After watching Winter’s Bone last weekend—a film I had anticipated for many months—I could only keep thinking, “How could Jennifer Lawrence NOT be Katniss (in The Hunger Games)?” I had had my heart set on Hailee Steinfeld for the role after I’d seen how amazing she was in True Grit, but now that I’ve seen Winter’s Bone, I can definitely join the throes of people who are vouching for Lawrence in the part. In fact, I sort of feel like I’ve seen her play Katniss already, the way she valiantly fought to save her family despite her poverty and missing parental help.

Naturally, my husband complained that the film was too slow for him; however, I loved the film noir mood in the movie, and how the simple horrors kept building up to the titular moment in the film. One of my favorite movies of all time is the incredible Mystic River, and I kept having that creeping dread come upon me, as it did in that movie, as I watched Winter’s Bone. That kind of mood isn’t there for simple somber visuals or just to make it feel “slow;” I’ve seen other movies like that (The Black Dahlia and Hollywoodland, for example) that I couldn’t stand because they just weren’t as effective as they should have been. Winter’s Bone delivered.

There’s also the theme of the drug brewing, poverty stricken country folk who keep to themselves and may be family, but family only carries you so far. I referred to the theme as that of the Hillbilly Mafia, which made my husband crack up—but it’s absolutely true. We grew up around people exactly like these people: controlling patriarchs with more guns than teeth who brewed meth, their hardened women, their faces lined with both rage and age as they stood by their violent men folk, though they, too, could be just as violent; and perhaps the saddest figure of all, the unaffected child or adolescent who has grown up around it all and will likely remain in the family business, who is not surprised nor sorrowful when witnessing such violence, who grows up to perpetuate it as well.

We lived in one of the poorest trailer parks in our area when I was growing up, and these characters could have been my neighbors; we simply had less space and trees between us. I’m telling you, people in the city may fear gangs, but these country folk, as mild as they may seem at the flea market, can be just as scary. I’m not exaggerating or generalizing, either; there are simply specific individuals and families who know their way around the law and a blade.

I really look forward to more of Lawrence’s work and cannot wait to see her in the upcoming X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games. Her role here, as a stubborn teen who refused to give up on her family even when she was threatened by both the men and women around her for it (and perhaps even gave up her own personal freedom, continually trapped into the world—as many teens in this situation are—for it), was nothing short of brilliant, let alone one of the best portrayals of a strong female lead I've ever seen.