The short: Frances McDormand has you rooting for an incredibly unsympathetic character and a character evolution you might predict as unbelievable gets pulled off. Watching this is time well spent.
There was a time in the ’90s when I would easily see 80+ movies a year. Now my number is smaller and is dominated by animated features at the drive-in, Harry Potter (the Elder is nuts for wand boy) and the annual check-out-the-Oscar-noms push.
With the expansion of the Best Picture category from 4 to 37, I no longer commit to full slate, and many years watch less than four. In 2017 I did six. 2016 only 4. This year I’m looking at three, and the “Phantom Thread” only made it because it is looking like it might be DDL’s last pic and I want to thank him for his service.
Tonight’s fare was “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, which for me was “that movie with Frances McDormand”. I have been moved by FM since her day’s on Hill Street Blues, the best ensemble cast drama ever (ugh, except for maybe The West Wing, or The Newsroom or M*A*S*H). She locked in lifetime fealty with Fargo and she continues to deliver. MAN she is a detestable character who is working through some bad stuff that happened to her. But she’s great.
This isn’t a thinker, it’s barely an emotional impacter, it’s just great acting around a pretty strong story and script. Somewhere, somewhen, someone said “let’s put Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Peter Dinklage in a movie together” and they didn’t get laughed out of the room and now we have all benefited.