Far from a great movie

Rating: 4/10 (12 February 2018)

I can understand how one can adore this film. Of course it had some very interesting ideas and tried to make certain points, but in the end it was a tonally indecisive mess. Here are some of my main reservations:
- The script is overexplanatory and relies too much on coincidence, while it plays down the consequences the main characters would have in real life, when acting nuts. I dare you to go burn a police station down, remain at the scene (regardless of the fact that you are virtually the only suspect) and tell me what happens afterwards. Yes, I know McDonagh would have argued that we shouldn't take the movie at face value, but there are too many -and too important- plot holes to forgive (and this is not a buddy cop comedy for god's sake).
- In a cringeworthy flashback scene, we see the mother and daughter quarrel about Angela going out, only for them to prove their precognitive skills (Angela said she hoped she would get raped on the way, and Mildred agreed with her). Well, I'm positive there were more subtle ways to show why Mildred is filled with remorse.
- I thought Rockwell's character to be too cartoonish at times. McDonagh said that they had to cut a lot of material because there were tons of moments with Rockwell's character that were too comedic, but there are still many way over the top moments left in the movie.
- Willoughby is portrayed as a genuinely decent guy. Honestly, I don't get how can a Sheriff let his racist officers deal with black people the way they did and still qualify as a good person. Supposing he was an ignorant, illiterate redneck, I would be much more willing to excuse this kind of behaviour.