Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
I guess it's never been an official rule with me, especially with many filmmakers who take different roles on projects over the years to want to just generally want to seek them out, but generally speaking, if someone has a strong directorial debut and then manages to satisfy enough or even more with their follow-up, then it's their third film that seems to tend to cement that they're truly great. So bringing up this idea, needless to say that I think McDonagh has absolutely pulled that off here.
It's exactly my tonal cup of tea where you can be laughing, horrified, and then fighting off being choked up in the same sequence. It's a balance of shock and awe often simply with dialogue and character-pitting that is fueled just as much by the life the performances give them as the screenplay and direction designs them.
It's just a tight, vulgar, hysterical, haunting and sneakily moving movie that I'm so glad I got to see in a surprise turn of events that it was TIFF's People Choice Award winner. On paper (or even in promos) it doesn't read like a runaway crowd-pleaser, so I'm both delighted and befuddled that it actually was the movie that the most festival-goers took to. I mean, look, past winners have been things like Slumdog Millionaire, The King's Speech, Silver Linings Playbook, The Imitation Game, and La La Land, which, regardless of what you think of them (good ol' LLL is far and away my favourite of that bunch), they're all feel-good movies with that had an aura of prestige around them prior to the festival. Three Billboards is very thrilling and cathartic, but it's also bitingly provocative and by no means the sort of thing I thought would be an awards frontrunner before the TIFF announcement today.
So good on ya, both McDonagh & this cast and crew for making something so seemingly challenging in its subject matter and tone to reach a big audience that proves the right type of filmmaking can make that sort of categorization meaningless, and to my city for championing it.
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
TIFF's People Choice Award also went to a Takeshi Kitano film once upon a time, so this city is certainly capable of surprises, despite the award still functioning exactly as you describe (and, no coincidence, the Kitano film was by far the most popular film he had ever made in general, being part of a major Japanese film franchise and delivering huge box office success).
I was certainly surprised by the announcement. I overheard some insider discussion just a day before about Molly's Game being a potential winner because it was rating well with audiences and had become so popular that it was getting an extra screening added on the last weekend. If not that, I figured Guillermo del Toro had it on lock (Toronto LOVES del Toro, and he might as well live at the Lightbox for all the time he spends here). Surprisingly, neither of them were even runner-ups. Nice to see the swell of support of Luca Guadagnino's film, though. Eager to check that one out now.
Giving up in 2020. Who cares.
maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
Night Hunter (David Raymond) *
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
Haha. Did I see a movie before Henry Gale?
Anyway, this film is terrific. Probably the best dark comedy since No Country for Old Men that explores the muddy waters of morality. Frances McDormand is ferociously funny, but the entire cast, including a plucky hillbilly cop played by Sam Rockwell is great. I'm glad I saw this in a packed theater, cause my audience ate this up, not knowing when to laugh or be horrified, or both at the same time.
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
Nope! (To be fair it was September, so it fell many pages back.)Quoting Watashi (view post)
And absolutely. As little as it may feel like a crowd-pleaser on paper, seeing it with as big an audience as possible is an awesome way to feel the current of every reaction (even emotionally competing ones) at once. The film is so well orchestrated in how it utilizes its perfectly messy feelings in its story.Quoting Watashi (view post)
[]
Rockwell may be one of my very favourite actors around, and I'm not sure I could be happier to see him have such a fantastic showcase that it seems like everyone is going to see at once for once. (Rather than years after release, hearing someone go, "I just saw that movie Moon! The bad guy from Charlie's Angels is great in it!)
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Holy shit, Sam Rockwell. O.O
There appears to be two of these threads. Any way we could merge them?
Fantastic film. It's a case where the screenplay seems to be made for these actors and you can't imagine anyone else playing the (extremely juicy) roles. That speaks well about the brains behind the movie helming process.
I like that McDonagh wears his influences on his sleeve. There's plenty of the Coen Brothers and Tarantino in his movies, only with a bigger interest in morality and an even meaner streak.
There are some great moments, [], but some embarrassing ones as well []. Overall this movie suffers from Erin Brockovich syndrome. Way too many moral mic-drops.
Yeah, I have a hard time getting into McDonagh's movies. I was cold for In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths too. The way he wants to imbue pathos with moments of reflection and the dissatisfaction of life doesn't work with how the characters are near caricatures with perfectly ironic and satisfyingly cutting dialogue. Everyone here feels like they exist to make a point about something (I winced at the realization that he deliberately wrote in black characters just to represent police victims), but the movie asks us to take them in as messy hangdog real people with multitudes. I had a similar issue with In Bruges where we spent a lot of time getting to the raw of two guys who are revealed to be pretty thinly written quip machines. It's probably why he pads his movies with ensembles.
I dunno. This is such a great story with so many funny moments that I'm a little upset that the characters are this badly written?
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
Interesting how some hokey dialog and one-dimensional characters can lead to some fine dramatic payoffs throughout it all. I could never really guess which direction this movie was heading, and the consequences of each characters motives always seemed correct. Kind of surprised this is being regarded as one of the best of the year, but it IS good.
Someone above mentioned that they didn't like the flashback, but I think it not only articulated how the family spoke with each other, but it really did drive in the guilt that Mildred had, far better than anything else in the movie did. I thought it was perfect.
Yeah, that scene was great. It gave another dimension to the mother's grief.
McDonagh is not subtle but IMNSHO the film is very far from having "hokey dialogue" or "one-dimensional characters". Not sure I understand the beef with the black characters either.
With the presented characters in the story, it makes sense. I don't understand the criticism either.Quoting Grouchy (view post)
All these people look awful thin to be from Missouri. I mean, this was entertaining and all, but it's very much an Irishman living in Hollywood's idea of what life is like in the South.
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
Goodness, this annoyingly goofy and tonally confused. Even the moments I enjoyed felt out of place with the rest of the picture. First time I've ever seen a movie and didn't buy a moment of the performance by John Hawkes either. This entire film feels like an indie from 1995 that is showing its age.
One of the year's best. Disappointed by Match Cut's ambivalence.
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
A week later, I've replaced my ambivalence with outright dislike.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
It appears to be a "love it or hate it" film if there ever was one. Some people I know IRL have also told me they hated it.
I got blocked by Walter Chaw because I called him out on his childish behavior over his hate of this movie. I was like "chill, man" and he blocked me. Whatever.
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
I heard someone on NPR say, "If you like this movie, we can't be friends."
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
Wow, his review is full of stupidity. Like the worst Roger Ebert, he avoids talking about the film altogether to focus on occuppying a moral higher ground from the writer/director... and he doesn't even do that all that well. He whines that the script makes you empathize with not so pleasant characters, while at the same time considering Chief Willoughby "a decent man" even though the story strongly hints that he isn't.Quoting Watashi (view post)
This part of the review made me very, very sad:Quoting Grouchy (view post)
Films cannot be ass-holes. Learn to write, moron.Quoting Walter Chaw
Also, while we're on grammar points, why is the "outside" in this movie's title not capitalized?
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
I like the way this film channels raw, righteous anger and uses the small fictional town as a microcosm for power abuses and failures in compassion. I like a film that identifies religion as a tedious, hypocritical nag worthy of nothing but contempt. I like the film's brash humor and desperate violence. I like the way the film ends with an open wound and uses its closing moments to fill us with both empathy and doubt. Most of all, I love Frances McDormand getting to blast through a role, guns a'blazing, and making me wonder whether she's actually topped the performance that won her an Oscar.
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
What I love about Rockwell is that I've seen him many times and love his work, and yet it still always takes me a couple scenes to realize who he is.Quoting Henry Gale (view post)
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***