re: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

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Just saw Three Billboards. What a phenomenal film. It's some of the best acting I've seen in a long, long time. Frances McDormand better win everything. It's the best performance of her career. Just magnificent

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Prob going tomorrow

Yeah there are a lot of scenes with subtle stuff that often goes unnoticed, things that are really freaking hard to pull off (people acting with their eyes, ever so slight changes in the volume/tone of voice from one sentence to the next).

Seeing this and Lady Bird in the same week was really nice. Up until recently, I'd seen some movies that were really solid (The Big Sick, Wind River), but these two were head and shoulders above everything this year for me. Can't wait for The Shape of Water.

Saw it tonight

Pretty easily the best movie I've seen so far this year. Incredible combo of humor and drama. I went in expecting McDormand to be great, and she was, but Sam Rockwell was terrific as well. Definitely surprised me

I'm sure I'll get downvoted to hell because that's what typically happens of any dissent in "this movie is great threads" but this thread is overrating the hell out of the movie. I'm not saying people shouldn't see it, but you guys are setting people up for disappointment. The acting and performances are great, and the story starts off strong, but the ending really leaves this movie hanging.

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ending really leaves this movie hanging.

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I am not surprised some people feel this way but consider the opposite. The potential endings of the movie wouldn't resolve the pain of FM's character. Her daughter will still be dead. The murderer still not brought to justice if they kill the guy who may have done it to another person, but didn't kill her daughter.

That's the unfortunate truth for anyone who has a family member killed.

On a personal level my grandfather was killed a little over 20 years ago and his killer never brought to justice (most probable suspect fled town and forensic evidence was weak). What would it have resolved if I identified another person who got away with a similar crime and killed him instead? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. That's the point of the ending. There is no proper resolution to this type of crime, even if the killer is brought to justice that's a shadow of decency compared to a loved one never being killed.

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They also set up a redemption arc for Dixon and rather than seeing him redeemed we again get the set up for a vigilante kill.

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Could you flesh out this thought? Are you claiming he would only be redeemed if he killed a random person who might have killed a young woman? You needed to see him kill that person (or refuse definitively) to be redeemed?

I probably disagree with both conclusions. Although one decision would be better, neither would transform him instantly into the status of redeemed.

Gotcha, you needed to see that definitively.

I can understand that perspective. I didn't feel that in spite of my history, the greater lesson for me was trying to share with the audience the feeling of a lack of resolution that comes with the loss.

Tying up the Rockwell and McDormand characters neatly as if they were just "better now" didn't transmit that emotion properly.

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The redemptive arc for the mom and deputy was destroyed by their final journey. And destroyed her whole rationale for putting up the billboards in the first place

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Disagree. No matter what the mom did it wasn’t gonna heal the wound of losing her daughter. The true redemptive arc was her realizing that and moving on with her life. They even said it in the movie “anger begets more anger” or something like that. And I feel it was pretty obvious they didn’t go through with the killing of that military guy.

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I'm sure I'll get downvoted to hell because that's what typically happens of any dissent in "this movie is great threads" but this thread is overrating the hell out of the movie. I'm not saying people shouldn't see it, but you guys are setting people up for disappointment. The acting and performances are great, and the story starts off strong, but the ending really leaves this movie hanging.

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This. I’m baffled to see some people put this as their movie of the year. Didn’t have an issue with the ending as finding the killer wasn’t really the point of the movie (which my gf could not understand). Thought Rockwell was great but it was very slow and a lot darker than expected. Dark comedies are very hit or miss with me, ii liked 7 psychopaths and In Bruges was perfection but wasn’t feeling this one