Tag: Frances McDormand

Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri proves just a little too problematic, despite Frances McDormand’s excellent work

“All this anger, man, it just begets greater anger”

The backlash against Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri doesn’t seem to have got in the way of its award-winning chances. But upon watching it for myself and enjoying it for the most part, equally I couldn’t escape the sense of how problematic it is in the way in tackles – or rather doesn’t tackle – class and race in the rural US.

For every statement from Martin McDonagh about the ‘deliberately messy and difficult’ nature of his film, there’s a refusal to explore the real ramifications of the behaviour contained therein, particularly the racist criminality of cop Dixon who is never really called to account for what he does. And in today’s world, in today’s America, that really isn’t good enough. Continue reading “Oscar Week Film Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”