Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Started by polkablues, March 24, 2017, 02:52:59 PM

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polkablues



The new Martin McDonagh flick. This looks amazing.
My house, my rules, my coffee

N

Finally a trailer. Been waiting for this one since like 2014. Hyped to see Frances McDormand in Martin's universe.
Love the balance of humor and sincerity in his work, does a better job than Wes Anderson imo.

Robyn


Something Spanish

Really excited to see this as well, was bummed when it wasn't released in August as originally planned. The trailer is the best I've seen this year, both the red-ban and audience friendly one.

Fuzzy Dunlop

I loved this. I'm in awe of how his characters can be utterly absurd and painfully human at the same time. I've liked his other films but this is on another level.

pete

Martin McDonaugh is great at inserting real anguish into 90s black comedy tropes. Can't get enough of him.
Ps. Frances played a game of millimeters here where she can break your heart or win you over with the subtlest change in her facial muscle. which is contrasted with Justice League in which the studio evidently thought you can throw away half an actor's face and somehow still retain any semblance of a performance.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Something Spanish

Holy shit, Thee Billboards is precisely the reason I go to and adore movies: when you can feel the characters' emotions on such a personal level, their rage, anguish, what makes them tick, and watching the story unfold in a way that feels wholly new is the highest compliment a filmmaker can pay a patron of cinema. Just about every turn clicked perfectly. Frances McDormand was born for this role, she takes your heart from the opening frame. And it's not just her, the entire ensemble is humanized in ways that are too rare in the movies I've seen these past couple of years. From the Ebbing Advertising owner, to Rockwell and his mom, to Harrelson and his wife, to Lucas Hedges and his dad, you end up feeling for everyone no matter how minor a role.

McDonagh did an amazing job conveying the helpless rage people feel after experiencing tragedies so unthinkable that doing what these characters do feels like the only rational solution. Best I've seen so far this year.

samsong

bargain bin coen bros.  wholly disingenuous, especially with its shoehorning of hot button issues for little more than easy emotional triggers.  woody harrelson's performance and character are the only glimmer of actual humanity in the movie. 

Tictacbk

No way, this movie is great. Such great characters, so many actions out of desperation that somehow feel motivated, and a complex story that manages to feel simple and relatable. Maybe you were looking for a Coen Bros movie, and didn't get it? Besides Frances McDormand* being in it, I'm not sure what is Coens Brothers-y about this movie at all. And that's great.


*also, she crushes it.

jenkins

still, mentioned in zero year-end lists. i want to send Manohla Dargis a thank you card for listing 40 movies and not listing this.

©brad

Quote from: jenkins on December 08, 2017, 09:53:59 AM
still, mentioned in zero year-end lists. i want to send Manohla Dargis a thank you card for listing 40 movies and not listing this.

So we're cheering on critics not recognizing adult movies that aren't about super heroes like this one that are made with increasing infrequency?

Get a grip.

samsong

Quote from: Tictacbk on December 08, 2017, 02:25:13 AM
No way, this movie is great. Such great characters, so many actions out of desperation that somehow feel motivated, and a complex story that manages to feel simple and relatable. Maybe you were looking for a Coen Bros movie, and didn't get it? Besides Frances McDormand* being in it, I'm not sure what is Coens Brothers-y about this movie at all. And that's great.


*also, she crushes it.

or maybe i just saw the coens bros influence all over this?  quite frankly i'm not sure how anyone can't see it. 

i wasn't particularly taken by frances mcdormand's performance.  it's as coldly calculated and overwrought as the writing.  three billboards is much more subtle than mother!, but it had the same effect of trying to do so much that it doesn't really do anything.  it all felt very forced and fake.  and i'm all for cynicism and misanthropy, but when it's doled out like it is in this movie without much to say passed it, i find that a bit worrisome. (even more so, how is it  "relatable"?)  the ending of this movie is absolutely ridiculous.  haven't rolled my eyes that hard in a while.

i should add that caleb landry jones is very good here, and his scene in the hospital is one of the best moments in in the film.

clearly we had different impressions of the movie. 

jenkins

Quote from: ©brad on December 08, 2017, 03:51:22 PM
Quote from: jenkins on December 08, 2017, 09:53:59 AM
still, mentioned in zero year-end lists. i want to send Manohla Dargis a thank you card for listing 40 movies and not listing this.

So we're cheering on critics not recognizing adult movies that aren't about super heroes like this one that are made with increasing infrequency?

Get a grip.

the specific critic i mentioned was Manohla Dargis, who very much champions non-superhero movies, as i do too. and i liked Justice League. i really don't think that's related to this conversation.

not all non-superhero movies are great. that's not reality. speaking of not reality, from my perspective Sam Rockwell's character is movie bad. i wish not to criticize this movie too much (i shouldn't have started) because people should like the movies they like. as for the movies i like, i would say the story in Three Billboards isn't complex. i'd say Sam Rockwell's situation became like a tragic opera which simplified the solutions to his psychological problems. i believe this is an impossible rhythm. i believe this is what paints false illusions in people's mind about reality. taken just as a movie, i like this movie as much as any other. in terms of making a story, good job. in terms of giving the audience a clear and full perspective of reality, bad job. but when i'll watch it again, which i wouldn't call impossible, i'll have already conquered this personal problem, and i'll see the movie in a different way.

everything's ok.

Something Spanish

the coens don't deal with tragedy as steep as what's in this flick, so maybe it was McDormand's presence in a dark comedy that gave off those vibes. for whatever influence they did have (I guess I can see some in the way the script could poke fun at more simpleminded folk), it was all positive and worked for the story. i may have been too impacted by the emotional waves to feel slighted by some of the character stereotypes, because nothing about the flick felt manipulative when it could have easily gone in those directions. I'd chalk that up to the director. also thought the film spoke volumes about emotions like anger and grief, and didn't make anything easy for characters or audiences. after the high of watching it withered i was able to point a few flaws, but this is one of those films whose flaws I'd easily forgive due to the sheer power it possesses. some of the complaints i've read on places like twitter seemed valid, but i was too swept away during the experience to notice.

also, what hot button issue does it shoehorn? rape and murder? racism?