It’s hard to imagine, sometimes, that Jennifer Lawrence’s first listed credit on IMDb — “Mascot” on a 2006 episode of the TV series Monk, by the way — is less than 10 years old.
The Kentucky-born actress, still just 25 today, has had a meteoric rise, with her mix of beyond-her-years maturity and youthful coltishness earning her a Best Actress Oscar at the age of 22; she is the second youngest actress ever to win. In films small and large Lawrence is regularly pointed out as a reason to buy a ticket.
This week, Valley filmgoers have a chance to see two big screen slices of Lawrence’s career: as the government-toppling teenager Katniss Everdeen in Mockingjay Part 2, the finale of the Hunger Games films; and as Ree Dolly, the truth-seeking teenager of Winter’s Bone, the 2010 film that is most often cited as Lawrence’s breakthrough performance.
Mockingjay, which likely needs no summarizing here, is screening at Cinemark theaters in Hadley, West Springfield, and just about anywhere in between — it’s a phenomenon as all-reaching as the government its heroine has been fighting against all this time. But the truth is, it’s probably time to move on anyway; the relatively unknown Lawrence that first picked up Katniss’ bow and arrows is long gone, replaced by a woman whose star power is now sometimes at odds with the underdog story of Everdeen and the movement she leads.
Contrast the bombast of Mockingjay with Winter’s Bone, screening at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night at Amherst Cinema. Another film about a young underdog, it stars Lawrence as an Ozark teen trying to track down her father before his bail-jumping costs them the family home. As threatening as the oppression in the Hunger Games films, but so much more intimate, the resistance and violence Lawrence’s Ree Dolly meets up with are often coming not from the government, but from her own family. An added bonus: Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik, who recognized Lawrence’s talents before many of us, will be on hand for a post-screening discussion facilitated by Amherst Cinema’s Carol Johnson.
Also at Amherst this week is Room, an unusual story about a kidnapping and escape that is claustrophobic and free, happy and sad, and everything in between. It tells the tale of young Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and his “Ma,” (Brie Larson) whose life together is confined to a tiny room — she has long been held prisoner there, and her son is the product of rape at the hands of her captor. And while she has done everything in her power to give Jack a rich life inside their four walls — sometimes it’s hard to say if it’s better or worse for him that he’s never known anything else — she comes to realize that if they are to continue to survive they’ll need to leave their terrible home. (Spoilers ahead!) A look at any of the previews for Room will tell you that her escape plan is a success, at least in the sense that they get out of their dungeon. But what is less clear is whether or not Ma can ever truly, fully be free of the room, or if she’ll continue to live within its walls even when she gets out into the sunshine.
And now that it’s December, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention two very different Christmas films hitting screens in Hadley, West Springfield, and surrounding areas this weekend (check your local listings for exact showtimes). First up is the classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which remains a holiday chestnut long after most of the franchise has dried up and blown away. For holiday mayhem, it’s tough to beat. But Krampus, a new horror/comedy starring Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) hopes to start something new. The story of a dysfunctional family whose disillusioned son inadvertently summons an ancient demon to the Christmas merrymaking, it is directed by Michael Dougherty, best known for the 2007 cult hit Trick ’r Treat. Expect some laughs, some thrills and chills, and a few groaners. In other words, just like most family Christmases.•
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
