everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Being impressed by Winter's Bone and thanks to the information on IMDb i reached out for Debra Granik's earlier work. It turned out only one title had been available. The funny trivia was that it also had the word bone in the title and dealt with drug addicts' world.Down to the Bone has been much less powerful than Winter's Bone. This hasn't been due to lower budget, rather because of the story itself. We encounter drug addicts and their lives that are for the most part turning into lies. Yet, there is little that sets this movie apart from numerous dealing with a similar topic.Actually, there is. This is the earliest Vera Farmiga's movie i've seen so far.

Given the subject matter of drug addiction Down to the Bone almost can't help but be a rather depressing film. But depressing doesn't necessarily have to mean bad. Unfortunately in this case it is in fact pretty bad. The film has some good things going for it, most notably the quality performance of Vera Farmiga in the central role of Irene, a working mom struggling with a cocaine addiction. But there isn't enough good here to outweigh the bad. The film's failings lie mainly with the story, which fails to captivate and never really seems to get going. Irene goes to rehab and comes home to a clueless husband who has no idea how to support her attempt to kick her habit. Irene grows close to another recovering addict, a male nurse from her rehab center. Complications ensue. But the story never really sparks to life. It doesn't seem as if the movie is really going anywhere. You can say it's a stark, realistic look at the day-to-day struggles of an addict. Maybe so but in this case it doesn't make for an interesting movie. The whole thing has a very "blah" feel to it. The minimalist cinematography doesn't help matters, adding another layer of drab to the incredibly drab proceedings. And none of the other performances measure up to Farmiga's. Hugh Dillon is OK as Irene's male nurse friend but nobody else in the cast adds anything of value to the proceedings. All in all this movie is a bleak, depressing and rather dull ride.

Director Debra Granik knows how to tell a story in such a subtle way that even when the topic is drug addiction she allows her characters to be three-dimensional people instead of the usual stereotypes that conflict the emotional impact of such films.Irene (Vera Farmiga, an intensely talented young actress) is the mother of two sweet boys Ben (Jasper Daniels) and Jason (Taylor Foxhall) and is married to a nice guy Steve (Clint Jordan) who plays with drugs but is in no way as addicted as Irene is to cocaine. The story takes us through Irene's addiction, her committing herself to a drug rehab program where she meets Lucy (Caridad 'La Bruja' De La Luz), also kicking her habit, and male nurse Bob (Hugh Dillon) who has been clean from heroin addiction for five years. Irene leaves the rehab too early (she is mostly concerned about the welfare of her children and her job) and when she starts back to work as a grocery checker she is dismissed when she confesses to prior drug use: being 'clean' makes her slower at the check out stand! She partners with Lucy cleaning homes, trying to straighten out her life, but falls in love with Bob and together they have an affair and start using again. Rather than end the story the writers (Debra Granik and Richard Lieske) simply allow the story to remain open ended, much the way the daily lives of those struggling with the demon of drug addiction live. This technique of unresolved relationships is immensely powerful.The performance by Farmiga establishes her as one of our truly important actresses. She gives us a credible human being who is out of focus with the world because of her drug use, but despite some borderline behavior patterns she maintains our compassion. The remainder of the cast is superb. The icy cinematography by Michael McDonough and the superb film editing by Malcolm Jamieson deserve applause. This is a powerful little film that provides more understanding of the psyches of those struggling to live both with addiction and after addiction. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

I had the opportunity to see DOWN TO THE BONE off Netflix. I was really looking forward to it. I think Vera Farmiga is a very talented performer and heard the raves. Unfortunately, the decision to shoot this story on a PD-150 really killed it for me. I saw the short SNAKE FEED and felt 16 was a much better medium. Or maybe I wished Debra Granik had taken a different visual DV approach. I'm not quite sure. But I didn't find the cinematography all that breathtaking. Some reviewers call it gritty - I call it bland. Still, even with that aside, I felt the story moves a little slow and is also mettled with structural issues. The snake motif was cliché in my books. Nonetheless, Vera is great and definitely makes this one worth watching.