Tag Archives: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

Richard Jewell (2019): Media Frenzy

In an age of pivotal news breaking every moment, the story of Richard Jewell may not be known to younger audiences, but it is one relevant to our modern times. Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser; I, Tonya) is a former police officer now working security at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He asks the local police to call in an unidentified package when he spots a discarded backpack only to discover a live bomb in the bag. He works to evacuate people from the area before the bomb explodes, saving many lives, and is an immediate hero for his actions until public opinion starts to change. A local paper reports that he was being investigated as a suspect in the bombing, a routine part of the FBI’s process, and he soon becomes the media’s villain.

The film boasts a strong cast with Hauser up to the task of playing the maligned, but well-meaning lead. He shows Jewell’s naïve trust of authority and his true devotion to justice, but also how this can negatively impact others when he is too adherent to the letter of the law. Jewell is shown as a simple man whose main goal in life is to be one of the good guys which makes the sudden shift in public opinion all the more hurtful. By his side is Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) as his lawyer, who seems to have carved out a niche for himself playing these types of roles. Rockwell is straightforward and sharp, unafraid to tell Jewell what mistakes he is making or to tell off the authorities when needed.

Rockwell, as the lawyer, provides some much needed support to Jewell’s family.

The main antagonists become the media and law enforcement. Jon Hamm (Mad Men) plays the FBI agent that leaks Jewell’s name and becomes fixated on convicting him. He seems selfish and willfully oblivious as he ignores facts and relies on unproven hunches to continue the investigation. The brunt of the blame for Jewell’s ordeal is placed on Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde; TRON: Legacy), the local reporter that first lists Jewell as a suspect. The real-life Scruggs has passed away so there is no way to know how realistic her portrayal is, but Wilde does her no favors. Scruggs is shown as a mean, slimy, immoral reporter that will sleep with people for info just so she can get a story with little regard for its consequences or veracity.

While the film is right to indict the press and police in Jewell’s living nightmare, the story plays this too safe. The legal battle that ensues as Jewell is brought in by the FBI and his trusting nature is taken advantage of to trick him into implicating himself is appropriately infuriating and Hauser and Rockwell are likable leads. The issue is that the film doesn’t attempt to grasp the full picture of what caused the situation. It never addresses the public’s role in feeding the media’s focus on Jewell over other possible suspects and the ease many felt with stereotyping Jewell based on his background. This is a noticeable but not debilitating omission that would have made for a much more complex, challenging film. As it stands, Richard Jewell is a safe, but effective drama about the damaging impact of a media frenzy.

3/5 stars.

Ready or Not (2019): Playful and Bloody Kill Scenes

Meeting your in-laws right before your wedding can be a stressful experience. Will they accept you as part of their family or will things start off on the wrong foot? In the case of Grace (Samara Weaving; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), assimilation is a dangerous task. She is marrying into the Le Domas family, a wealthy lineage that made their fortune on selling board games and playing cards. She learns from her fiancé about a tradition that anyone joining the family needs to draw a card at midnight and play whatever game they draw. Grace picks hide and seek and runs off to find a spot. Unbeknownst to her, she has drawn the wrong card. The family grabs antique weaponry for a life or death game. They believe that their ancestor made a deal with a mysterious man that has granted them their extreme wealth and that they will lose everything, including their lives, if they don’t kill Grace before sunrise.

Fittingly, Ready or Not has a playful tone. When characters are killed, it is often in slapstick fashion. Some family members use crossbows to hunt Grace and the limitations of the weapons and the family’s inability to properly use them leads to accidental deaths of their house staff. The deaths, while bloody, are comedic as characters argue with each other instead of reacting to a nanny getting half her head blown off. Melanie Scrofano (Pure Pwnage) is hilarious as Grace’s incompetent, drug-addicted sister-in-law. She alternates between cocaine and sedatives as she tries to get in the right state of mind to find and kill Grace, but fumbles every opportunity. Her earnest frustration with herself keeps the situations light and distracts from the gruesome deaths.

The family dynamics turn the film into a horror-comedy.

The film takes place in a gargantuan, Gothic style mansion that is the perfect environment for hide and seek. There are several floors, dozens of rooms, secret “servant hallways”, and a large surrounding estate. The castle-like structure is replete with hiding spots, but also unfamiliar to Grace as she opens doors without knowing where they lead. It provides ample tension since a gun-toting in-law may be just around the corner, but also relieves that same tension when the family stops to strategize only for Grace to mistakenly walk right in front of them.

As the unfortunate player, Weaving is sympathetic. Her horror and confusion as she witnesses the first accidental kill and realizes the stakes of her situation are relatable, but it is her turn from prey to predator that makes the film. Weaving, who looks like she could be Margot Robbie’s younger sister, quickly swaps her high heels for sneakers and tears her long wedding dress so she can effectively creep around the house. She morphs from the victim to a threat to her attackers as she stops hiding and starts hunting. There could be a metaphor here about the behavior of the ultra-rich and the horrific lengths they are willing to go to preserve their status, but directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S) have little interest in deeper meanings. Instead, Ready or Not is a fun excuse for kill scenes that are as bloody as they are playful.

3/5 stars.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017): Snark and Sentimentality

To prevent her daughter’s murder from falling out of the public eye and increase the chance of finding the culprit, Mildred (Frances McDormand; Fargo), a jumpsuit-wearing, no-nonsense, foul-mouthed mom, buys the titular billboards. She details the horrific crime and simultaneously places the blame for the lack of justice on the shoulders of the beloved local police chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson; Zombieland). Chaos follows as local policeman try to save face, local townspeople retaliate, and Mildred doubles down on her cause. Many will compare this film to Fargo because of McDormand and the small-town murder, but this is writer-director Martin McDonagh’s (In Bruges) signature brand of humor, distinct from the Coens. Mildred’s caustic behavior and McDonagh’s penchant for finding comedy in the macabre put it in a category of its own.

Without a doubt, this is McDormand’s film. There are few people who would be brash enough to knowingly anger and take on their entire town, but McDormand shows the tenacity and blatant disregard needed to make Mildred believable. As she faces the fallout from her actions, Mildred’s relentless pursuit of her goal and her choice, delectably obscene retorts are a joy to watch. At same time, she is still a mother suffering from the loss of her child and McDormand is able to display the subtle cracks of pain in Mildred’s otherwise thorny demeanor.

Mildred can stare down anyone that gets in her way.

For the first time in his film career, McDonagh tries to infuse some of the emotion from his best plays (read The Pillowman if you haven’t). In his previous films, the snarky, almost crass language, while often hilarious, prevented his stories from having a greater emotional impact. In Three Billboards, he supplements his humor with grief. The pain of a mother losing her daughter softens Mildred’s abrasiveness and prevents her aggressive, often militant actions from turning her into an outright unlikable character, but McDonagh finds most success in Willoughby’s story. Despite his setup as an incompetent police chief, Willoughby’s true nature is much more caring. As the terminally ill town leader and, more importantly, a father and husband, his inescapable fate becomes synonymous with the outcome of Mildred’s case. Willoughby has been searching for the killer, but, like with his cancer, his efforts haven’t made a difference. A short interlude where he ponders his demise will draw tears from most viewers. His gradual accretion of depth in the midst of the film’s otherwise eccentric antics is an unexpected, but welcome punch to the gut.

The effect of this gravitas is hindered by McDonagh’s control of tone. Rather than mixing the humor with the heart, these two emotions exist within separate spheres of influence. They don’t actively clash, but the disparate tones almost seem like different takes on the same story. Some scenes feature Mildred cursing like a sailor while others show the open wounds created by her daughter’s passing, but almost never both in the same scene. This is ultimately what prevents Three Billboards from reaching greatness. The humor of the film is still enjoyable and the grief shown has an impact, but without blending the two, McDonagh can’t achieve the complexity and balance needed to tackle the subject matter.

3/5 stars.