Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - a Martin McDonagh film with McDormand, Harrelson, Rockwell, and SPOILERS

quite funny how ben wheatley's tossed-off curio 'free fire' was basically a better mcdonagh movie

how is it meant to be incongruous that Hawkes is dating a decades-younger local who sees her world circumscribed by the borders of the town, but perfectly expected that Harrelson is married to a decades-younger Australian who doesn't even bring a country background / affinity for horses to her unexplained relocation

i heard a review that suggested that it was an intentional, fascinating choice that harrelson's wife (played by abbie cornish) would be a foreigner, that it helps suggest that he is somehow more worldly than you would expect, even as we see that they nonetheless choose to live in this town and that therefore this tells us things about these characters in a subtle way. i thought it was more like mcdonagh didn't understand that in america you really don't find a lot of sophisticated worldly australians living in middle-of-nowhere towns married to the local sheriff, and no one told him this would just be confusing.

also it is odd that harrelson's sophisticated worldliness has apparently not inspired him to purge his police department of violent brutalizing racist man-children. gentle mentoring, that's the thing they need. maybe the idea is that the australian wife is a virulent hatemonger who has disabused him of all his better instincts, off camera.

also how the fuck are the two comics that Rockwell likes a modern colour superhero series on Boom! by Mark Waid, and a wilfully-obscure Bob Burden B&W one-shot from the mid-80s on Renegade?

also it is odd that harrelson's sophisticated worldliness has apparently not inspired him to purge his police department of violent brutalizing racist man-children

no no, he specifically explains this in the film. this would leave only three police in the entire world, and those three would "hate the fags."

maybe he should have asked his future replacement chief for advice

I definitely prefer McDonagh writing about Ireland than the U.S.

― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, November 28, 2017 12:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just saw this

lol

haha

Wesley Morris:

Sometimes, a movie comes along that appears to take the H.O.V. lane through the awards circuit. It gets a bunch of nominations and wins some big prizes, occasionally the biggest ones, and most of the time, people — moviegoers, moviemakers, movie critics — will say they didn’t see it coming, that the enthusiasm for this movie doesn’t make any sense, that the praise being slathered insults how good about a dozen other movies actually are. Nonetheless, the movie is even kind of a hit. In its own accidental way, it does seem to be saying something about, you know, now. And the more love the prize givers throw at it, the more some people want to throw themselves off a cliff.

Prefer him writing about Belgium

Presumably stanm will raise objections

xpost good take except that Tarantino is already Tupperware

Oh god this

do tell!

You've seen it I think?

I don't know what I could add tbh.

Awful. McDonagh is an appallingly stupid self-satisfied fraud.

This is Oscar nominated yes? I saw that somewhere didn't I? Jesus.

seven nominations: picture, actress, supporting for harrleson, supporting for rockwell, original screenplay, editing, score.

my prediction is that backlash will split off enough votes to kill most of those but that mcdormand will still take actress.

Can't complain about the performances tbh you have to separate the from the shite they're being asked to sell.

That said the two lads didn't deserve nods for this.

Reread the thread and everyone otm except anyone who said this wasn't awful

Id second everything you said Dr c but JCLC also otm that objectionable to the point of off-putting content aside it is a stupid and badly made movie.

Stupid in particular.

Also that is the worst CGI I have seen in many many years

I don't think the director knows the distance between Idaho and Missouri

strong possibility he had missouri mixed up with montana.

possibly confused between his arse and his elbow

"Awful. McDonagh is an appallingly stupid self-satisfied fraud."

fucking nail on't head here. In a recent R4 interview there was an overwhelming sense of an overindulged minnow with no humility, no talent, completely incurious + self-satisfied. An absolute twat.

strong possibility he had missouri mixed up with montana.

hadn't considered this but fuckin otm

He will p much get to the stage where the casting is such lazy on the noseness that you will merely be introduced to the actors in the correct order and the plot can be inferred.

hi!

Um, I liked this film...

Ur name

what an incoherent mess

I cannot even stay awake reading the title of this movie

I literally don't know where the billboards are, because I fall asleep before I get to their location every time.

theres swear words on em

I like some of the satirical stuff in it (how everyone is out for revenge, mainly) and the honesty about every white person in middle american towns being racist. but oof at everything else.

i finally watched this last night.

my expert analysis is that i couldn't stop thinking about how none of the characters seemed like they were from missouri. which wouldn't necessarily be a problem except that it seemed like the supposed authenticity of the performances is part of the film's appeal. rockwell's character in particular was really dumb in every sense of the word (although his mother was maybe the only one who pulled off the missouri-vibe). they did a good job with the goddamn cussing, though.

I wonder if McDonagh intended it as a spot of deliciously witty wordplay - "ebbing misery."

Original title included "Idaho."

Ooo

I'll reserve broader thoughts for now, but note that I suspended my usual interest in realism and geographical specificity for a film about a clearly fictional place in the (imagined) sociological middle of the country. I don't think any 'authenticity' was intended even in that sense with characters who at least begin as (intentional?) caricatures.

No if you take it as a piece of McDonagh ouevre it's merely in keeping with his cultural tourism ignorance

is the dialogue good? is McDormand good? that's all i care about tbh

No. She's fine. What else?

i'll pass then. what's up with the dialogue?

Dialogue is very good McDormand is excellent when let and tbh the cast in general make a pleasing job of what they're given

I wonder if McDonagh intended it as a spot of deliciously witty wordplay - "ebbing misery."

― Doctor Casino, Thursday, March 1, 2018 10:37 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

livin it up at the joketell missouri

walked the fuck out, fight me

sending Sam Rockwell to kick your ass brb

Which part did you walk out on?

^ u&k

Reaction to this movie is insane IDKWTF everyone is so worked up about

Disbelief at critical adulation of a hamfisted film that was about as nuanced as batman.

from the director of Seven Psychopaths, no less

without wanting to spoil the movie for me in case i want to see it, i have this feeling that lots of critics, professional and otherwise, are carrying on under the mistaken impression that McDonagh's work has at any point been a species of social realism

did not like this, but the "holding ladders" line destroyed me