Directed by:
Martin McDonaghScreenplay:
Martin McDonaghCinematography:
Ben DavisComposer:
Carter BurwellCast:
Frances McDormand, Caleb Landry Jones, Kerry Condon, Sam Rockwell, Clarke Peters, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, Riya May Atwood (more)VOD (2)
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American dark comedy drama in which a mother becomes frustrated at the local police force's ineptitude to solve her daughter's murder. When no potential perpetrators have been identified and the investigation slowly grinds to a halt, Mildred (Frances McDormand) takes matters into her own hands to ensure that the media, local citizens and the police take her plight seriously and find her daughter's killer. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (14)
McDonagh (how happy would I be to be able to write this at last) also brings his original mixture of satire, blackis black incorrect humor and ancient tragedy into movie theaters... And incredibly well-written ambivalent characters and dialogs that can hit the nail on the head to such extent that it gives you the shivers but even though you will be rolling on floor laughing. So it works for him as a real, incorrect comedy, in which things that are not supposed to be said out loud are said out loud, as well as the non-violent but apt satire of Western society, the tragedy of one (more) loss or neowestern. So far, he had kept it just for theater stagings. However, he did a disservice; Although it is his best movie (especially the first half is brilliant in terms of screenwriting ), but in comparison with the Pillowman or the Lonesome West, it is still a much worse. Especially because of the final third, when it unexpectedly runs out of breath, it doesn't progress much and all the characters except the duo Mildred / Dixon are a bit forgotten. And that´s kind of reprehensible. Even so, the first and last one is saved by the great cast and the fact that, as a director, he knows exactly when to use the striking message and when, on the contrary, to let the silence do the job through guilty look.
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After the problematic and scripturally completely unmanageable Seven Psychopaths, Martin McDonagh returned in full form and followed up on the success of In Bruges. It has the same poetics and the same work with characters, and perhaps there is a bit more absurdity here. In Bruges seemed to me to be more precise, as everything fit perfectly and fell into place. This film drags a bit in places, but the entertainment is exceptional and Three Billboards will definitely be among the best films I will see this year in terms of new films. Martin McDonagh can not only entertain, but his work has a broader impact. When I compare his work to Tarantino's, he is several levels higher. Unfortunately, Tarantino has not come close to what he accomplished in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in any of his films after Jackie Brown. I don't want to be cruel, but maybe he wouldn't even achieve that if all his films were combined. Where Tarantino squanders the potential of great actors, Martin McDonagh can squeeze the best out of his colleagues. Frances McDormand is delicious, Sam Rockwell brilliantly balances on the border of parody, and both of them portray characters that fit perfectly into the idea of the American South full of uncompromising and incorrect characters distrustful of the system and always willing to take their own idea of justice into their own hands. Overall impression: 90%.
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The raw story of a woman who wanted to achieve justice despite the many sticks that people threw under her feet is a showcase of breathtaking performances (the Oscars are well deserved in this case) and a strong theme that won't leave any viewer cold. The film succeeds in convincingly evoking the atmosphere of a gritty small town where it is perfectly normal to be racist and throw people out of the window without blinking, and where justice is a scarce commodity. I may have imagined the ending a little differently, but I still give it the better of four stars.
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I consider it an art to write and shoot a drama in which there is a hardly a scene where someone doesn’t say “bitch”, “fucker” or “cunt” (and most of characters don’t deserve a kinder form of address), in which we see a finger nail penetrated with a dental drill and which is still funny, true and touching (I think the theme of insurmountable grief is more nuanced here than in Wind River). Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a remarkably variable film and Martin McDonagh’s best so far (and I really like In Bruges). ___ At moments, I found it irritating due to its theatricality (precisely timed arrivals of characters on the scene, pauses for laughter, operatic arias) and a somewhat infantile attempt at incorrectness, but the film also offers so many surprises and so many refreshing changes of tone and has such an inventive narrative structure (there are not just three billboards, but also three characters whose stories McDonagh develops and intertwines in various ways) that these shortcomings are acceptable. With the chosen composition and multiple twists, McDonagh pursues a higher goal; he doesn’t play by the rules only for the sake of not playing by the rules, and though the film is by no means a gem stylistically (only a one-shot scene with an angry Rockwell will remain in the viewer’s memory), the structure of the story abundantly compensates for that, at least in my eyes. ___ In the context of his work so far, I find it notable how McDonagh again plays with standard narrative conventions and audience expectations (you definitely should not expect a straightforward story about a flawless protagonist who overcomes a few obstacles, uncovers the cause of her suffering and finds inner peace), just less explicitly than in Seven Psychopaths, thanks to which the characters are more believable despite the absurd exaggeration of the whole world and the film also conveys something thought-provoking about our own presence and not just about fictional worlds. 90%
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Martin McDonagh was able to write and film something great again. And that could actually end my commentary, because the less you know about the film, the more you will enjoy it. I like these beautifully unreadable stories in which something totally unexpected can happen at any moment, and I was amazed when I could watch the great Frances McDormand and, as always, the excellent and again completely different Sam Rockwell. And that’s it, I’m done.
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