Screen Crush gave Mary’s performance in Smashed an amazing review. Click on the link to read the review in full. Below are some highlights:
‘Smashed’ is a film that hits home with ferocity. It’s a quiet little indie film that utilizes subtle direction to invoke the dizzying feeling of drunkenness, but it’s Winstead’s performance that reaches directly into your gut and twists with precision. The way she manipulates her voice when drunk almost sounds monstrous and inhuman — it’s startlingly authentic. The addiction takes over and the addiction does what it wants. It’s pure, irrational Id, encompassing their lives and driving them to do things like pee on gas station floors or smoke crack when a stranger offers it.
‘Smashed’ may only be a movie, but it’s one with a pounding heart that beats from a place that is genuine and honest — so honest, that it hurts to watch. Winstead, like the alcoholic she portrays, becomes an entirely different person, making her performance doubly impressive given that she must essentially play two roles — sober Kate and addict Kate — and be equally convincing as both. A film like this may be overlooked in awards season, but I don’t think it matters — what matters with a movie that speaks to the human experience in such a specific way as this is that it is seen and appreciated, but moreover, that there are those who can and will strongly identify with it, and hopefully it speaks to them the way it spoke to me. And no trophy is going to mean anything to those people.