the bottom of this article.
Winter’s Bone
“Faced with an unresponsive mother and a criminal father, Ozark teenager Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) does what she can to manage the household and take care of her two younger siblings. Informed by the sheriff (Garret Dillahunt) that their father put their home up for bond and then disappeared, Ree sets out on a dangerous quest to find him. Her entire family’s fate now in her hands, Ree challenges her outlaw kin’s code of silence and risks her