Tessa Thompson is a joy to watch on screen in just about every film she’s in. Whether she’s a drunk female warrior/superhero in “Thor: Ragnarok” or an offbeat artist in the underrated “Sorry to Bother You,” the actress brings something special to each role she takes. And her hot streak of quality performances continues in the upcoming “Little Woods.”
In the new trailer for the film that premiered at last year’s Tribeca, we meet Ollie (Thompson), a young woman that got busted for bringing a load of drugs over from Canada to her small town in North Dakota to help her ill mother. After attempting to stay out of trouble, Ollie must go back into the drug-running game to help a family member that comes to town in need of help. And as you might expect, Ollie finds more trouble than she was bargaining for.
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Joining Thompson in the cast are Lily James, Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale, and Lance Reddick.
“Little Woods” is scheduled to hit select theaters on April 19.
Here’s the synopsis:
Ollie (Tessa Thompson) is a reformed drug runner in an economically depressed small town in North Dakota, who was caught coming back from Canada with medicine for her terminally ill mother and has been toeing the line ever since. After her mother dies, Ollie’s sister Deb (Lily James) shows up on her doorstep with a hungry child and an unplanned pregnancy. Ollie can only see one viable option: quickly raise money to pay back the bank and hold onto their mother’s home, so Deb can raise her family safely away from her abusive ex. But to do that, she’ll need to return to the dangerous way of life she thought she’d left behind.
Writer/director Nia DaCosta won Tribeca Film Festival’s 2018 Nora Ephron Award for this emotionally-charged small-town modern Western about two women in rural America. Their sister bond, beautifully exemplified by the authentic and lived-in relationship between Tessa Thompson’s Ollie and Lily James’ Deb, is what keeps them connected but can also tie them down.