The girl with the dragon tattoo, Lisbeth, is also an investigator, only not an elite-news-magazine-reporter kind of snoop like Mikael, but more like a WikiLeaks hacker-who-knows-all-your-passwords kind of snoop. The two join forces to find the decades-old killer and make a intriguing odd couple, mainly because of Mikael's generous unconditional awe for Lisbeth.

Watching Animal Kingdom right after Winter's Bone really highlighted the importance of character development. In Winter's Bone I was cheering for the teenage underdog surrounded by wicked relatives; with Animal Kingdom, I was just wanted them all to go away.

Strange enough, there are a few of similarities between Winter's Bone and True Grit. Both plots are driven by adolescent girls on quests to right the wrongs created by their fathers' actions. Both show dogged perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity, and Ree's Rooster comes in the form of her uncle, Teardrop, who's whiskey escape is in the form of crank.