I’m behind on my Game of Thrones watching (I’m sorry!), so I haven’t seen much Peter Dinklage (unless you count the unfortunate X-Men: Apocalypse ) recently. It’s just off-putting and uncomfortable, which very well may be McDonagh’s point.Īny last words regarding Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri? There could be a discussion of appropriation of terms, labeling oneself rather than receiving a label, but I’ll leave that to the linguists. Yet it makes common those references, even between some of the women themselves.
#Woody harrelson three billboards outside ebbing missouri movie#
This is a movie that aims to directly address violence against women. I’m no prude, but the women in the film are routinely and persistently - almost exclusively - referred to through expletives. The most subtle, yet pervasive, aspect of this message about women’s treatment by the people around them is the language used. This isn’t really a defiant moment, more like a resigned one. There’s a moment when her ex-husband Charlie ( John Hawkes ) begins to choke her, and Mildred doesn’t even blink, putting up almost no fight.
Nothing in the world surprises her any longer, and there are things with which she simply will no longer put up. But what sells this is McDormand’s portrayal of the burdened Mildred. Obviously, the offscreen rape and murder of Angela Hayes ( Kathryn Newton ) proffers that message. Either could win, and both deserve it.Ī tad more subtly than Wind River from earlier this year, Three Billboards tries to shine a light on the treatment of women. Rockwell is just about neck and neck with Willem Dafoe ( The Florida Project ) for Best Supporting Actor. And then, later, an odd shift occurs because someone finally takes the time to believe in him, and he gets just about as close to a hero that Three Billboards gives us. There’s a point at which he stalks through town, assaults a woman and tosses a man out a window (brilliantly set to “His Master’s Voice” by Monsters of Folk) just because he’s hurting. He reminds me of a less comical, much more brutal Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) from Scream. From his rough speech down to his body language. His mother, whom he lives with, has nagged him and manipulated him for years, egging him on toward racially motivated police brutality.Įverything about Dixon is weird. He’s similarly beaten down and uses his position in the police department to exercise whatever power he still has. Sam Rockwell’s Dixon is so odd and tragically brutal. Any other performances/characters that stand out? She may just have to fight off Meryl Streep (for The Post, which I hear is a stellar performance). Frances McDormand has already won the Oscar, without question, in my mind. She’s a hard woman, while very sympathetic. You can feel every injustice throughout her life weighing upon her. Her performance holds a reserved depth that is impactful beyond words. For she desperately needs closure, and she’s willing to take on the Ebbing PD and damn the consequences. No longer will Mildred be cast off or ignored. Literally beaten by her ex-husband who left her for the 19-year-old. Mildred’s titular billboards are the cry of a woman who has spent her life being pushed down and pushed aside. Three Billboards is about a mother screaming out (yet Frances McDormand is so controlled throughout most of this film, it’s eerie) for justice for her murdered daughter, about an Officer who does not care about true justice because no one has ever believed in him, and about a Police Chief in a sleepy town who isn’t really in control but isn’t a bad guy.
If this is a character study, what’s being studied? Through all that, they banter throughout, and he learns to stand up for his mother when it counts. Mildred’s problem is that she forgets that, while she lost a daughter, her son lost a sister. They’re not without their rough edges, but they love each other, and Robbie is his mother’s rock in the middle of all this pain. Lightness also comes in the form of Mildred’s tumultuous relationship with her son Robbie (Lucas Hedges, who you’ll see quite a lot of during the upcoming awards season). We could have used more of her to give us breathing time. She is absolutely delightful, bubbly and funny. Enough cannot be said for Samara Weaving as Mildred’s ex-husband’s new 19-year-old girlfriend Penelope. Sam Rockwell is so strange and tragic, with some of the funniest moments. Punctuating this bleakness is some dark humor and its welcome relief. It’s really not even about catching the real killer, but about closure, and the impotence of a police department that isn’t able to do what they need to do. While Three Billboards explores many dreadful, difficult topics, it’s much more of a focused character study on two sides of a crime. Though moments can be tough to get through. This sounds horribly dark and depressing.
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