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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)

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John Cougar Lunchbucket Jan 11 2018 10:54 AM

Frances McDormand plays a grieving rural mother demanding her daughter's murder gets solved. Hijinx ensue.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jan 11 2018 11:06 AM Re: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)

Don't let my opinion carry the day because critics creamed the jeans but I thought this film was uncomfortably dissatisfying and kind of aggressively unfunny despite the good performances. Made by the same guy who did another black comedy IN BRUGES which I thought was an underrated laugh riot, but this one was just too hard to buy in the wake of Furguson. Too violent, too hard to believe. This one also has a Little Person in it who affects the main character. I dunno with this guy.

Chad Ochoseis Feb 15 2018 10:03 AM Re: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)

4 billboards. About a half hour in, with Frances McDormand in the main role and with the whole black comedy vibe, I was starting to think that the Coen Brothers had directed this film under a fake name. I enjoyed the film, mainly because of the characterizations and the acting performances. Everyone's been raving about Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, but it was also fun to watch Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon from The Wire) in a minor role. One of the bad guys has a transformation at the end that critics seem to have a hard time buying, which is why the film has evolved from "brilliant" to "controversial" (detail with spoilers here). I had no problem at all with the transformation. Somehow, in the past 20 years or so, we've lost the ability as a society to believe that some people are redeemable. I still believe that they are. People are complex, and their complexity makes great drama. For some reason, that's difficult for modern critics to handle. I did have some serious problems with a couple of the practical aspects of the plot. Two people in the film commit serious crimes in very obvious ways. One of those people suffers only minor consequences, even though the crime is committed in front of someone who has both the authority and the motivation to put the perp away for a long time. The other person who commits a crime gets away with the lamest of lame alibis. In both those cases, I call bullshit, which knocked the film from 5 down to 4 for me.

Vic Sage Mar 05 2018 12:34 PM Re: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017) Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Mar 05 2018 09:24 PM

First of all, damning a drama for not being funny is kind of missing the point. Yes, IN BRUGES was funny. This one isn't, and wasn't trying to be, despite some comic moments from Rockwell, Harrelson and McDormand. Secondly, i don't find a character's redemption to be too hard to believe. especially, when he's played by Sam Rockwell. It seemed clear to me, throughout the movie, that this not-to-bright momma's boy was desperate for Sheriff Woody's attention (as a surrogate father), and his violence and racism was a rather thin, alcohol-fueled veneer over his self-loathing and a real human desire to connect. When he suffers the multiple traumas the story provides (including the life-affirming, post-mortem letter from Woody) and then is literally purged by flame, his transformation feels earned and valid. As to characters not facing justice for their crimes... it's a small town in the south. The fact that crimes go unpunished doesn't shock my sensibilities or make me cry bullshit. It isn't a perfect movie, but McDonagh is one helluva good writer, its a great cast, and there are moments of great sadness, beauty and redemption in it.

Nymr83 Mar 05 2018 01:15 PM Re: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)

I haven't seen it, but just need to say "what the he'll were they thinking?" On the long title? You couldnt think of something a LITTLE more catchy, easier to Google if you saw an ad, etc?

A Boy Named Seo Mar 16 2018 12:19 PM Re: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)

Yah some of this movie bugged me, too. ***Spoiler below*** What the hell was up with the guy who harassed Frances McDormand's character in the gift shop, hinting that he raped and murdered her daughter, then was bragging about burning a body in the town bar? But guess what, he's not the dude at all, just some rando from Idaho. That seemed a forced misdirection.

Frayed Knot Mar 21 2018 08:30 AM Re: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)

I'm with Seo's complaint -- ** still in spoiler alert mode here ** -- about the guy who threatened her with knowledge of the specific crime and, days later, was still in town and was overheard bragging about being complicit in what was apparently some sort of similar crime, yet was eventually passed off as some random guy from 1,500 miles away just passing through town. The only other explanation was that his vaguely referred to gov't/military connections were so important that the feds were able to intervene and falsify the information in order to make it look like he wasn't the guy when he actually was, but now we're getting into tinfoil hat territory. That and Rockwell's pre-redemption character being just too stupid for words.