peteg's blog - noise - movies - 2021 02 25 ThreeBillboardsOutsideEbbingMissouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Thu, Feb 25, 2021./noise/movies | Link

Frances McDormand completism, and a Peter Dinklage jag from I Care a Lot. Written and directed by Martin McDonagh. I gave it a miss at the time because I couldn't see how the themes would add up to a decent movie, and the reviews were mixed. It turned out to be quite fun despite all that, for the most part, mostly due to some very amusing framing and dialogue. The cast is stellar: both McDormand and Sam Rockwell got Oscars for their roles. I warmed up to Rockwell further in, once he got past his moments as himself, though I found his transition from dumb hothead to circumspect vigilante clunky. Woody Harrelson done as good as always. Apart from the accent I didn't recognise Abbie Cornish as his wife. Caleb Landry Jones has fun as an advertising mogul. The ending is not very adequate. #151 in the IMDB top-250.

Dana Stevens. Manohla Dargis.