HUMAN HEADLINES
HUMAN HEADLINES
In the era of on-demand serial television at our fingertips, the capacity for a film director to tell both a cohesive story against an array of actors & actresses displaying their range in under two hours has grown smaller and smaller. With more esteemed movie stars, producers, writers and directors turning to streaming and cable TV series and mini-series, they are enabled to work with more hours of screentime in order to introduce, develop and conclude a narrative with satisfying results. Few, if any, films are able to match this. “3 Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri” is one of those ‘any’.
The latest work from celebrated theatre-darling-turned-cinematic-auteur Martin McDonagh, “3 Billboards” is a triumph for the ‘character’. Like his lauded filmography within “In Bruges” or “Seven Psychopaths”, his most recent is a celebration of one-on-one conversations between characters that are given full opportunity to change as the story progresses. McDonagh crafts a quiet world that is violently awoken from it’s small-town slumber. As with “In Bruges”, the discourse and engagement between characters moves quickly and seamlessly from comedy to tragedy to comedy. To call it ‘dark comedy’ is broad. What McDonagh does is create all too real, and humanised, conversations between far-from perfect people. With a talented core cast, he is able to get the small lapses in intent, the pauses of doubt and innate fear that real conversations in this story, which makes for all the more compelling drama.
Like a crescendo to a symphonic clash, “3 Billboards” begins with the erection of the eponymous advertising, Three damning billboards with bold black writing upon blood-red, as if it was etched in blood. They are the catalyst for a town full of characters teetering on the edge, sparking a downward spiral that no-one escapes from unscathed. Our central figure to this plot is Mildred Hayes (McDormand), a single mother still silently reeling from the lack of progress in her daughter’s rape-murder case seven months prior. Her low boil of emotion, rage and self-hate in that time is brought to the forefront when she becomes the talk of the town once the Billboards go up. It brings her into conflict with the police chief she calls out on the billboard itself, Willougbhy (Harrelson), as well as one of his lackluster cops (Rockwell). McDormand is the tour de force at hand here, bringing dryness and apathy to every scene she steals, with a inhuman determination to see her mission through. But her class is exemplified in scenes where she quickly snaps out of this character, when the unexpected or absurd occurs she is able to show real caring and a sense of reconciliation. This is indicative in Harrelson and Rockwell’s characters too; flawed individuals that know their flaws, without much apology, but aren’t limited by their characterization.
This is probably the greatest strength of McDonagh’s writing and direction. The range displayed by the core three cast is some of the best scene in 2017. In just under two hours we see how much they can evolve in the face of immense pressure, and switch between relatable, hateable and acceptable when it comes to their actions and decisions that define the film’s narrative. Whether this is reflective of McDonagh’s theatre background, or just his overall skill as a writer, to ascertain these kinds of performances is a relatively important thought.
What is important is seeing the change of these characters in such as short run-time (when we compare against television). It’s clean, succinct film-making, writing and acting and is the reason “3 Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri” is a sure-thing come awards season.