Movie Review Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) 

Directed by Martin McDonagh

Written by Martin McDonagh

Starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage 

Release Date November 10th, 2017 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri stars Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, a mother whose daughter was brutally raped and murdered. The crime has not been solved after eight months and a frustrated Mildred is at her wit's end when she sees three empty billboards on a lonely street side outside of the town of Ebbing. Hoping to light a fire under the local Chief of Police, Jim Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), Mildred books all three billboards with a message directed at the chief.

It’s not long before Chief Willoughby is at Mildred’s door and a series of events unfolds that you will not be able to predict. Everyone from the Chief’s loyal deputy, Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) to the billboard owner Red (Caleb Landry Jones) to everyday folks like James (Peter Dinklage), who has a crush on Mildred, gets drawn into the ensuing chaos. Some, like Dixon, are the cause of the chaos. Others, like Red and James along with Mildred’s son Robbie (Lucas Hedges), get swept up in the story.

Written and directed by Martin Mcdonaugh, director of the remarkable In Bruges and the middling Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is lacking in McDonough’s usual biting wit but is nevertheless infused with the same angry energy of his previous films. Mcdonaugh is a writer-director fascinated by injustice, righteous anger, and the destructive power of guilt and those themes are dominant and well-explored in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Frances McDormand is a force of nature. Her grief-stricken performance in Three Billboards could not possibly be more effective. Mildred’s grief comes from being a mother but also from a deep well of guilt, especially over the shocking final words she shared with her daughter Angela (Kathryn Newton), seen in a powerful flashback scene. Mildred wants the police to go to all lengths to catch her daughter’s killer and McDormand gives us the tragic sense that revenge may be all the feeling she has left.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review: The Banshees of Inisheren

The Banshees of Inisheren (2022) 

Directed by Martin McDonough 

Written by Martin McDonough 

Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan 

Release Date November 4th, 2022 

The Banshees of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell as a farmer named Padraic whose life is thrown into chaos when his closest friend, Colm (Brendan Gleeson), randomly decides that they are not friends anymore. Without explaining why, Colm refuses to answer the door when Padraic comes to call at the usual time to go to the pub. Later, Colm returns only to find Colm has left to go to the pub. He assumes this means they will meet for a pint but at the bar, Colm tells Padraic to leave him alone. 

Did Padraic get drunk and offend his friend? He doesn't think so but Colm won't say either way. Eventually, after prodding from Padraic's sister, Siobahn (Kerry Condon), and the local priest, during confession, Colm finally says what is going on. In a blunt conversation, Colm says Padraic is boring and conversations with him are a waste of time. Colm wants to spend what life he has left, however many years that is, building a legacy for himself by writing music and creating art and he can no longer afford to have Padraic wasting his time with nattering, inane conversations about farming. 

The story of The Banshees of Inisherin is set in 1923 on a fictional island off of the coast of Ireland. The tiny village is lined with rock walls and dirt walkways and roads. Everyone is in everyone else's business all the time. Gossip is trade on Inisherin and thus, the unexpected conflict between Colm and Padraic becomes a top conversation. As the story evolves and the sweet, naïve, and sensitive Padraic tries to reach out to his friend, things take a dark and darkly comic turn. I don't want to spoil any of the oddity of The Banshees of Inisherin, the strange and unexpected twists and turns, especially from Gleeson's Colm drive the second start of the third act of The Banshees of Inisherin. 

The Banshees of Inisherin is strange only because it's a story that isn't often told in movies, a story of male friendship and companionship. Director Martin McDonaugh is exploring the complex dynamic of masculinity and friendship in a sensitive and terrifically odd way. The character of Padraic is representative of a group of men who define themselves in their work, they keep their head down and they let the world happen around them. Colm, through his age and experience, is eager to be a man with a legacy, a man to be remembered. He wants to make things happen while Padraic just wants to have a pint with someone. 

The unique dynamic between these two men, one complicated and fraught, the other simple and resigned, is fascinating as much for the heart and soul that Gleeson and Farrell invest in these characters as it is for the unusual topic of complicated male friendships. I'm resisting assigning political metaphors to each character but that is certainly one reading. One man thinking of the future and a legacy, the other wanting the world to stay as it is. One man willing to go to extremes to push forward the other lost in despair at what is being lost. 

Read my complete review on Geeks.Media