Tag: Lily James

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.