DVD/BLURAY/STREAMING REVIEW: White Bird In A Blizzard

Review of White Bird In A Blizzard


Based on a novel by Laura Kasischke
Written and Directed by Gregg Araki
Starring: Shailene Woodley; Eva Green; and Christopher Meloni




I work this blog from the East Coast. However I noticed from my blog dashboard that I am getting looks from all over. I cannot see who is looking but I can see where the looks come from, Canada; Alaska; Florida; I could go on. I am thankful for people taking time to read the reviews and excepting my dry humor. Spread the word that I am here. A chance to get a review from just a regular person (or as regular as I can get)! I try my best to give short reviews and make them grammatically correct....I miss on both points sometimes/or often. Not a movie snob here, if it is artsy/with death at the end it does not necessarily make a good film that you should spend your hard earned money for. I will be making some small changes as time goes on to try to make the page "pertier". I hope to keep this going for as long as I can.
Well my original point, I am here on the East Coast today with sleet and snow out my window, so it is appropriate to review a film called White Bird In A Blizzard today.

In 1988, a teenage girl's (Woodley) life is thrown into chaos when her mother (Green) disappears.
Fine acting all around. Woodley as a daughter who is pretty much living on her own at 17. Green who is perfect as the mom who is way off kilter. Green just gets drawn to characters who are that way (see Sin City/Penny Dreadful/Casino Royal/The Dreamers). As strange as this sounds, she is obviously beautiful and I think she picks parts to fight her own beauty. Just my opinion,but I digress and say she is spot on again in a similar part. Meloni as husband/father is quietly strong in his part.
I did not get a chance to read the book so I can only go on what the screenplay contains.
As far as the screenplay I found the actions of the daughter and maybe the police to be rather odd.
Woodley is Kat and her mother is getting wackier by the day and one day she just vanishes.
Kat just does not seem overly worried. She almost seems relived that she is gone. Kat just goes on with her life and also making some bad decisions pertaining to her personal life. At the beginning of the review I copied the production notes, it said "Chaos". I copied that on purpose just to make sure I made the point.. I saw no Chaos. Maybe it was left on the floor between book and screenplay.
The police seems to not care much. They do not seem overly concerned that this woman has disappeared. However as the film moves on, I start to realize it is not like a TV show. There is no exciting investigation. I imagine it is like the real world where a investigation is tedious and slow and boring. We are not watching this. We are watching Kat's life while the investigation is going on around her whether she knows it or not. Now the book may have more of the police work, but once again I can only go on this screenplay/film.
An intriguing film, with a slow burn to a fire at the end. And that ending!!! Like wow!! I was thinking something else!! Oh the mystery is resolved!! This was a tough review to do because I cannot give to much away, or I will ruin the movie for you.
I give White Bird In A Blizzard 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. It is available for streaming on Netflix. If you liked Gone Girl, this is almost the same with a lower budget. Take a look!!




As always thanks for your time.