Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

[somebody85]

16 hours ago, captainwondyful said:

I don’t know what I hated more: the movie, or my male friend mansplaining to me that my mortality was blinding me from seeing its True Art on the way home from the theater.

 

This just exhausted me. I found it vile; everything was about was so racist and homophobic. Denise’s storyline was terrible.  It’s 2018; stop using PoC characters suffering to advance White Character Growth.  The flashback between Francis and the daughter was so troubling. That line about “I hope you get raped too” was just too much.

 

My other issue: I could absolutely NOT get past the suspension of disbelief that Rockwell and Francis’ characters wouldn’t have been arrested or in jail half way through the film. Really? He can assault someone and throw him out the window, and no one presses charges?  She assaults two students and, really, their parents didn’t lose their mind and report that? Don’t believe it for a second. 

 

We only went because it’s one of the last needed to check off for Award Season Watch. I thought Francis was serviceable but flat. I can’t believe Robbie has been losing to her all season. Insane. 

 

F

I also found the tone out of whack but I don't remember there even being an LGBT character in this. And god, I can't stand the word "mansplaining". You think your friend thinks you're less of an individual than he is? Debating a film is normal. To me, it makes being a cinephile fun. I'm not trying to explain anything to you because you view art just as I do. You come in with your own experiences and expectations. That's just fact. Art is interpreted in so many different ways that it would be boring if everyone held the same opinion as everyone else.

Having a conversation about something is not explaining. This shouldn't even be a debate unless someone is being condescending or talking down to you. And god, pretentious fans of certain films do that to everyone, regardless of gender.

And it's a fictional story. Like c'mon, were you troubled by the end of Ingrid Goes West? Because that message was far more realistic and a lot worse but it made the movie better because it felt authentic and in tone with the rest.

 

[Avatree]

Just ignore what that moron said. It's hard to know where to even start.

 

And no, there were no gay characters in the film, maybe that means the film is Homophobic.

Red Welby spends most of his time chatting up the girl in his office, he is not gay, Dixon just calls him a fag in the bar. 

[Barnack]

2 hours ago, Tree Billboards said:

And no, there were no gay characters in the film, maybe that means the film is Homophobic.

 

I thought the movie indicated quite a bit that Dixon was a closeted gay.

[Avatree]

3 hours ago, Barnack said:

I thought the movie indicated quite a bit that Dixon was a closeted gay.

What indicates that?

[Barnack]

15 minutes ago, Tree Billboards said:

What indicates that?

One of the conversation with is mom toward the end, is vocal hatred of them (that is often rightly or so associated with homophobia), many mention of not having a girlfriend, the sherish ending a advice with a do not worry no one would think you're gay.

 

I just googled to look if I was the only one that thought the movie hinted toward that and no.

 

https://mckeestory.com/three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri-2017/

Also note how he dimensionalizes the two gay characters by pitting them against one another: one is in the closet and vicious; the other is out and kind.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/defending-and-re-imagining-racist-three-billboards_us_5a5e500ce4b092c0b60ed508

Some of them humanize him: The scenes with his mother are among the movie’s best, and there are scattered hints that he might be a closeted gay man, one of which involves ABBA’s “Chiquitita.” 

 

http://wwwirajoelcinemagebooks.blogspot.ca/2017/11/three-billboards-outside-ebbing.html

Rockwell who is a mama’s boy and might be a closeted gay lives with his Mama who is the butchest mother to be seen in a movie 

[The Panda]

On 1/22/2018 at 11:55 PM, captainwondyful said:

I don’t know what I hated more: the movie, or my male friend mansplaining to me that my mortality was blinding me from seeing its True Art on the way home from the theater.

 

This just exhausted me. I found it vile; everything was about was so racist and homophobic. Denise’s storyline was terrible.  It’s 2018; stop using PoC characters suffering to advance White Character Growth.  The flashback between Francis and the daughter was so troubling. That line about “I hope you get raped too” was just too much.

 

My other issue: I could absolutely NOT get past the suspension of disbelief that Rockwell and Francis’ characters wouldn’t have been arrested or in jail half way through the film. Really? He can assault someone and throw him out the window, and no one presses charges?  She assaults two students and, really, their parents didn’t lose their mind and report that? Don’t believe it for a second. 

 

We only went because it’s one of the last needed to check off for Award Season Watch. I thought Francis was serviceable but flat. I can’t believe Robbie has been losing to her all season. Insane. 

 

F

Worst take of 2018, so far.

[somebody85]

I'm going to watch this again, knowing what it leads to when it releases mid next month and see if I feel any differently about it.

[Avatree]

On 1/24/2018 at 5:44 AM, Barnack said:

One of the conversation with is mom toward the end, is vocal hatred of them (that is often rightly or so associated with homophobia), many mention of not having a girlfriend, the sherish ending a advice with a do not worry no one would think you're gay.

 

I just googled to look if I was the only one that thought the movie hinted toward that and no.

 

https://mckeestory.com/three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri-2017/

Also note how he dimensionalizes the two gay characters by pitting them against one another: one is in the closet and vicious; the other is out and kind.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/defending-and-re-imagining-racist-three-billboards_us_5a5e500ce4b092c0b60ed508

Some of them humanize him: The scenes with his mother are among the movie’s best, and there are scattered hints that he might be a closeted gay man, one of which involves ABBA’s “Chiquitita.” 

 

http://wwwirajoelcinemagebooks.blogspot.ca/2017/11/three-billboards-outside-ebbing.html

Rockwell who is a mama’s boy and might be a closeted gay lives with his Mama who is the butchest mother to be seen in a movie 

 

So he lives with his mother, doesn't have a girlfriend, and enjoys listening to an Abba song, therefore he must be gay?

 

Clearly you're not the only one who sees this, I get that, but sorry I think this is reading way too far into it. Dixon is a man child. That's it. I dont see how imagining him being gay adds anything of value. 

 

Also not seeing how Red is gay, apart from Dixon insulting him. Sexuality just does not come into this movie.

[Barnack]

4 hours ago, Tree Billboards said:

Clearly you're not the only one who sees this, I get that, but sorry I think this is reading way too far into it. Dixon is a man child. That's it. I dont see how imagining him being gay adds anything of value. 

 

It made is bottled anger more sympathetic to the audience imo,

 

 

Edited January 25, 2018 by Barnack

[Brainbug]

Really really liked this. Rockwell and McDormand were both absolutely fantastic, though the Pacing seemed a bit off for me in the 3rd act. Too tired to write a review, but this deserves all its Oscar nominations.

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

Well this was really full of shit

Edited February 6, 2018 by Jake Gittes

[Avatree]

22 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Well this was really full of shit

elaborate? or nah

[Jake Gittes]

On 07.02.2018 at 9:07 PM, Tree Billboards said:

elaborate? or nah

Didn't see this initially for some reason. But sure. 

 

First of all, I know this has been the most argued-about part of the movie, but it can't be overstated how laughable Dixon's transformation is. Here's a guy who, just from what we see and hear of him in the first hour, is known to have tortured black people in prison and nonchalantly threw an innocent guy out of a second-story window (before then punching a panicking woman in the face) based on nothing but general resentment, and then he suddenly becomes a total sweetheart under the influence of nothing but some blaring classical music and Woody Harrelson's angelic voiceover reminding him that his daddy died when he was young and he had to take care of his mother alone. Well, no. I don't know what world McDonagh lives in, but stupid drunk violent racist assholes don't just stop being stupid drunk violent racist assholes literally overnight. The entire character is impossible, plain and simple.

 

This scene is the most important in the movie because it's basically symptomatic of all its larger issues; the whole thing is just as labored and ludicrous as Dixon and his transition. McDonagh constructs a narrative where the first hour is almost nothing but smug faux-edginess and ugly, bitter people wallowing in their misery and aggression; his idea of making a socially conscious drama about small-town America is to take pretty much all the issues plaguing it today - racism, homophobia, police brutality, domestic violence, even down to old men dating barely legal women - and force them into nearly every single exchange, without actually exploring them, or the people talking about them, in any depth because he'd sooner take a turn into profane comedy mid-scene rather than actually challenge the audience.

 

Take the early exchange between Mildred and Dixon about his "-----torturing business"; as soon as she asks him about it, you immediately get the issue of police brutality and racism + two characters with clearly opposing stances on it, which should hopefully lead to some conflict and insight. But then Dixon simply shows himself to be a massive imbecile with his "persons of color-torturing business" retort (somehow thinking it's more important for him to call her out on her use of the slur than to deny that he actually tortured black people), and instead of a scene that explores anything it becomes a scene about two assholes shouting at each other.

 

Similarly, the later moment where she walks into the police station and calls him a fuckhead, instead of telling us anything new about their relationship, exists for the sake of nothing more than the hi-i-i-larious cutaway to Zeljko Ivanek going "Don't just say what when she walks in and calls you a fuckhead!" Mildred's son is getting bullied in school for her actions, and rather than explore this issue, the movie solves it by having her walk up to some teenagers and kick them in the crotch. Which, granted, is a fun thing to see, but it's just the easiest way out of doing anything substantial. McDonagh throws in all the top-shelf curse words the same way I did in grade school - just to show that he knows them, without any actual rhythm, grace, or wit to the dialogue - and what you get is a movie that congratulates itself for being oh so edgy and in your face, and encourages the audience to congratulate itself for laughing along with it while being safe from any actual provocation.

 

And then it changes too, just like Dixon; instead of going to the end with its abrasiveness, which would have demonstrated at least a sliver of integrity, it brings in heaps of unearned sentimentality (Mildred blessing the union of her abusive ex and his student girlfriend, Harrelson's never-ending letters, the fucking orange juice) to further comfort the audience into safely enjoying it. All throughout, there's no regard for plausibility. Dixon is pretty much an entirely different character in the second half. Some random asshole walks into a bar, and the first thing he does when he sits down is he brings up that time he and someone else raped a girl and set her on fire, and then it turns out he's NOT the guy who raped Mildred's daughter and set her on fire... around the same time and the same area. As mentioned, Dixon throws an innocent, unarmed person out of a window, and zero consequences follow until the new sheriff arrives. Mildred BURNS DOWN A POLICE STATION WITH A POLICE OFFICER INSIDE and is seen next to it immediately afterwards, and nothing happens to her. And if the level of hostility towards her in town is so high, why did no one burn down the billboards before Harrelson's death? It's not like anything would have happened to them, either.

 

As a poster above mentioned, McDonagh, despite constantly having his character talk about racism, isn't interested in minority characters as anything other than blunt instruments. Denise transparently exists as nothing more than a Token Black Friend whose sole function in the narrative is to get unjustly arrested and thus provoke a white woman's outrage. The new sheriff is the No-Nonsense Black Police Chief whose punishment of Dixon is a convenient wish-fulfillment fantasy that allows the audience to smugly look down on Dixon after being entertained by his antics. We never hear anything from or about the black people Dixon is said to have tortured, and they ultimately don't matter, because he became a better person. And then finally Peter Dinklage is there to do nothing of substance other than get called a midget a lot. 

 

So, yeah, this movie is full of shit. 

Edited February 12, 2018 by Jake Gittes

[Cmasterclay]

19 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Didn't see this initially for some reason. But sure. 

 

First of all, I know this has been the most argued-about part of the movie, but it can't be overstated how laughable Dixon's transformation is. Here's a guy who, just from what we see and hear of him in the first hour, is known to have tortured black people in prison and nonchalantly threw an innocent guy out of a second-story window (before then punching a panicking woman in the face) based on nothing but general resentment, and then he suddenly becomes a total sweetheart under the influence of nothing but some blaring classical music and Woody Harrelson's angelic voiceover reminding him that his daddy died when he was young and he had to take care of his mother alone. Well, no. I don't know what world McDonagh lives in, but stupid drunk violent racist assholes don't just stop being stupid drunk violent racist assholes literally overnight. The entire character is impossible, plain and simple.

 

This scene is the most important in the movie because it's basically symptomatic of all its larger issues; the whole thing is just as labored and ludicrous as Dixon and his transition. McDonagh constructs a narrative where the first hour is almost nothing but smug faux-edginess and ugly, bitter people wallowing in their misery and aggression; his idea of making a socially conscious drama about small-town America is to take pretty much all the issues plaguing it today - racism, homophobia, police brutality, domestic violence, even down to old men dating barely legal women - and force them into nearly every single exchange, without actually exploring them, or the people talking about them, in any depth because he'd sooner take a turn into profane comedy mid-scene rather than actually challenge the audience.

 

Take the early exchange between Mildred and Dixon about his "-----torturing business"; as soon as she asks him about it, you immediately get the issue of police brutality and racism + two characters with clearly opposing stances on it, which should hopefully lead to some conflict and insight. But then Dixon simply shows himself to be a massive imbecile with his "persons of color-torturing business" retort (somehow thinking it's more important for him to call her out on her use of the slur than to deny that he actually tortured black people), and instead of a scene that explores anything it becomes a scene about two assholes shouting at each other.

 

Similarly, the later moment where she walks into the police station and calls him a fuckhead, instead of telling us anything new about their relationship, exists for the sake of nothing more than the hi-i-i-larious cutaway to Zeljko Ivanek going "Don't just say what when she walks in and calls you a fuckhead!" Mildred's son is getting bullied in school for her actions, and rather than explore this issue, the movie solves it by having her walk up to some teenagers and kick them in the crotch. Which, granted, is a fun thing to see, but it's just the easiest way out of doing anything substantial. McDonagh throws in all the top-shelf curse words the same way I did in grade school - just to show that he knows them, without any actual rhythm, grace, or wit to the dialogue - and what you get is a movie that congratulates itself for being oh so edgy and in your face, and encourages the audience to congratulate itself for laughing along with it while being safe from any actual provocation.

 

And then it changes too, just like Dixon; instead of going to the end with its abrasiveness, which would have demonstrated at least a sliver of integrity, it brings in heaps of unearned sentimentality (Mildred blessing the union of her abusive ex and his student girlfriend, Harrelson's never-ending letters, the fucking orange juice) to further comfort the audience into safely enjoying it. All throughout, there's no regard for plausibility. Dixon is pretty much an entirely different character in the second half. Some random asshole walks into a bar, and the first thing he does when he sits down is he brings up that time he and someone else raped a girl and set her on fire, and then it turns out he's NOT the guy who raped Mildred's daughter and set her on fire... around the same time and the same area. As mentioned, Dixon throws an innocent, unarmed person out of a window, and zero consequences follow until the new sheriff arrives. Mildred BURNS DOWN A POLICE STATION WITH A POLICE OFFICER INSIDE and is seen next to it immediately afterwards, and nothing happens to her. And if the level of hostility towards her in town is so high, why did no one burn down the billboards before Harrelson's death? It's not like anything would have happened to them, either.

 

As a poster above mentioned, McDonagh, despite constantly having his character talk about racism, isn't interested in minority characters as anything other than blunt instruments. Denise transparently exists as nothing more than a Token Black Friend whose sole function in the narrative is to get unjustly arrested and thus provoke a white woman's outrage. The new sheriff is the No-Nonsense Black Police Chief whose punishment of Dixon is a convenient wish-fulfillment fantasy that allows the audience to smugly look down on Dixon after being entertained by his antics. We never hear anything from or about the black people Dixon is said to have tortured, and they ultimately don't matter, because he became a better person. And then finally Peter Dinklage is there to do nothing of substance other than get called a midget a lot. 

 

So, yeah, this movie is full of shit. 

This bout sums it up, folks!

[MrPink]

[Jake Gittes]

7 minutes ago, MrPink said:

I didn't expect to go for so long myself lmao. But it's good to have gotten all that out of my system.

 

I will add that McDormand is commanding as always (but if you want to see a real all-time great abrasive-yet-human performance from her, just watch Olive Kitteridge) and I always enjoy Harrelson no matter what he's doing, and his first letter (to his wife) is a genuinely moving scene, by far the best in the movie. But that's where I run out of positive things to say.

[That One Girl]

@Jake Gittes I disagree with a lot of what you say, but goddamn that’s a great essay

[Jake Gittes]

11 minutes ago, That One Guy said:

@Jake Gittes I disagree with a lot of what you say, but goddamn that’s a great essay

Thanks. That's a very valuable kind of compliment. 

[aabattery]

@Jake Gittes you do the words good

[filmlover]

I'm still a fan of this movie but @Jake Gittes is king.