It was a slow weekend for movie watching, but it felt accomplished. I saw two major Oscar contenders over the weekend, plus a thorough waste of time.

So, here is what I watched this weekend:

WINTER’S BONE

A slice of Ozarkian life that is neither characteristically slice of life nor characteristically Ozarkian. Winter’s Bone tells the story of a teenager trying to track down her father when she discovers that he put his house up as collateral on a bail bond and then disappeared before the trial.

Jennifer Lawrence commands the film as Ree Dolly, a self-reliant young woman trying to keep everything together when the threat of losing her house, land and her family leads her into the dark den of the meth trade in southwest Missouri. Ree knows her father is a meth cook, but also knows him to be a good one. As she tries to locate his whereabouts, she comes into contact with a frightening array of people who caution her not to dig too deeply for her own safety. There’s subterfuge, misdirection and violence inflicted upon Ree as she slowly narrows to the truth.

Like Deliverance before it, Winter’s Bone is a horrific saga with a semi-positive outcome that threatens to categorize all backwoods yokels as tweaked out freaks not to be messed with. Living in the Ozarks myself, it’s hard to appraise a film that tries to wallow in the worst of the region without showing the best of it. Deliverance made rural Kentuckians the butt of countless jokes. Winter’s Bone threatens to do the same, which I think is the movie’s biggest flaw.

It’s a flaw I can almost live with considering the rest of the film. There are familiar motifs in the film that compare it favorably with a number of Mafia flicks. And were it not set in the world of strung-out methamphetamine junkies and dealers and set in New York City or Chicago, it might even be confused for a film like The Godfather. of course, the glitz and glamor of Francis Ford Coppola’s film help keep it from feeling too realistic, but Winter’s Bone goes for grit and realism even without being true to locale.

The biggest lesson I took away from the film is not the indomitable will of a woman determined to succeed, but that even in a violent, oppressive landscape where poverty is a common thread and drug use is rampant, the power of community still reigns. Even those who would mistreat and marginalize Ree end up supporting her and making sure that she survives another day even if they don’t particularly like her.

THE KING’S SPEECH

When the movies you get on television are more successfully filmed and orchestrated, it’s hard to appreciate a trifle like The King’s Speech. Yet, this enjoyable and compelling film manages to succeed in spite of itself and the apparent laziness of director Tom Hooper.

Set just prior to the death of King George V and proceeding through the start of World War II, The King’s Speech focuses on one of the least represented British rulers on the big screen: Prince Albert, Duke of York and future King George VI. The reluctant leader was brought to power in the direst of circumstance after his brother abdicated the throne and had to overcome a serious speech impediment to become a strong leader for his people as the threat of war and the dictatorship of Hitler loomed over them.

Colin Firth is magnificent as Prince Albert. He creates such a compelling and interesting character that the film never feels like it has to rely on someone else to carry it. Yet Geoffrey Rush as the speech therapist who helps him find his confidence and his voice does his best to help lift the burden. They are two gifted thespians who never treat the audience with disrespect, keeping them fully involved in their struggles for acceptance. Helena Bonham Carter almost blends into the background as Berty’s wife, but manages to stay just inside the film’s periphery as to feel necessary. She supports Firth well, though the fact that she’s so subdued is more amazing when you consider all of the outlandish characters she’s played these last several years.

The complex relationship between Berty and Lionel is what the audience cares about. Sure it wants to see Berty succeed, but when the threat of separation becomes stronger, you want nothing more than for them to get back together again even if he never makes the major speech we assume is coming. And despite the believable dynamic created between Firth and Rush, it’s almost in spite of the screenplay which follows a trajectory so predictable that you know before the film does what’s going to happen. Of course, the scene-to-scene layout is formulaic, the humor is genuine and strikingly delivered. You laugh more often than you might expect in a film of this type.

Hooper makes for an exasperating director. As you watch the film, you can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking. Every conversation between Firth and Rush is carried out in medium shots. Not close ups. No over-the-shoulders. Nothing to even really set them into time and place. Many of the long shots we get are establishing shots, which makes the film feel stale and invariable. While it helps the actors work hard to pull the audience into their lives, it does nothing to keep things fresh.

Yet, in spite of everything this is a film that’s enjoyable and entertaining. It’s enlivens the spirit and educates the mind. You feel a part of the film even if it doesn’t feel like a part of you. And when everything is finished, you realize that it’s Firth and Rush that made the film feel so special and you’re thankful for that alone.

DANCE FLICK

The film spoof genre has been in decline for a number of years. Despite my enjoyment of the medium on a general amusement level, I have never really considered these types of films to be high art. And Dance Flick is certainly the least artful of these films to date.

A garish and frequently unfunny spoof of the recent dance film craze, the Wayans brothers tackle everything from Fame to Step Up to Footloose and several films in between. There are even a few jabs at popular musicals such as Dreamgirls to be had. This is also the first time I can remember that they have employed actual musical numbers. From the food-loving “I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” spoof to the “Fame” parody called “I’m Gay”, the film does better in these routines than in its other rote bits of humor. Matter of fact, “I’m Gay” is the highlight of the film. Too bad it came at the 30-minute mark and not later in the film. Even the actors have become less attractive. Gone are the days of pretty actors who are actually funny like Alyson Hannigan, Anna Faris and Matt Lanter; instead we get the not-as-funny-as-they-used-to-be Wayans (the whole brood and their offspring) and the cute but dull Shoshana Bush.

While I won’t stop watching them, I am pretty sure they’ll probably stop making them. The franchise hasn’t proven as lucrative as it used to and when you’ve mined nearly ever Hollywood film of the last decade, you don’t have very many places to go. Even the purported sequel Scary Movie 5 has disappeared from IMDb, so I guess we’ll have to wait for another generation to discover some new talents and some humorous spoofs and I guess I can’t say that I’ll be too upset not having a new version every year.