McDormand’s oh-so-clever retort to the clergyman also reminded me of why I hated “Good Will Hunting" so much.
― Jazzbo, Thursday, 30 November 2017 19:26 (six years ago) link
I would have the film either deal with the racial politics it was explicitly bringing up, or not be made. Wheeling the black supporting characters in and out of the movie at its convenience, while every white schmuck gets a whole backstory and home life, was sort of the worst possible way of doing this even before you add things like the coworker getting arrested with her entire ordeal kept offscreen. Such bad choices.
― 'cause there's always been an it i can't truss (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 30 November 2017 20:22 (six years ago) link
do you think the filmmaker could have done it in a non-hamfisted way?
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 1 December 2017 18:01 (six years ago) link
Being hamfisted is basically what keeps the movie from being more ethically objectionable, I guess.
― Fred Klinkenberg (Eric H.), Friday, 1 December 2017 18:02 (six years ago) link
"how would you fix this film?""i would have it not be bad""do you think the filmmaker is capable of making a film that is not bad?"
― 'cause there's always been an it i can't truss (Doctor Casino), Friday, 1 December 2017 18:14 (six years ago) link
Exactly. I would not fix this film.
― Fred Klinkenberg (Eric H.), Friday, 1 December 2017 18:15 (six years ago) link
I'll just not particularly like it, thanks.
The way it plays chicken shit with vigilantism at the end is grotesque.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 December 2017 18:19 (six years ago) link
meh
― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 17 December 2017 18:39 (six years ago) link
You're right about the score. Also wtf at the on-the-nose-ness of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," ho ho.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 December 2017 18:40 (six years ago) link
How would you fix this movie, casting, character, plot-wise?
― Philip Nunez,
Throw a Molotov cocktail at it.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 December 2017 18:42 (six years ago) link
I would rescore the whole movie with the Bug vs. Earth album
― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 17 December 2017 18:43 (six years ago) link
Haven't seen yet
Don't think anyone should watch mcdonagh to see wider societal complexities dealt with to their satisfaction
I definitely prefer McDonagh writing about Ireland than the U.S.
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, November 28, 2017 12:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Now I'm only asking but how well do u know ireland
― remember the lmao (darraghmac), Sunday, 17 December 2017 23:58 (six years ago) link
I've been wondering why a movie that has been getting so many raves sounds as gross as this one does, but then I finally realized that it was by the asshole who made In Bruges.
― iCloudius (cryptosicko), Monday, 18 December 2017 00:02 (six years ago) link
this movie is a heap of condescending trash
― Hadrian VIII, Saturday, 23 December 2017 19:51 (six years ago) link
the negative reaction this movie is inspiring is making me want to see it
― k3vin k., Saturday, 23 December 2017 19:55 (six years ago) link
I guess there are worse ways to slum
― Hadrian VIII, Saturday, 23 December 2017 20:03 (six years ago) link
this movie is so bad in every way it's utterly mystifying to me that anybody thinks it's good. it's not just that it's morally shitty or w/e. it is bad in every way a movie can be bad, except that it's got a bunch of good actors doing their best to make a terrible movie good
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 23 December 2017 20:05 (six years ago) link
yeah I will admit that without this particular cast I would not be saying that
― k3vin k., Saturday, 23 December 2017 20:11 (six years ago) link
This movie does subvert the CSI paradigm of modern forensic science and/or a fortuitously overheard confession bringing a criminal to justice (see the term "competence porn"). Plus I liked seeing McDormand's character stand up to authority figures who evidently expect women and minorities to gloss over crimes against them in the name of the social order. But that doesn't mean that this movie is any good.
― I, Fanbrat (j.lu), Saturday, 23 December 2017 23:53 (six years ago) link
This guy has always sucked. His Irish plays were fucking terrible.
― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Wednesday, 27 December 2017 15:46 (six years ago) link
my lowlight of choice was the two black supporting characters hooking up on sight for no real reason
― micah, Monday, 1 January 2018 10:35 (six years ago) link
the only thing worse than McDonagh is his brother
a terrible bunch of lads
― Number None, Monday, 1 January 2018 15:40 (six years ago) link
There was a good story in here somewhere I think but this was really lazily written and undeserving of the critical plaudits. What with this and Seven Psychopaths (which was worse, to be fair), seems like In Bruges may have been a fluke.
― chap, Sunday, 7 January 2018 12:48 (six years ago) link
the only thing worse than McDonagh is his brothera terrible bunch of lads
― very stabbable gaius (wins), Sunday, 7 January 2018 12:52 (six years ago) link
*this new film
quite funny how ben wheatley's tossed-off curio 'free fire' was basically a better mcdonagh movie
― #TeamHailing (imago), Sunday, 7 January 2018 12:57 (six years ago) link
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
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Tuesday, 9 January 2018 02:47 (six years ago) link
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.
― Newb Sybok (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 9 January 2018 02:58 (six years ago) link
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."
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Tuesday, 9 January 2018 03:42 (six years ago) link
maybe he should have asked his future replacement chief for advice
― Newb Sybok (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 9 January 2018 04:22 (six years ago) link
just saw this
lol
― Number None, Saturday, 13 January 2018 23:03 (six years ago) link
haha
― #TeamHailing (imago), Saturday, 13 January 2018 23:12 (six years ago) link
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.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 January 2018 14:21 (six years ago) link
Prefer him writing about Belgium
Presumably stanm will raise objections
― remember the lmao (darraghmac), Thursday, 18 January 2018 14:43 (six years ago) link
xpost good take except that Tarantino is already Tupperware
― Hadrian VIII, Thursday, 18 January 2018 14:46 (six years ago) link
Oh god this
― Alderweireld Horses (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 February 2018 17:39 (six years ago) link
do tell!
― Righteous wax chaperone, rotating Wingdings (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 3 February 2018 17:49 (six years ago) link
You've seen it I think?
I don't know what I could add tbh.
Awful. McDonagh is an appallingly stupid self-satisfied fraud.
― Alderweireld Horses (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 February 2018 18:10 (six years ago) link
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.
― Righteous wax chaperone, rotating Wingdings (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 3 February 2018 18:15 (six years ago) link
my prediction is that backlash will split off enough votes to kill most of those but that mcdormand will still take actress.
― Righteous wax chaperone, rotating Wingdings (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 3 February 2018 18:16 (six years ago) link
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.
― Alderweireld Horses (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 February 2018 18:32 (six years ago) link
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
― Alderweireld Horses (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:29 (six years ago) link
I don't think the director knows the distance between Idaho and Missouri
― while my dirk gently weeps (symsymsym), Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:39 (six years ago) link
strong possibility he had missouri mixed up with montana.
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:48 (six years ago) link
possibly confused between his arse and his elbow
― Number None, Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:52 (six years ago) link
"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.
― calzino, Sunday, 4 February 2018 00:18 (six years ago) link
hadn't considered this but fuckin otm
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 4 February 2018 00:31 (six years ago) link
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.
― Alderweireld Horses (darraghmac), Sunday, 4 February 2018 00:49 (six years ago) link
sending Sam Rockwell to kick your ass brb
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 2 March 2018 03:52 (six years ago) link
Which part did you walk out on?
― i remember the corned beef of my childhood (Karl Malone), Friday, 2 March 2018 03:55 (six years ago) link
^ u&k
― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Friday, 2 March 2018 05:08 (six years ago) link
Reaction to this movie is insane IDKWTF everyone is so worked up about
― flappy bird, Friday, 2 March 2018 05:27 (six years ago) link
Disbelief at critical adulation of a hamfisted film that was about as nuanced as batman.
― lana del boy (ledge), Friday, 2 March 2018 09:11 (six years ago) link
from the director of Seven Psychopaths, no less
― we have sayings like, "Embrace reality." and "Rocks don't Lie." (Noodle Vague), Friday, 2 March 2018 10:17 (six years ago) link
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
― we have sayings like, "Embrace reality." and "Rocks don't Lie." (Noodle Vague), Friday, 2 March 2018 10:26 (six years ago) link
I did not like the graphic design of the billboards.
― milquetoast malone (King Boy Pato), Friday, 2 March 2018 10:54 (six years ago) link
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-feel-good-fallacies-of-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri
It's almost like this isn't a movie substantially about the ethics of vigilantism (in the context of police abuse) directed by a left-leaning anarchist (who grew up amidst IRA bombings) and starring at least one other (the estranged son of a contract killer).
― Moo Vaughn, Friday, 2 March 2018 20:26 (six years ago) link
― lana del boy (ledge), Friday, March 2, 2018 9:11 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I don't entirely disagree with the characterization but not sure it's inapplicable to the criticisms, nor am I familiar with adulation from anyone particularly respectable.
― Moo Vaughn, Friday, 2 March 2018 20:28 (six years ago) link
XP those are not inputs that make it any less pigshit stupid
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 20:54 (six years ago) link
I really think it's devolved into an argument about whether 3 Billboards is politically/ethically good or politically/ethically bad (or in internet terms EVERYTHING or TRASH) -- all of which has basically supplanted and overshadowed any potential conversation about whether it's actually a good movie or not. And discussing politically/ethically good vs politically/ethically bad — something that had heretofore been the concern of academia — has increasingly become the metric in which people decide whether a movie is good or bad in general.
Its two completely different and two completely valid modes of critical thought competing for their place in the conversation, which means like six camps of thought competing in a space where there's only two results
good filmmaking/good ethics = good moviegood filmmaking/bad ethics = good moviegood filmmaking/bad ethics = bad moviebad filmmaking/good ethics = good moviebad filmmaking/good ethics = bad movebad filmmaking/bad ethics = bad movie
I don't think anyone is arguing for the other two
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 2 March 2018 22:00 (six years ago) link
I might poll those
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 2 March 2018 22:01 (six years ago) link
i guess for me it's not super important whether it's a good movie or whether it was created using good filmmaking. i resent the decision by the filmmaker to make the film the way he made it; it seems like an asshole decision on his part.
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 2 March 2018 22:03 (six years ago) link
Vote Now, Doctor Casino!
POLL 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' Is...
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 2 March 2018 22:09 (six years ago) link
I'm firmly in the camp of you can make a good racist vigilante movie
McDonagh hasn't, not because of ethics but because it's a cartoon that thinks it's ~~~~~~deep~~~~~
It wouldn't hold an episode of murder she wrote together
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 22:10 (six years ago) link
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a6/0f/74/a60f74a89ee115e505e77ea4b50d8c6e.jpg
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 2 March 2018 22:15 (six years ago) link
I meant black panther tbh
― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Friday, 2 March 2018 22:16 (six years ago) link
i kid I kid
the poll doesn't include my take as an option though :-/
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 2 March 2018 22:44 (six years ago) link
I wonder if McDonagh intended it as a spot of deliciously witty wordplay - "ebbing misery."
― Doctor Casino
it's very clever if one has no idea how "missouri" is pronounced - so probably!
― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Monday, 12 March 2018 14:14 (six years ago) link
Dialogue is very good McDormand is excellent when let and tbh the cast in general make a pleasing job of what they're given
But it all felt so empty and pointless once the credits rolled. I think this reflects not just the total lack of grounding in recognizable human experience (remarked on above), but also the barrage of ultimately meaningless provocation. The similarly transgressive In Bruge works, I think, because it seems so perfectly content with ghoulishly clever black comedy as an end in itself. Here, McDonagh crudely flirty with hot-button social issues about which he has nothing to say, and he ramps up the horror for both cheap emotional effect and cheap shock value.
Worse, he doesn't even have the guts to follow his "provocative" ideas to their obvious conclusions. The violently racist (yet soulful!) moron flips out and assaults a white guy. Mildred's terrorism is spared a body count. It's like a defanged, shaggily aimless version of Dogville, the empty spaces stuffed with details cribbed from Fargo.
― not quite as cool as seeing damo's wang but (contenderizer), Saturday, 31 March 2018 03:24 (six years ago) link
Strongly disagree with the conclusion that Rockwell is in any way compelling. He plays an imbecile sadist in an obvious way.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 31 March 2018 03:29 (six years ago) link
good analysis tbh
― flappy bird, Saturday, 31 March 2018 04:52 (six years ago) link
The best thing i can say about this slop is that it used a good Townes van Zandt song i don't think i knew.
MM constantly in "Aren't I so clever?" mode; well, no.
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 April 2018 11:50 (six years ago) link
Sandy Martin, as Dixon's mother, gives the best performance in this. It's a shame she wasn't given more to do.
― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Monday, 13 August 2018 11:11 (five years ago) link
did not like this, but the "holding ladders" line destroyed me
― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 13 August 2018 14:34 (five years ago) link