Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell in the Martin McDonagh movie ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’

Filmed in Sylva, North Carolina and set as the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, the Martin McDonagh written and directed movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) presents a darkly comedic drama. The film was released in the United States in November 2017 and the United Kingdom in January 2018.

(From left, Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes and Peter Dinklage as James in the Martin McDonagh movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

Mildred Hayes, portrayed by Francis McDormand, draws attention to her daughter’s unsolved rape and murder by renting three roadside billboards. Hayes’ teenage daughter Angela, portrayed by Kathryn Newton, had been taken from her grieving and angry mother seven months before the beginning of the movie. Three disused billboards are rented by Hayes with a pointed message for the local chief of police: “Raped While Dying”, “And Still No Arrests?”, “How Come, Chief Willoughby?”

(From left, Lucas Hedges as Robbie Hayes and Kathryn Newton as Angela Hayes in the Martin McDonagh movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

Portrayed by Woody Harrelson, pancreatic cancer-stricken Chief of Police Bill Willoughby fails to apprehend the guilty following another earnest to do so. Alcoholic police officer Jason Dixon, portrayed by Sam Rockwell, finds a similar lack of success when trying to intimidate billboard renter Red Welby, as portrayed by Caleb Landry Jones, into taking the billboards down. Geoffrey, the dentist sympathetic to Willoughby as portrayed by Jerry Winsett, finds out in a dramatic way that pressuring an angry and grieving mother bent on obtaining some measure of justice will end in a comedically dark way.

(From left, Abbie Cornish as Anne Willoughby and Woody Harrelson as Bill Willoughby in the Martin McDonagh movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

Stressors and pressures of a personal and amplified within the community perspective follow from examples like the above. Mildred’s relationship with her son Robbie Hayes, as portrayed by Lucas Hedges, would become strained due to the billboards. Charlie Hayes, Mildred’s abusive ex-cop ex-husband portrayed by John Hawkes, reveals that he had turned down the couple’s now deceased daughter shortly before her death when she, Angela, had wanted to live with him once again.

(From left, Sam Rockwell as Jason Dixon and Sandy Martin as Jason Dixon’s mother in the Martin McDonagh movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

Drama in unexpected measure follows Chief Bill Willoughby’s death at his own hand, with the partial hand of that justice being administered through subsequent police chief Abercrombie. Clarke Peters portrayed Abercrombie. A convoluted circumstance of the drama extends the hands of justice through Willoughby, Abercrombie, Mildred Hayes and James, with James portrayed by Peter Dinklage, into a hospital room reconciliation with Red Welby.

(Caleb Landry Jones as Red Welby in the Martin McDonagh movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

Many senses of interpersonal debt, partial truth and emotional need that draws out depth for the multiple characters of this film preceded and follow the dynamics of the characters within Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It takes leaps of character, and an emotional journey within a number of them, to lead the landing point of the movie to a misguided journey seeking satisfaction through emotion destined, through a proxy for feeling, destined for the state of Idaho. That past decisions have been revealed as unsatisfying, misguided and, despite being made with the best of judgments given partial information, does not deter the path left for Mildred Hayes and Jason Dixon at film’s end.

I grant Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as directed and written by Martin McDonagh 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin in the Coen Brothers movie ‘No Country for Old Men’

Crime. Drama. Thrills. Intensely drawn characters. The movie No Country for Old Men (2007) as directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen is drawn from the 2005 Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men. The dark violence and stylistic complexity from the book translated to the something equally dark and complex with the movie. Join us in learning a bit more.

(From left, Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss and Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss in the Ethan Coen and Joel Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

We come upon hunter Llewelyn Moss in the western fringes of Texas in the desert near El Paso when Moss discovers the aftermath of a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Moss, as portrayed by Josh Brolin, does nothing to render aid for the lone survivor of the carnage; he does decide to walk away with the large sum of money along the way. Moss offers few details to his wife Carl Jean, as portrayed by Kelly Macdonald, when getting home with the spoils. The pair are clear with one another that the heat of those looking to recover the money will be looking for them.

(From left, Tommy Lee Jones as Ed Tom Bell and Garret Dillahunt as Wendell in the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

The notion that someone who would know that their money was missing would come behind the desert carnage was of little mystery to sheriff Ed Tom Bell and deputy Wendell. Tommy Lee Jones and Garret Dillahunt portrayed the sheriff and deputy, respectively. Bell, who we learn had been sheriff from a young age, aims to help Llewelyn and Carla Jean Moss navigate this situation with their lives, if he could. We find that Bell is on a journey of his own through the course of this movie.

(From left, Gene Jones as Gas Station Proprietor and Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in the Ethan Coen and Joel Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

That the single-minded, psychopathic and eccentric Anton Chigurh is on a mission to recover the stolen money soon becomes clear. That Chigurh isn’t your typical man out for money is clear as Chigurh has an intense yet brief interaction with a Gas Station Proprietor as portrayed by Gene Jones. Javier Bardem portrayed Anton Chigurh. Besides having armed himself with a homemade sawed-off shotgun with a coffee-can silencer and a trademark compressed air-driven cattle gun, Chigurh carries with him an eccentric philosophical conviction that he is merely an agent of fate.

(Stephen Root as Man who hires Carson Wells in the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

Multiple men are pursuing the recovery of the money in the wind from the drug deal gone wrong. Carson Wells, as portrayed by Woody Harrelson, pursues Chigurh and the money after being hired for expressly this purpose by the character portrayed by Stephen Root. Wells aids in bolstering the backstory of Anton Chigurh, whose eccentricity defies explanation for some without the explication a scene between Wells and the man who hired him offers.

(From left, Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells and Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in the Ethan Coen and Joel Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

The fates of many are messy throughout the course of No Country for Old Men. Few if any come out of the mayhem of this story clean, with Chigurh, Wells and others are sharing in some measure of this fate. Where the characters stake their claim in this regard feels like a clear and present message throughout the film. This thematic exploration offers a measuring stick for the success of the storytelling, if my estimation offers a sufficient guidepost for your thoughts of this film.

(From left, actor Javier Bardem, director Joel Coen and director Ethan Coen on site of the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

The movie No Country for Old Men earned three BAFTAs and four Academy Awards in 2008 for direction, acting and adapted screenplay. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen adapted the screenplay from the Cormac McCarthy book, with Javier Bardem claiming a BAFTA and an Academy Award. I grant the movie No Country for Old Men as directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, February 2, 2022