Little Woods
Little Woods, North Dakota, a fracking boomtown well beyond its prime.
Ollie (Tessa Thompson) is barely getting by in Little Woods, an economically depressed fracking boomtown in North Dakota. She has left her days of illegally running prescription pills over the Canadian border behind, eyeing a potential new job that would finally break her out of the small town. But when her mother dies, she is reunited with her estranged sister Deb (Lily James), who faces a mounting crisis: the combined effect of an unplanned pregnancy and a deadbeat ex (James Badge Dale).
The two find they have one week to settle the mortgage on their mother's house or face foreclosure. As both bills and pressure mount, Ollie faces a choice: whether to return to a way of life she thought she'd left behind for just one more score, or to leave it all behind. Writer-director Nia DaCosta's debut is an emotionally charged small-town thriller that weaves themes of economic downturn and the opioid crisis into its intimate story of two sisters trying to get by. An unvarnished film anchored by an authentically drawn sibling bond, LITTLE WOODS speaks to both the biggest and smallest elements of the working-class struggle in rural America.
Critic Reviews:
- “It's the kind of scenario we've often seen on screen, but the ambience is new and precisely evoked as a world of cruel contrasts.” – Sydney Morning Herald
- “It's a testament to the strength of Thompson's performance, and DaCosta's control of tone and action, that for all the bleakness of this world, we keep watching.” – Variety
- “This startlingly accomplished debut feature by Nia DaCosta has the eyes and ears of a documentary-the opioid crisis is everywhere, the nearest hospital is far away-but the heart of a drama, and a stirring one” – Wall Street Journal