White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)

In 1988, a teenage girl's life is thrown into chaos when her mother disappears.

Director:

Gregg Araki

Writers:

Gregg Araki (screenplay by), Laura Kasischke (based on the novel by)

Stars:

Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shailene Woodley	...	Kat Connors
Eva Green	...	Eve Connors
Christopher Meloni	...	Brock Connors
Shiloh Fernandez	...	Phil
Angela Bassett	...	Dr. Thaler
Gabourey Sidibe	...	Beth
Ava Acres	...	Kat age 8
Thomas Jane	...	Detective Scieziesciez
Mark Indelicato	...	Mickey
Dale Dickey	...	Mrs. Hillman
Sheryl Lee	...	May
Michael Patrick McGill	...	Aaron
Jill Johnson	...	Secretary
Jacob Artist	...	Oliver
Brenda Koo	...	Cindy

Storyline

Kat Connors is 17 years old when her seemingly perfect homemaker mother, Eve, disappears in 1988. Having lived for so long in an emotionally repressed household, she barely registers her mother's absence and certainly doesn't blame her doormat of a father, Brock, for the loss. But as time passes, Kat begins to come to grips with how deeply Eve's disappearance has affected her. Returning home on a break from college, she finds herself confronted with the truth about her mother's departure, and her own denial about the events surrounding it...

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Plot Keywords:

teenage girl | missing person | mysterious disappearance | mother daughter relationship | female nudity | 

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Taglines:

I was 17 when my mother disappeared...

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content/nudity, language and some drug use

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gregg Araki based the look of Kat Connor on Winona Ryder's style from the late 1980s.

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Goofs

In the club scene Mickey appears to be holding a modern travel coffee mug, the type of which did not exist in 1988.

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Quotes

Detective Scieziesciez: Once there was this... obese man. Some sick fuck had doused him with gasoline and then lit him on fire. And by the time we got to the body, two days later, he was still burning.
Kat Connor: What?
Detective Scieziesciez: Guy had so much body fat he's like a human candle.

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Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Shailene Woodley/Michael Shannon/Eric Church (2014)

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Soundtracks

These Early Days
Written by Tracey Thorn (as Tracey Anne Thorn)
Performed by Everything But The Girl

User Reviews

Strong Coming of Age Story

Kat is a 17-year-old girl in the suburbs, growing up in the late 1980s and observing her parents' dysfunctional marriage at close hand while trying to cope with first love, relationships, sex and friendships - all the growing pains that being 17 involves. When her mother disappears one day, the police think she's probably run off, perhaps with a boyfriend; Kat thinks her mother just got so fed up with her boring, empty, perfect-housewife life that she finally left it to find something better. Kat herself doesn't know how she feels about that; truly, she doesn't really feel much of anything, especially because her mother had recently been so intrusive in her life. Her father seems meek and lost after her mother leaves, but both of them will eventually have to pick up the pieces and go on. If only Kat would stop having those disturbing dreams about where her mother might be....

This is really far more of a coming-of-age story than it is anything else; aside from some dream images, there's very little that would fit the term "fantastical," even though I saw it at Montreal's Fantasia Festival. There is some very fine acting, from Eva Green as the mother, Shailene Woodley as Kat, Christopher Meloni as Kat's father and Thomas Jane as a police detective, and both writer/director Gregg Araki (from the novel by Laura Kasischke) and the cast do a very good job of capturing that confusing stage of adolescence, where one is not quite fully grown up but is certainly not at all a child anymore either. I very much enjoyed the film, even if Fantasia is an odd place to see it!

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

France USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 September 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

White Bird in a Blizzard

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,302, 26 October 2014

Gross USA:

$33,821

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$469,701

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desperate Pictures, Orange Studio, Why Not Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1