A young woman scraping out a living in a North Dakota oil boomtown must make hard choices in Nia DaCosta’s Little Woods, risking prison in order to keep her sister and nephew with a roof over their heads. Less relentlessly bleak than Winter’s Bone, which along with Frozen River is an obvious inspiration here, the life-on-the-margins drama makes a fine, tense vehicle for Tessa Thompson, who in the last few years has stood out in a variety of genres. She and co-star Lily James (as the sister) will attract needed attention on the fest circuit to this winner of Tribeca’s juried Nora Ephron award.
Thompson’s Ollie (short for Oleander) was adopted as a child and grew up with Deb (James); when Deb moved out and had a child with now-estranged boyfriend Ian (James Badge Dale), Ollie stuck around to nurse their mother through a long terminal illness. Somewhere in there, she started making trips across the border to obtain pain pills for their mother through Canada’s health care system. That well-intentioned felony grew until she was also supplying to strangers, and she was eventually busted.
Now she’s near the end of her probation, and nothing says “time to break the law” like hearing your probation officer (Carter, played by Lance Reddick) congratulate you for having only one check-in left before you’re officially in the clear. Carter, impressed with Ollie and supportive of her efforts to go straight, has supplied a personal reference for a good job that would take her away from her current environs. Ollie is all ready to make a clean start and let the bank take the family home when she learns that penniless Deb is pregnant.
Little Woods is a 2018 crime thriller western film, written and directed by Nia DaCosta in her directorial debut. It stars Tessa Thompson, Lily James, Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale and Lance Reddick. The film focuses on sisters Ollie (Thompson) and Deb (James) who find themselves falling into the illegal world of the cross-border drug trade along the Canada–United States border after their mother dies. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018. It was released on April 19, 2019 by Neon.
Little Woods (2019)
Directed by: Nia DaCosta
Starring: Lily James, Tessa Thompson, Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale, Lance Reddick, Elizabeth Maxwell, Luci Christian, Joe Stevens, Morgana Shaw, Rochelle Robinson, Carmencita Worland
Screenplay by: Nia DaCosta
Production Design by: Yvonne Boudreaux
Cinematography by: Matt Mitchell
Film Editing by: Catrin Hedström
Costume Design by: Colin Wilkes
Set Decoration by: Patrick Jackson
Music by: Brian McOmber
MPAA Rating: R for language and some drug material.
Distributed by: Neon
Release Date: April 19, 2019
Visits: 44
