The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)
Director: Francis: Lawrence
Screenwriter: Michael Lesslie, Michael Arndt
Starring: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andres Rivera, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Viola Davis

Everyone loves a good origin story. Whether that origin story is worth telling is a different matter entirely.

When The Hunger Games was released more than a decade ago, its massive success (both with fans and at the box office) opened the floodgates for countless other young adult dystopian adaptations. We got The Mortal Instruments, I Am Number Four, Ender’s Game, Divergent, The Fifth Wave, and The Maze Runner, all of which failed to garner the same praise as The Hunger Games had. Though this trend didn’t make it out of the mid-2010s alive, The Hunger Games series has continued to endure thanks to the quality and consistency of the performances, writing, directing, and production design across all four films. Its themes of war, rebellion, oppression, and the power of love, are more timely than ever.

It was inevitable that Hollywood would eventually circle back to The Hunger Games, especially considering the new trend that has emerged in recent years: nostalgia. In the years since The Hunger Games series ended, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Ghostbusters have all been resurrected to varying degrees of success, each new entry seemingly struggling to justify its reason to exist. But The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes somehow manages to escape the same fate. Based on the 2020 prequel novel of the same name by “The Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins, the film stands on its own, reigniting the same spark that made the original films so popular, without ever using those films as a crutch.

In Songbirds and Snakes, we return to the world of Panem 64 years before Katniss Everdeen stepped into the arena. The country is struggling to rebuild following the war, the dark days are barely behind them. The Hunger Games is in its 10th year, but Head Game Maker Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) is struggling to figure out how to get people to keep watching her sickening reality show. Amid this, a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), years before he will become the powerful and cruel dictator we know him to be, is desperate to save his family from financial ruin. Though his father helped to create The Hunger Games, his suspicious death left the family penniless. Coriolanus lives in a constant state of possible eviction with his grandma’am (Fionnula Flanagan) and older cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer), who will go on to become a stylist for the games and later an ally to Katniss in the resistance against The Capitol.

At the academy, Coriolanus is informed that there will be one more test before graduation: seniors must become mentors in the upcoming games. “Your job is to make them into spectacles, not survivors,” Dean Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) tells them. Coriolanus ends up being paired with Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a fiery tribute from District 12 and member of the Covey, a traveling musician troupe. Lucy Gray doesn’t have much in the way of fighting skills, but she is a performer and the arena becomes her stage. She also has a habit of slicing snakes on people that have wronged her. When Coriolanus and Lucy Gray form an unexpected connection, he ends up risking everything to make sure she makes it out of the games alive, but the threat of rebellion in the districts and Coriolanus’ ambition begin to tear them apart.

Songsbirds and Snakes works for a couple of different reasons, chief among them being the fact that almost the entire production team behind The Hunger Games returned to make it. Francis Lawrence, who took over for The Hunger Games director Gary Ross with Catching Fire (2013) and stayed until the end of the series (2015), returned to direct, along with producer Nina Jacobson. Returning production designer Phillip Messina and cinematographer Jo Willem manage to recreate the look of the original series to ensure that it feels as though no time had passed between the final instalment and this prequel, while still giving the film its own visual flair. While The Hunger Games is not tame by any means, the luxury and gloss of The Capitol’s state of the art technology gives everything a glossy sheen. In Songbirds and Snakes, everything is primitive and wild: the arena is a crumbling concrete dome, there is no late night talk show, no fancy training center or tribute living quarters, everything feels rough and unpolished and ten times as dangerous. The color pallet, although reminiscent of the original films, is decidedly darker. The production and costume designers took obvious inspiration from the 1940s, and particularly Nazi Germany, especially in regards to the battle rifles used. While The Hunger Games used analogue technology as a jumping off point for its futuristic designs, Songbirds and Snakes takes that to another level. It’s easy to see how this Panem will eventually becomes that one, decades later. The film is one of those rare big-budget spectacles that actually looks as expensive as it is.

The Hunger Games succeeded in part because the novels were adapted with care, the filmmakers making sure to keep important details and characters and moments that made the story work in the first place. The narrative wasn’t tossed into a blender and then thrown up on screen. Suzanne Collins’ rich world building remained in tact throughout the four original films, and the same goes for Songbirds and Snakes. Every film in the original series is nearly 1 to 1 to its novel counterparts. Fans eager for another faithful adaptation will not be disappointed. Songbirds and Snakes stays almost entirely true to the spirit of the novel.

Despite the pressure of being the first entry in a widely popular franchise in nearly decade, Songbirds and Snakes is not trying to replicate the story beats of The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins crafted an intriguing origin story for her main villain, and that is partially responsible for this, but the filmmakers can also take credit as they didn’t feel the need to replicate moments from the original series or reference characters and events that haven’t happened yet (in the timeline of their in-film world). The closest they get to a wink and a nod is when Lucy Gray tells Coriolanus that the plant she’s holding is Katniss. Of course, those looking to have a little bit of the original series injected in their veins will not be disappointed either. Composer James Newton Howard knows exactly when to employ his Mockingjay theme. The structure of the film is also different and not just a carbon copy of the previous films, which almost always ended in the arena or in some type of explosive battle. Songbirds and Snakes takes the opposite approach. The first half of the movie is spent preparing for and executing the games, with the latter half dedicated to the unravelling of Coriolanus and Lucy’s relationship. Although, the movie does lose some steam once the games are over.

As far performances go, Songbirds and Snakes has a strong main cast that helps elevate the material and convey the complex inner lives of our characters even when it’s not necessarily found on the page. In addition to an impeccable American accent and a really good blond wig, relatively unknown English actor Tom Blyth manages to step into the shoes previously worn by the prolific Donald Sutherland with ease, although he doesn’t quite have Sutherland’s flair for the dramatic. But he’s just as charismatic to watch, and although he makes the character his own, it is not hard to believe that he is the younger version of a character we already know. He has a similar face and a similar voice, but there’s a hint of humanity in him that he has all but abandoned when we see him in The Hunger Games. In Songbirds and Snakes, there’s a vulnerability to him, but there’s also a darkness lurking just below the surface and Blyth balances that very well. Rachel Zegler is perfectly cast as Lucy Gray, brimming with charm and confidence. It should be no surprise that Zegler has a fantastic voice, thanks to her screen debut as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Josh Andres Rivera is an absolute scene stealer as Sejanus Plinth, classmate of Coriolanus whose sympathy for the rebel cause becomes his ultimate downfall, and Hunter Schafer, who burst onto the scene as Jules on the HBO series “Euphoria”, is enchanting as Snow’s cousin Tigris, although her talent does feel wasted on such a small part. Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City) is absolutely hilarious as Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman, first television host of the games and presumed relative of Caesar Flickerman, who was played by Stanley Tucci in the original. His one liners in the midst of children killing each other highlights just how crass and and out of touch the people in The Capitol are. His performance never feels forced or over the top, as Tucci’s sometimes did.

All in all, Songbirds and Snakes is a worthy entry into The Hunger Games canon, offering a rich and intriguing peek into the past. It’s not as emotionally satisfying as the original series, but with only one film as opposed to four, that’s a difficult height to reach. Still, in an industry overrun with remakes, prequels, sequels, and reboots, Songbirds and Snakes understands how capturing the magic of a series so many already love is easy, you just have to tell a really good story.

Score: 22/24

Born in 1972 in London, Wright spent the early part of his career working at Oil Factory, a music video production company. Following the completion of a few short films and serials, in 2003 Wright directed the miniseries, ‘Charles II: The Power and the Passion’, for the BBC. The series was a critical success and, just a few short years later in 2005, Wright was chosen to direct a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel, “Pride and Prejudice”. The film, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, was a critical and commercial success, and launched the filmmaker into the spotlight. Pride & Prejudice was nominated for a slew of Academy Awards and BAFTA Film Awards, with Wright taking home the BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer at the age of 33.

Since that noteworthy breakthrough, Joe Wright has found most of his success as an artist in romantic costume dramas. He’s partial to historical fiction, particularly when it’s set during World War II, though he has dabbled in numerous genres, like action, thriller and fantasy. One of the stylistic signatures of the director’s visual work is his tendency for long tracking shots, which arguably was at its very best in the continuous, five-minute take during the evacuation of Dunkirk in Atonement (2007). To achieve this unique visual style, Wright works closely with cinematographer and frequent collaborator Seamus McGarvey, while the director’s work is also commonly associated with screen actors Keira Knightley, Ben Mendelsohn and Tom Hollander.

Wright’s 9 feature films vary in quality from Oscar-winning period pieces to $100million box office bombs. While the majority of his movies have been both commercially and critically successful, earning numerous Academy Award and BAFTA nominations, others have missed the mark completely. In this edition of Ranked from The Film Magazine, we’ll evaluate Joe Wright’s movies based on critical reaction, writing, performance, and directorial choices. From his most bewildering to his unparalleled masterpiece, these are the Joe Wright Movies Ranked.

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9. Pan (2015)

Pan was such a financial failure it nearly forced Joe Wright into an early retirement.

Set in London during World War II, the film is a prequel to J.M Barry’s 1904 stage play “Peter and Wendy” and serves as an origin story for Peter Pan, one of fiction’s most well-known and beloved characters. It is a truly bewildering film with one of the strangest uses of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” ever put to screen.

Pan claims to be an origin story for a character that has existed in the public consciousness for over 100 years, but its approach to the material is so far out of left field that it feels completely foreign. There is nothing familiar to cling to. It’s held back by Jason Fuchs’s script, which seems to have no interest in coming up with fresh ways to recount the origin of Peter Pan (Levi Miller) or any of the other well-known characters. For instance, instead of coming up with a unique and fun way to show how Captain Hook (Garrett Hedlund) lost his hand and earned his name, the film decides that nothing interesting happened at all and that “Hook” is just his last name. Captain Hook doesn’t lose his hand at all, actually, and the movie doesn’t even attempt to explain why he and Peter become enemies. It feels like half the film is missing or they were planning for a sequel that, on account of the film making no money, never materialized.

Visually, Pan is an ugly movie that rarely feels whimsical or magical, which is honestly a shock considering co-cinematographer Seamus McGarvey worked with Wright on both Anna Karenina and Atonement. The steampunk aesthetics are presented in such a way that makes everything seem grimy and unappealing, devoid of life.

The film’s humor is similarly uneven and awkward. It seems like Pan wants to have an absurdist approach to its humor, but it doesn’t commit. Because of this, Garret Hedlund’s performance as Hook feels wildly out of place and he is the only person doing… whatever he’s doing. Rooney Mara, despite being present as the result of tone deaf casting that miscasts her as a Native American, is a bright spot in the film, and her scenes with Peter are probably some of the best in the movie.

Wright’s inability to tackle a big budget spectacle, along with a messy script and unfocused visual language, makes Pan a weak link in his career.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)
Director: Steven Caple Jr.
Screenwriters: Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber
Starring: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Peter Cullen, Pete Davidson, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Dean Scott Vazquez, Liza Koshy, Colman Domingo, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Luna Lauren Vélez, Tobe Nwigwe, Sarah Styles

In 1996, toy giant Hasbro launched ‘Beast Wars’, a reimagining/sequel to their long-running ‘Transformers’ franchise and one of the first fully CG-animated television shows. Rather than cars and jets, these robots in disguise converted into mammals, birds, insects and dinosaurs as they battled over resources on prehistoric earth. Now, the live-action Transformers film franchise takes influence from this series in its follow-up to the refreshingly dialled-back soft-reboot Bumblebee, and in the process forgets just about every lesson learned on that movie.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has a disappointingly generic plot that nonetheless is difficult to explain in just a few lines. We open in Brooklyn in 1994 where Noah (Anthony Ramos), an unemployed former military technician, struggles to support his family. A chance encounter with Autobot Mirage (Pete Davidson) leads the team of robot freedom fighters under Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) to enlist Noah to steal an artefact from a museum where intern archaeologist Elena (Dominique Fishback) has discovered mysterious symbols pointing to a hidden temple in Peru. Also looking for the artefact which is actually one half of the powerful Transwarp Key are the evil Terracons commanded by Scourge (Peter Dinklage), who serve planet-eating dark god Unicron (Colman Domingo) and the Maximals, disguised as beasts and led by Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman). Before long, all interested parties converge in the South American jungle to decide the fate of Planet Earth again. 

OK, so it’s not quite as bad as the worst of the five Michael Bay films, in that at least this is vaguely coherent on a visual level, but it still makes a lot of the same mistakes. There’s the first-base characterisation that makes it hard to care about anybody, human or robot, the nonsense plotting, and the muddy scene geography just to begin with.

Then there’s all the recycled plot devices from earlier in the franchise. In theory this one was going to be different because we haven’t seen the Maximals or Unicron in live-action before, but in practice it’s much of a muchness. From Dark of the Moon you have the alien technology that bridges a distant galaxy to Earth; from Revenge of the Fallen we get a heroic sacrifice walked back a few scenes later; from every single Bayformers movie there’s a new but interchangeable sci-fi Macguffin for everyone to globe-trot after.

In Bumblebee, there were five Transformer characters on Earth in total. They were each distinct, instantly recognisable, and a lot of fun to be around. In Rise of the Beasts there’s at least three times this number of named Transformers plus an endless horde of disposable robot minions, and it’s really difficult to distinguish who is who. ‘Beast Wars’ fans in particular will be disappointed how little time we get to appreciate the designs of the Maximal characters’ robot forms, as cool as their techno-organic beast modes admittedly look and as grin-inducing as it is to hear Optimus Primal roar “Maximals, Maximise!”. Steven Caple Jr., as shown with his work on Creed II, is a solid director of both action and more intimate domestic scenes, but seems to lose his way here amongst the slick but floaty CG chaos. Perhaps you need the mind of a stop-motion animator like Bumblebee’s Travis Knight (of LAIKA) to give these characters much-needed weight and tangibility. 

It’s no surprise that the human protagonists aren’t that memorable despite the best efforts of two talented young actors – Ramos and Fishback have been better, and will be better in everything else they do – but more disappointingly the robots’ personalities (those lucky enough to be given one) get lost in all the noise as well. Pete Davidson probably fares the best as hyperactive wise-cracker Mirage, and Ron Perlman and Michelle Yeoh make a valiant attempt to add gravitas as Primal and Airazor, but but most of the rest of the Transformer teams are disposable and samey. Much like Hugo Weaving’s voicing of Megatron in the first three Transformers movies, there was little point in getting Peter Dinklage in to play baddie Scourge here, such is the digital distortion added in post to make him unrecognisable. Scourge’s formidability is at the mercy of the plot requirements as well; he’s nigh-on invulnerable and able to easily overpower Optimus until he isn’t any more because the story’s wrapping up.

Nothing really means anything here and there are no lasting consequences. What should be a big moment at the end of the first act has next-to-no impact because of how transparently obvious it is that it’ll be undone before the end of the film. Noah and Elena are potentially interesting blockbuster leads with the former needing to care for his kid brother with Sickle Cell Anaemia and the latter’s work superiors exploiting her talents and knowledge, but neither are given clear arcs, nor do they meaningfully change over the course of their adventure.

Transformers may have started out as a Saturday morning cartoon designed to sell toys to children, but that doesn’t mean that the search for a good movie that does justice to fans’ ideas of these beloved characters is beyond contemporary Hollywood. There are really compelling modern Transformers stories out there, from Bumblebee to a good number of episodes from the three seasons of ‘Beast Wars’, and even a recent example using the same combination of characters in Netflix’s ‘Transformers: War for Cybertron’ miniseries trilogy. Rise of the Beasts is not that. The odd pleasing action flourish to be found in the nonstop melee of the final act, and nostalgia for a beloved childhood property aside, this just isn’t any more than meets the eye.

Score: 8/24

Recommended for you: Live-Action Transformers Movies Ranked

The ceremony will seemingly go ahead, despite TV network NBC dropping it from their schedule. This decision followed a controversial report about the awards that revealed that there were no black people included in the 87 members of the HFPA. This is the body of journalists that vote at the awards. This shocking lack of diversity resulted in many celebrities shunning the show, including Tom Cruise who handed back his three Golden Globes.

Additionally, a report by the L.A. Times implied corruption within the association and suggested that voters were often bribed by production companies. The example given was when voters were flown to Paris by Netflix to coincide with the release of the streaming service’s series ‘Emily in Paris’. Despite the show’s mixed reviews, ‘Emily in Paris’ received two nominations including Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Following the controversy, the HFPA have recruited 21 new members that are predominately diverse and made its existing members take diversity and equality training. A chief diversity officer has been appointed in addition to a partnership with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to ensure an awards ceremony more representative of the diverse talent that makes up the film industry.

Typically the Golden Globes mark the beginning of awards season, being the second biggest ceremony behind the Oscars. However, it remains to be seen what impact the upcoming event will have with no network to air on and likely little fanfare from the nominated talent.

The nominations themselves seek to highlight the top films of the year. The most nominated films for the 2022 ceremony are Sir Kenneth Branagh’s drama Belfast and Jane Campion’s gripping western The Power of the Dog. Both films are nominated for 7 awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director. Belfast has already picked up some significant awards including the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Power of The Dog meanwhile continues Netflix’s trend of releasing award show juggernauts, with previous efforts including The Irishman and Roma. 

Behind these two are the star-studded Don’t Look Up, Will Smith vehicle King Richard, Paul Thomas Anderson’s love letter to 1970s L.A., Licorice Pizza, and Steven Spielberg’s first ever musical, West Side Story. Each have been nominated for 4 awards.

The winners will be announced on the 9th January 2022.

The nominees in film for the 2022 Golden Globes are:

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Belfast
Coda
Dune
King Richard
The Power of the Dog

BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Cyrano
Don’t Look Up
Licorice Pizza
Tick, Tick … Boom!
West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

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BEST ACTOR – DRAMA
Mahershala Ali (Swan Song)
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Will Smith (King Richard)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
Lady Gaga (House of Gucci)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

BEST ACTOR – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Leonardo DiCaprio (Don’t Look Up)
Peter Dinklage (Cyrano)
Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!)
Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza)
Anthony Ramos (In the Heights)

BEST ACTRESS – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Marion Cotillard (Annette)
Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)
Jennifer Lawrence (Don’t Look Up)
Emma Stone (Cruella)
Rachel Zegler (West Side Story)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOTON PICTURE
Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar)
Jamie Dornan (Belfast)
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOTON PICTURE
Caitríona Balfe (Belfast)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)
Ruth Negga (Passing)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up)
Aaron Sorkin (Being the Ricardos)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The French Dispatch (Alexandre Desplat)
Encanto (Germaine Franco)
The Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)
Parallel Mothers (Alberto Iglesias)
Dune (Hans Zimmer)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG 
“Be Alive” (King Richard)
“Dos Orugitas” (Encanto)
“Down to Joy” (Belfast)
“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” (Respect)
“No Time to Die” (No Time to Die)

BEST MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED
Encanto
Flee
Luca
My Sunny Maad
Raya and the Last Dragon

BEST MOTION PICTURE – FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Compartment No. 6 (Finland)
Drive My Car (Japan)
The Hand of God (Italy)
A Hero (Iran)
Parallel Mothers (Spain)

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Dinklage is perhaps best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’. However, the Golden Globe winner has multiple film roles under his belt too, including awards juggernaut Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Dinklage has also appeared in superhero films before, playing the antagonist Bolivar Trask in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Eitri in Avengers: Infinity War.

The original film follows Melvin, who becomes horrifically disfigured after being pushed into a barrel of toxic waste. He henceforth vows to protect his community from evildoers, thus becoming the Toxic Avenger. The film was initially unsuccessful but found an audience with midnight showings which garnered its cult status.

The remake is to be helmed by Macon Blair in what will be his second directed feature film, after 2017’s I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, a Netflix backed film that was met with praise from critics. Blair has also acted in multiple films, including Green Room and The Florida Project.

Original creators Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz will be producers on the re-imagining. No release date is currently known.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017/18)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Screenwriter: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Željko Ivanek, Caleb Landry Jones

Frances McDormand’s Mildred hires three billboards outside of the small town of Ebbing, Missouri to call into question the work of Woody Harrelson’s local Sheriff Bill Willoughby and his band of cops headlined by the child-like Dixon (Sam Rockwell) as regards the unsolved sexual assault and murder of her daughter. What ensues is a part Western, part biblical redemption story told in screenwriter-director Martin McDonagh’s now signature darkly humorous tone; a film that explores righteous and all-consuming anger through the use of a comedic sensibility that will make you gasp as you laugh – a funny but altogether more heartbreaking movie headlined by a sensational ensemble cast.

McDormand turns in her best performance since Fargo as a battle-hardened woman consumed, driven and poisoned by anger towards the loss of her daughter. The actress’s commitment to Mildred’s profanity filled dialogue gifts the character an honesty that is learned to be appreciated as she is unveiled, and McDormand’s beautifully subtle portrayal of a fragility that underlines the outwardly aggressive and unforgiving character shines through to the screen like a beacon of hope that Mildred isn’t too far gone to be able to live again, to be able to move past her own guilt. McDormand is, of course, an actress of enormous quality whose work is comparable to that of the very best, and in Three Billboards she is certainly at the top of her game, providing a tour-de-force performance that strikes the right tone in both drama and in comedy.

The director of Three Billboards, Martin McDonagh, assists this standout aspect of the film by centring his lens on the performance in such a manner that it celebrates the most minute details of it, lingering for just long enough to see the anger replaced by fear and/or sadness in many a confrontation, emphasising McDormand’s incredible work and planting seeds of redemption in every increasingly questionable move – this is in a woman who publicly posts defamatory comments regarding a man dying of cancer in the full knowledge that he is, indeed, dying from the disease. Of course, the idea of redemption has become the centrepiece of McDonagh’s writing and the very nature of his gasp-as-you-laugh style, providing an underlying reassurance that every character is redeemable by plot, and that humanity is ultimately good. Sam Rockwell’s racist, childish police officer Dixon is perhaps the best example of this as regards Three Billboards, as his character grows from a buffoon of a man to one of the more honourable and perhaps righteous of all the characters. We see Dixon become good, at least in the skewed perspective of the film’s Western-movie universe, but we know there’s potential for this redemption very early on, and that is brought about by fantastic screenwriting from a filmmaker who never seems afraid of pitting similar forces of good and evil against one another; a director who relishes the opportunity to have a questionable favouritism towards one character’s perspective over another’s.

Unsurprisingly, Rockwell fulfils the obligation of presenting each side of his character with the same flair that we’ve seen from him in the past, only this time anchoring his every move in the underlying complications of the character’s life and the film’s small-town setting. Rockwell, whose contributions to cinema across the years have often been overlooked despite being of a regularly tremendous quality, seems likely to get his due for this performance throughout awards season, a deserved period of appreciation for an actor who simply takes your breath away in this film.

Lucas Hedges, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, Caleb Landry Jones and Željko Ivanek make up the majority of the film’s supporting cast, with each of them unfortunately being given little room to breathe their own life into the feature in any way other than to enhance the unusual qualities of the central threesome of McDormand, Rockwell and Harrelson. It is typical of McDonagh or, indeed, any film of the independent roots of Three Billboards to try and fill a movie with as many recognisable names as possible, but other than in being present, many of the above-mentioned names seem lost to the greater goings on of the film, almost as if interchangeable despite being solid in what is demanded of them. It is perhaps to be expected then that it is only through Harrelson that McDormand and Rockwell are given a run for their money as regards their outstanding performances, with the long established actor offering a much more vulnerable characterisation than his cohorts, notably stepping into a realm of softness that seems far removed from many of the roles we’ve seen him fill before; most notably in his previous work with McDonagh in Seven Psychopaths. As is the case with McDormand and Rockwell, Harrelson is spurred on by a deep character arc that comes to bullet point the movie with key story beats, and it is through the creative way in which McDonagh does this that the film begins to take on an altogether more poetic quality; one that emphasises the picture’s under-arching biblical themes regarding morality and provides the picture its screenwriting signature – that of hinting at the ending of the film long before it comes.

As a collective, the Three Billboards cast and crew have developed a film that ponders a lot of questions and is filled with a lot of heart. Their collective efforts towards establishing a tone that is as charcoal black as humour can get, reaps rewards beyond that of a usual dark comedy, and McDonagh’s writing vitally uses this tone to open up a conversation regarding conservative America without patronising it or presenting it villainous in the typical sense, helping to open up an understanding – albeit an idealistic one – of the people of America’s lost towns and communities; the heartlands of Trump’s America. As a result, much has been made of the film’s political standing and the manner through which it can be viewed as reinforcing even the most dangerous of right-wing agendas, but the reality seems to be more that this is a filmmaker asking his audience a question as regards our own prejudices, a story that brings our own morality into the picture; McDonagh asks questions, he doesn’t necessarily answer them. In terms of politics, it would seem that McDonagh likes to leave as much unsaid as his characters do in this screenplay, that his focus is on having the film be read as you wish for it to be read as opposed to how he dictates it to you; an aspect of his style that seems to be echoed in the way he presents his stories visually.

McDonagh has never been a director who likes to emphasise that the camera is present – perhaps an overstay from his days directing theatre – nor has he ever made films as visually wondrous in the typically artful sense as some other awards season contenders this year (2018), but he has always had a keen eye for performance-driven, un-invasive visual artistry that cuts at the right time and brings the best out of his outstanding written work. In Three Billboards, McDonagh is emphasising what’s within the frame in a way unlike anyone in the current landscape, respecting the screenplay and appreciating the actors above all else, bringing out largely important (but often physically minute) moments of quality that can often go overlooked. His visual work, from the very foundations of the movie that indicate it to be an old-fashioned Western tale of an outlaw wreaking havoc, to the moments of situational comedy that hit a strike on every single turn, are therefore perhaps underappreciated aspects of his filmmaking repertoire, though they remain indicative of a well-planned creative mind confident in his own artistic abilities. As a director, McDonagh seems on the surface at least to lack a visual flair, but with Three Billboards it seems clear that this is not the case, and that the director is quietly presenting some incredible visual work underneath the absurdly funny and dark written material that is the most striking part of this presentation and indeed his entire ouevre.

In hiring Carter Burwell (a partner of the Coen Brothers – themselves genre inflecting directors with a leaning towards dark comedy) to write the score for Three Billboards, director McDonagh also helped to bring an off-kilter Western sound to his movie, reinforcing the very nature of pairing his darkly humourous work with that of the oldest genre, as well as helping to emphasise the unusual characters at the very centre of the piece. It was a tactic that, much like his own visual style, worked to underline the very best aspects of what was on show despite being less obviously standout than the truly gripping aspects of the film. In many ways, the score was perhaps the biggest indicator as to the film’s understated mastery; an intricate design meant to slowly bleed into your subconscious.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri was, then, a standout of the year as regards performance, with Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell stealing the show from the picture’s sensational screenplay which in of itself should not be overlooked or under-praised. It is, however, in the smaller and more intricate details of the film – such as the pacing of its cuts and how the film sounds – that Three Billboards truly gets under your skin, bringing a deep sense of empathy to this incredibly well constructed modernisation of the Western. Perhaps the biggest test for this film will come under the scrutiny of multiple viewings, as whether its story of twists and turns will be quite as worthy of investment the second time around (given its tough subject matter and almost academic precision) remains to be seen. For first time viewers however, Three Billboards offers a unique viewing experience built from the strengths of its screenplay and dashed with flavour by its performances. It is the type of film that fans of McDonagh, or even the Coen Brothers – themselves sharing similar talents for presenting darkly humorous movies with dictatorial precision – will enjoy immensely, and is of such a high quality that it’s bound to satisfy less invested cinema goers too.

20/24

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