brilliant performances, but unfortunately mechanical characters

Rating: 5/10 (4 April 2018)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is directed by Martin McDonagh and is nominated for a shocking 7 Academy Awards. Let's start with the positives. The lead actress is beyond oscar worthy. Woody Harrelson has a strong performance. Lucas Hedges was great also. This made it a pretty entertaining film overall.
Now for the negatives. People see strong political ideology surrounding current social controversy in a film and immediately need to praise the life out of it. To me I don't consider this a film. It's merely social commentary with great performances. Although I'm going to put that aside and attempt to focus on the film making. Looking at the screenplay and aspects of the story, I found countless issues. There are plot holes, ridiculous character arcs, and minimal growth from our lead character. To prove as to how, I will need to describe the plot, so spoilers ahead. There is a scene where a drunk cop beats a guy, and literally throws him out the window. The cop is then fired, and then just sits at home all day afterwards. Why wasn't he arrested? He beat him up in front of a crowd of people. Anyways this same cop returns to the police station after hours one night. However he's unaware that somebody is throwing glass bottles, setting the police station on fire because he's listening to opera music with head phones in. WHAT! Can someone please buy me these head phones, that can literally block out the sound of fire blazing explosions. This cop then goes to hospital due to his burns, and happens to be next to the guy he threw out the window. They then reconcile with the window guy pouring him a cup of orange juice. I'm sorry but I'm either insensitive or that guy should become a saint. But on top of all these unrealistic plot choices, there's constant attempts of some sort of humour. It actually kills me inside. The humour is honestly like what you would get out of a really bad kids animation, but put in a movie about murder. For example, the scene where the cop gets fired he's asked to hand in his badge. This scene is built up quite seriously, although then like some hilarious punchline the cop is like, "oh I can't find it", and spends 5 minutes emptying out all his pockets with awkward silence. Oh but what was even worse was the ex husband's 19 year old girlfriend. She just tanks every scene she interrupts. I'm confused as to why this won best screenplay at Golden Globes. Okay some of the dialogue is great, but there are so many careless issues in the story. The tone in this film is messy and inconsistent, resulting in a movie experience with character's I didn't care about.
The in-cohesive story writing is buried beneath great performances and a whole lot of social commentary. That is why people love the film. Critics are neglecting the importance of film making. It's a shame that this will probably win best picture. Movies like Dunkirk don't stand a chance, even though the film making is some of the best ever. But because it doesn't make any bold political statements relating to current controversial issues, it won't get the major awards. Three Billboards lacks emotional weight due to how disconnected it is from relatable human nature. Films like Good Will Hunting are incredible because of how they realistically zone in on the individual. Three Billboards forgets to take its time on smaller moments of pain and heartbreak, which humanise the characters. Making us feel emotionally attached to them. Movies like Good Will Hunting, which do that end up saying a whole lot more about humanity. This movie was a colossal disappointment. The character arc for the racist, drunk cop is so weak. He gains such easy redemption for all his wrong doings, without repairing any of his damage. For a movie with a strong message surrounding female empowerment and civil rights, it ends up showing sympathy towards a racist white supremacist cop as well as contributes to religious intolerance. If you want to see the ramifications of holding onto hate, watch American History X. The entire message of that film is that hate is hopeless baggage. Three Billboards attempts to show this with brilliant performances, but unfortunately mechanical characters. So therefore I give Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri a 5. It's so important to see characters authentically grow in film, otherwise it feels like nothing moves forward. And if that was the whole point of this movie, what's its purpose?