It's December, which means we are in the thick of award season darlings and front-runners at the cinemas. For the uninitiated, movies that are released in the months of November and December are most likely to do well in the following year's award season, most notably the Golden Globes, various Guild and Critic awards, and, of course, the Academy Awards. This makes perfect sense for studios to release their prestigious films during this time as they will be the film's freshest in people's minds as they go to vote on which film they think had the best actors, screenplay, and overall product. After all, how many people even remembered "Logan" came out this year? It feels like it was decades ago, but it only came out back in March of 2017.
The reason I bring this up is because as I'm choosing a movie to go see with my friends, I notice that there are a wide assortment to choose from, but all with acclaim attached to them. Pixar just released "Coco", the latest animation darling that will surely pick up another award this season. "Lady Bird" has made news being the most positively reviewed film in Rotten Tomatoes history based on the number of critics who reviewed it. "Darkest Hour" and"Call Me By Your Name" have received buzz around them for specific nominations, Gary Oldman for his portrayal as Winston Churchill, and the direction and screenplay that perfectly encapsulates a coming-of-age summer romance between two young men in Italy. But the movie I wanted to see more than the rest was "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri".
I picked to see this movie mostly because it was my birthday earlier this week and my friend let me pick the movie, but also was the red band trailer I saw for the film. It was a role reversal that, to my knowledge, I had not remembered seeing before, and made me think, "This is something different".
"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" is directed by Martin McDonagh, a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker, whose previous outings include "Seven Psychopaths" and "In Bruges". I remembered wanting to watch "Seven Psychopaths" when it was initially released, but I never ended up going to see it. Probably because it came out in 2012, when I was midway through my degree and knee deep in illustration projects, so I had very little time devoted to going to the movies. But I remembered that films marketing also being quite macabre, and having a morbid sense of humor, despite a very grim subject matter.
Spoilers ahead.
The film stars a cast that is familiar to the director, and a welcome addition to any Coen Brothers project; Frances McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, a grieving mother of a daughter who was raped and murdered, her body incinerated and left on the side of the road, a road which few people travel and are watched over by three dilapidated billboards. These billboards lead the film, and as Mildred drives up the stretch of road to her home, she gets an idea to use the billboards to refocus the local police department, whom she has felt are not doing their jobs to find her daughter's killer. She rents out the billboards at the top of the film, asking a very public question to the police chief, "Raped while dying, and still no arrests. How come, Chief Willoughby?"
The movie is the very messy, gritty, brutal, and tragic drama that plays out between a cop who never did anything meaningful with his life, a chief who can only do his best with what he is given, and mother who wants an eye for an eye. No one in this film is perfect, or good. Everyone is shitty in some way, even the deceased daughter, who is only shown in one flashback sequence, screaming at her mom as they both yell at each other for being c*nts before storming out, never to be seen again. Everyone lives with some level of regret and tragedy in this film; some for not doing something sooner, others for not being the person they should have been, like a good mother or father.
This film is very tongue and cheek, and has a very twisted sense of humor, using stereotypes of southerners that just about everyone is familiar with at this point. But it's done in a way that feels like these could have been based on real people. They aren't snarky in a way that only a screenwriter could write them to be. They make quips that sound like someone made it up off the top of their head, and failed miserably to deliver. They are defense mechanisms being used by very damaged people who are all just trying to do what they think is right, even though they are horribly wrong. The writing is authentic, and definitely gives these actors a healthy chunk of meat to work with. Mildred is sympathetic, even as the town turns on her for criticizing the chief the town has come to love and respect, and mourns as the film progresses. But as the film goes on, you lose more and more respect for Mildred as she loses her moral high ground. She is still likable, don't get me wrong, but you are rooting for a character who at some point in the film throws Molotov cocktails at a police station.
Sam Rockwell plays a bumbling cop who is moronic, racist, misogynistic, and utterly loathing in every essence of the word, yet by the end of film earns some level of empathy and redemption, to become one of the characters who "helps" Mildred. I say "helps" because the ending is it's own can of worms. I buy Rockwell as redneck cop who tortures and beats civilians because we see him being outwardly antagonistic throughout the film, physically picking fights with anyone who disrespects the police, it's own commentary on police brutality. Chief Willoughby is played by Woody Harrelson, a cop who has always tried to do right by his town and his family, but knows that sometimes you just don't catch a break on a case. I won't reveal a certain spoiler in regards to his character, but he exits the film halfway through, prompting a lot of discord to occur through the second half, a lot of which is fascinating, and how people interpret situations from an outside-in approach rather than inside-out. That's about as much detail as I'll give.
The cinematography is well done, certain shots feeling more visceral and brutal than some of the more scenic and vibrant areas of the American South. The music is a great soundtrack of blues and country that sets a tone and pace that feels lived in. The costuming, hair, and makeup is almost too real. Mildred adopts a uniform that she almost never takes off, as if she is a woman on a mission with a single driving force in her life, that being to find her daughter's murderer. It's wonderful mirroring and adds layers to these characters.
The main reason I said at the top of this review that this film felt like a role reversal is because we are very used to seeing fathers seeking revenge for a daughter's murder, or rape, or kidnapping. We never see mother figures in this type of role where they are seeking this level of revenge, and actively being violent and cold to people who are unsympathetic to her cause, even when she is in the wrong, which she is on a number of occasions. I guess my point is that I appreciate this film for pointing out how messed up it is that when a father does it, he's a badass hunting down these guys, always in the right. But when a mother is put in that position, and is initially only asking the question to help keep the story in the spotlight so it has a better chance of getting solved, she is seen as overstepping her bounds, and ends up getting pushed to an extreme just because she sought justice. It's wonderful commentary on the double standard we hold men and women to, but shines a light on how warped it truly is to cheer on someone who is seeking violence as an act of retribution.
My main criticisms of the film are minor, mostly that certain plot threads or nods to characters don't really go anywhere. There are two black supporting characters in the film, both of whom have history with Rockwell's character, and are in a pivotal bar scene, which, in retrospect, is the climax of the film, but nothing ever really comes of it. They are fairly minor and I wish the story had done more to develop them as they could have had more to work with. Peter Dinklage's character in the film, while memorable and funny, I felt was under utilized and could have had more story. There are some chunks in the film that feel slow, though the overall tone and pace is slower than I think people are used to. But in relation to other scenes, there seems to be filler almost, that is not needed, and rather, time that could have been used to develop other characters in the story.
Additionally, the film ends on a cliffhanger, or at least it is left ambiguous as to what the characters end up doing in the end. I applaud the film for having a very untidy plot, mostly because the tone of the film is untidy, and life itself is untidy. Nothing in life ever neatly solved effortlessly, and neither is this film. But I do wish there had been another five minutes, give context on the choices people make and how it effects their lives, give it some purpose to have it so that that final choice we are unsure they make gives us pause to wonder, "what if they...?".
Overall, I enjoyed the film. It was original, relevant, provided some very black comedy on situations that our normal sensibilities are yelling, "red alert", but comedy is a coping mechanism, and is used to hide weakness, both in ourselves and others in times where levity is needed. My criticisms are enough to bring it down only because I wish there had been a just a bit more to really flesh out the themes of the film and make it feel more rounded out. It didn't need to have a pre-packaged ending because that's not what this story was about. This is just a series of tragic events that happened to shitty people in a very shitty town, and react in very shitty ways, and they let those choices define who they end up as at the end of the film.
Final Score: 7.5/10
I would recommend the film to anyone who has a morbid sense of humor and not easy to offend, can deal with some graphic violence, and a whole lot of swearing. It has some great commentary in there, but just needed to be pushed a little further. It's likely that Frances McDormand will get a nomination for this, along with Sam Rockwell, and possibly for Best Original Screenplay, but whether or not it'll get a nom for Best Picture... we'll have to see.