\n Although I am still a bit conflicted about this film, I can\u2019t deny that it was so enjoyable to watch. Enjoyable might not be the right word because it is debilitating in its melancholy, but it was really a great movie. It\u2019s only when you think about it outside the viewing experience that you\u2019re like wait\u2026what\u2026.that\u2019s a little screwed up. Lemme splain.
\n Frances McDormand, who apparently only does amazing work, like has she ever ever done something that wasn\u2019t incredible, plays Mildred Hayes, the grieving mother of Lucas Hedges (yet again; who is this kid\u2019s agent) and a girl who has been abducted and murdered. She is furious, as one would be, that the local police department, run by Woody Harrelson and \u2018helped\u2019 by an inept Sam Rockwell, still hasn\u2019t found the murderer or served any kind of justice, meaning that Frances isn\u2019t being allowed to fully grieve. As such, she decides to take matters into her own hands, to try to get something done. She hires the three titular billboards to call out the police department \u2013 Woody\u2019s chief in particular \u2013 and ask why nothing has been done. And although everyone in town kind of hates her for it, it does light a fire under their asses a bit, and spurs further investigation in a case that most of the people wanted to forget about.
\n Woody\u2019s chief is actually a decent man, who understands where Mildred is coming from although he doesn\u2019t like it. He\u2019s also dying of cancer, which doesn\u2019t seem like the moooost necessary plot point, but it does mean that the town hates her even more for being hard on him. I mean, she just wants him to do his job, but he is so beloved and it\u2019s so sad that he\u2019s suffering that she gets lots of death threats. Like she gives a shit. The sense that, although the two of them can\u2019t really stand each other, they understand and maybe respect each other, is well established and it\u2019s unfortunate that it\u2019s so short-lived. One part that was really not well done, and sticks out like a sore thumb as just the
weirdest<\/em> part of the movie, is Woody\u2019s last jaunt with his wife and the letter he writes her after. That letter is awkward as ass. No one would write that kind of stuff ever, let alone in a suicide note. I call bullshit. \n There\u2019s a lot that seems extraneous but it all works together to inform the story. Like Mildred\u2019s abusive ex-husband who is now with a super young girl, making her life even harder than it already is. There\u2019s Peter Dinkalge as a local who wants to date Mildred and so helps her out even though she\u2019s mean to him. That\u2019s not so necessary but ok. There\u2019s the young guy working in the office that owns the billboards (Caleb Landry Jones) who is a dumb goof but means well. And then there\u2019s the man who throws him out the window and causes a whole lot of trouble before he maybe starts doing some good, Sam Rockwell, as Officer Dixon, is a racist who enjoys beating up local black people for no reason, so we are told in dialogue but so it is not hard to believe because that is indeed what American cops enjoy doing. He\u2019s a monster who thinks he is doing good, which is the worst kind of monster. Like when he beats the living hell out of Caleb, he thinks he is doing a nice thing by protecting his chief\u2019s honor. He\u2019s like an idiot helper dog, or a kid who dumps flour all over the floor and says \u201cI\u2019m helping\u201d. He\u2019s like an evil racist Ralph Wiggum, I guess. \n Mildred becomes a sort of similar monster too, when she thinks she is doing good and has good intentions but decides to do things like set the police station on fire. When Dixon is revealed to be still in the station when it\u2019s set alight, I really thought he was going to die; I did not realize how much time was left. The near-death experience helps him to sooooort of start acting like he\u2019s not the worst person on the face of the earth, and he tries to actually solve the Hayes case. It\u2019s a nice turnaround, but it\u2019s effectively the redemption story of a horrible white male racist, which is not the story we really need. Yes racists should stop being terrible and should help people solve crimes or whatever, but when taken with the fact that all the black people in the movie are irrelevant to the plot, or that he never really faces consequences for his racism, it\u2019s a bit much. \n Putting aside the racial awkwardness, the film is a whole lot. I\u2019m not sure of what, but it\u2019s a lot. It\u2019s moving sometimes, it\u2019s harrowing, it\u2019s hilarious sometimes \u2013 though not as much as the trailer would have you believe. Honestly, this had probably the best trailer I\u2019ve ever seen, so masterfully done to make it seem like a really sensational dark comedy. But while parts were funny, it was a serious drama overall. Trailer lied. The movie is much more serious than the trailer gave it credit for, or admitted, but of course it is when you learn what really happened to the daughter. It\u2019s disturbing and hard to agree with the perspective that Mildred is going too far off the rails when you think about what she\u2019s dealing with. Yes she\u2019s going nuts and neglecting her son and her sense of decency, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s hard to remember what decency feels like at times like that. And although there is so much to grapple with, so much discomfort both in the story and the telling, I think that\u2019s the point? Maybe? Regardless, Frances does such a tremendous job of carrying this film that the issues don\u2019t terribly matter in the end, because it\u2019s so exhilarating to watch her wreak havoc on everything around her with such mastery. The acting is what makes this movie great when the writing threatens to let it down. I feel like I really enjoyed this movie and thought it was great but the more I think about it the more conflicted I get so let\u2019s just stop. \n \n \nYour turn! Tell me your thoughts! \n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u200bHAPPY OSCAR WEEKEND! Wow, this year was really a fantastic one for movies. I think it might be the strongest season in many years. There\u2019s no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[187],"class_list":["post-4007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-travelentertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Annual Oscar Roundup: All (Not All) The Movies We Need To Discuss - Laughfrodisiac<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n