Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. (15.)
Directed by Martin McDonagh.
Starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage and Caleb Landry Jones. 115 mins.
Three Billboards. Outside Ebbing. Missouri. That's a hell of a title. On paper at least; you may get tongue tied and self-conscious trying to say it to acquaintances, but seen on paper it demands attention. What kind of a film goes around calling itself that? And then you want to know if it will live up to it. Previously writer/ director Martin McDonagh has struggled to pair up titles with films. In Bruges easily outshone its title, but Seven Psychopaths lagged well behind its given name. This one is the equal of its content.
The three billboards in question read: “Raped while dying,” “And still no arrests,” “How come, Sheriff Willoughby?” This gesture by grieving mother Mildred Hayes (McDormand) to try and goad the police force into action might reasonably have been expected to generate some support, but reason is in short supply in Ebbing. Plus, Mildred is a confrontational and unforgiving type with a lacerating tongue, so she doesn't win much sympathy.
McDonagh made his name writing for the stage and if nothing else that fearta really teaches you how to structure a piece of writing and this is beautifully put together. Even a seemingly casual remark about a fat dentist will have a pay off a few scenes later. The film is funny, brazenly funny but still fearsome. There is a palpable sense of dread, you keep expecting terrible things to happen and sometimes they do, but they are rarely the terrible things you expected. Once set in motion, tragedies usually make their ascent to disaster with a relentless efficiency, all those little ironies going off in orderly succession. McDonagh though constantly re-rails it, sends it off in more curious directions. One of the best things about it is the way it refuses to accept that once the mechanisms of tragedy have kicked in, a disaster is inevitable.
It's a remarkably rich work which, by luck or by design, deals with a number of strong contemporary issues in the States: the trigger-happy police force and a fractured population, who once convinced of a position will refuse to hear anything contrary.
Previously I considered Martin to be the lesser of the Marvellous McDonagh brothers. His younger sibling John Michael seemed like a much purer cinematic voice, but after the wonders of The Guard and Calvary, he trainwrecked with War on Everyone. In Three Billboards Martin shows he's a playwright with excellent film sense. If I was nitpicking I'd say that there is some very obvious and distracting CGI in the scene with a deer and the film could do with a stronger music score. (Hard to believe the music here was the work of the normally excellent Carter Burwell.)
It's a tremendous cast, but it's the woman at the centre of it that you will remember. Since her debut in Blood Simple more than thirty years ago, Frances McDormand has enjoyed a tremendous career filled with fine performances. But let's be honest, when you think of her, you think Fargo. All the other stuff may occur to you later, and that other stuff will mostly be top quality, but Fargo was the one she will be forever identified. Until now.
Directed by Martin McDonagh.
Starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage and Caleb Landry Jones. 115 mins.
Three Billboards. Outside Ebbing. Missouri. That's a hell of a title. On paper at least; you may get tongue tied and self-conscious trying to say it to acquaintances, but seen on paper it demands attention. What kind of a film goes around calling itself that? And then you want to know if it will live up to it. Previously writer/ director Martin McDonagh has struggled to pair up titles with films. In Bruges easily outshone its title, but Seven Psychopaths lagged well behind its given name. This one is the equal of its content.
The three billboards in question read: “Raped while dying,” “And still no arrests,” “How come, Sheriff Willoughby?” This gesture by grieving mother Mildred Hayes (McDormand) to try and goad the police force into action might reasonably have been expected to generate some support, but reason is in short supply in Ebbing. Plus, Mildred is a confrontational and unforgiving type with a lacerating tongue, so she doesn't win much sympathy.
McDonagh made his name writing for the stage and if nothing else that fearta really teaches you how to structure a piece of writing and this is beautifully put together. Even a seemingly casual remark about a fat dentist will have a pay off a few scenes later. The film is funny, brazenly funny but still fearsome. There is a palpable sense of dread, you keep expecting terrible things to happen and sometimes they do, but they are rarely the terrible things you expected. Once set in motion, tragedies usually make their ascent to disaster with a relentless efficiency, all those little ironies going off in orderly succession. McDonagh though constantly re-rails it, sends it off in more curious directions. One of the best things about it is the way it refuses to accept that once the mechanisms of tragedy have kicked in, a disaster is inevitable.
It's a remarkably rich work which, by luck or by design, deals with a number of strong contemporary issues in the States: the trigger-happy police force and a fractured population, who once convinced of a position will refuse to hear anything contrary.
Previously I considered Martin to be the lesser of the Marvellous McDonagh brothers. His younger sibling John Michael seemed like a much purer cinematic voice, but after the wonders of The Guard and Calvary, he trainwrecked with War on Everyone. In Three Billboards Martin shows he's a playwright with excellent film sense. If I was nitpicking I'd say that there is some very obvious and distracting CGI in the scene with a deer and the film could do with a stronger music score. (Hard to believe the music here was the work of the normally excellent Carter Burwell.)
It's a tremendous cast, but it's the woman at the centre of it that you will remember. Since her debut in Blood Simple more than thirty years ago, Frances McDormand has enjoyed a tremendous career filled with fine performances. But let's be honest, when you think of her, you think Fargo. All the other stuff may occur to you later, and that other stuff will mostly be top quality, but Fargo was the one she will be forever identified. Until now.
