unpredictable, strange and affecting study of violence, anger and not having easy answers

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2018)

First, all the controversy surrounding this movie is a good thing. Great art elicits such responses and I'm for it. The acting, editing and cinematography were extraordinary. McDorland gives a stunning performance of a mother driven to focused and sometimes unfocused fury. Violence suffuses the entire movie, including the violence of foreign wars. This plot thread was, for me, the only real problem with the movie, the "Idaho" character makes no sense to the movie, particularly the scene where he comes into the gift store, what was that about? He had no connection to any one in the town, as far as I could tell. Criticism regarding penciled in race issues and characters seem less of an issue, it wasn't that kind of movie, class matters in this movie, violence matters in this movie, southern gothic matters. Most of the criticism focusing on race and deep structural issues in the film are long pieces that go into fine detail why this movie isn't very good, and I like this level of heavy lifting, the movie is not easily dismissed and should be seen and you can come to your own conclusion regarding it's merits (as is always true). But frankly, I'm tired of people going on about what's not in a movie or art generally and not focusing on what is there. What would be an alternate approach that would make sense? This is never discussed.