OK, so I just saw The Poker House yesterday and I had to wait almost a full day before I could successfully review it just to let it all sink in. I'm gonna go ahead and let you know how I feel right up front (if on the off chance you can't read the title of this review or see the stars); I loved this movie! Where to begin? OK, let's talk about what I liked. First of all, the performances were all just entrancing, most specifically Jennifer Lawrence. She plays a very vulnerable, yet rugged and emotionally confused 14 year old girl, named Agnes. Her delivery of each line of dialogue is just masterful in every sense of the word, and she infuses each sentence and every nuance of her character with such realistic flare that it's almost to the point of method. Also, Selma Blair who plays the character of Sarah, Agnes' mother, does an excellent job of playing the coked-up prostitute who is so out of touch with reality that it's almost unbelievable. For those of you who don't know, this film is based on the real life experiences of it's director, Lori Petty, thus ensuring some very powerfully and well written material as well as some top shelf direction, which it absolutely delivers in every aspect. The only real problem that I can think this film had was some of the characters are a little over-the-top, but honestly, I accredit this to Petty's writing and direction, which is not necessarily a bad thing. This is her life story and I'm sure that those characters were really as insane and over-the-top as they are portrayed in this movie. Really the biggest problem for me personally was that, at times, the pacing was a little off. It would slow down and speed back up again without much reasoning as to why it was doing it. This is just a minor point because at no point do you find yourself scratching your head and saying, "What?" or "How?". Overall guys, The Poker House is a very very well acted movie, a pretty well executed movie, and a very underrated movie. I really don't know why this film has only 6.1 Stars. But anyway, I hope you liked this review and take it into consideration if you consider seeing this film. Thanks.

Tough and resourceful 14-year-old Agnes (a splendid and utterly appealing performance by Jennifer Lawrence) not only has to contend with her pathetic strung-out junkie whore mother Sarah (a startling portrayal by Selma Blair) and suave, yet slimy pimp stepfather Duval (superbly played to smoothly sinister perfection by Bokeem Woodbine),but also has her hands full taking care of her two younger sisters while trying to prevail under exceptionally harsh circumstances. Director Lori Petty, who also co-wrote the hard-hitting script with David Alan Grier, offers a convincing evocation of the 1970's period setting, maintains an appropriately gritty and unsentimental tone throughout, firmly grounds the story in a plausibly drab and seamy everyday reality, and presents a neat array of colorfully seedy secondary characters. Moreover, the strong central theme about the resilience of the human spirit in the most dismal of situations allows a glimmer of hope to peek out amid all the gloom that in turn prevents this film from becoming too depressing. This movie further benefits from excellent acting from a fine cast, with especially stand-out contributions from Chloe Moritz as the perky and precocious Cammie, Sophia Bairley as the sweet and spunky Bee, Grier as jittery drunk Stymie, and Natalie West as sympathetic barmaid Dolly. Both Ken Seng's sharp cinematography and Mike Post's bluesy score are up to par. A real sleeper.

This is one of the story in the life of Lori Petty, and I never knew how much of a difficult childhood she had. It's basically a depressing and yet well acted and well made movie to some degree about girls struggles. Mainly because of a bad mother and not a very good environment to be growing up in. Now the negative aspect of this movie is that, it seemed to drag in a lot of scenes. In fact some of the scenes actually seemed quite pointless. Basically the plot is about a tough girl who is also smart, but don't always make the right decision having to take care of her sisters as well as overcome her struggles with the environment. The plot seemed all over the place at times and got boring during sometimes as well. This is not a near perfect movie but it isn't as terrible as some people claim it to be. The ending was okay though.

6/10