A Movie Worthy of the Coen Brothers

Rating: 7/10 (27 November 2017)

Well, it must be Oscar season . . . Hollywood is rolling out the good stuff, e.g., "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" (2017), is a no-brainer go-to for me if for no other reason than Sam Rockwell is in it, "The Green Mile" (1999), "The Way Way Back" (2013). Stir in several other fine cast members, no less than Frances McDormand, "Fargo" (1996), and Woody Harrelson, "No Country for Old Men, (2007), simmer with an awesome script, cover with an interesting story and serve with ongoing dialog so funny in places that you'll wet your pants, then suddenly so sobering that you hold your breath over these Thanksgiving leftovers. This movie defines "dark comedy", cover your eyes and watch through your fingers dark.
The movie runs just short of two hours, and I wanted to watch another hour; nor was I ready for the way it ended. This is truly an actors' hayride that takes the audience along for the ups, downs, turns and spills; watch what a fine cast can do with a good script. As the story unfolds, the characters are not quite what they seem, sometimes this is refreshing, other times disturbing . . . either way, always interesting.
Very few things pull this movie down, but the sound mix occasionally leaves the audience wondering what was said, jarringly sensual, maybe even unnecessary language cements the "R" rating, and the plot, however intriguing, has gaping logic holes in a few places.