Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Chris Van Allsburg's book Jumanji is best known for its 1995 film version. The book had a sequel, Zathura, which had its own movie in 2005. The film now has a sequel of its own, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The end result is a surprisingly fun year-end blockbuster.

It's a normal day in detention. Spencer got caught writing homework essays for his jock ex-friend, Fridge. Bethany is a stuck up valley girl and Martha is socially awkward. They were supposed to prepare old magazines for recycling. But they get distracted when Fridge uncovers an Atari-ish console and the Jumanji video game. They start it up for a lark, but they get sucked up into the game's world.

In this world, Spencer is brawny Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), Fridge is "Mouse" Finbar (Kevin Hart), Martha is the stunning Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) and Bethany is the smart guy, Prof. Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black). They have to return a MacGuffin Jewel to a big Panther Statue to beat the game. They'll return to reality if they win. But it's game over for them if they use up their three lives. The evil hunter Van Pelt (Bobby Cannavale) wants to stop their progress. They'll have to join forces to beat him and their personal problems.

The screenplay was written by five people including director Jake Kasdan. It's a strong action/comedy story that keeps our attention for 119 minutes. It's a nice movie realization of a video game narrative and its quirks like NPCs with limited dialogue. Their personal problems lead to both fun and serious moments. Their deaths are as brutal as a PG-13 rating allows. We believe the stakes when the cast is down to their last lives. It's more than a mere video game story.

It helps that the main characters are likable. Both sets of actors playing our heroes are great. The game cast gets the mannerisms of their real life counterparts down perfectly. They cohesively play their characters which makes the body-changing bits believable. Martha/Ruby had the best story as she learns to be self-confidant. Bethany/Oberon was obnoxious at first, but not that much, which makes her redemption work. Fridge/Mouse and Spencer/Bravestone had great chemistry and their reconciliation was nice. Cannavale made for a formidable villain as Van Pelt. Nick Jonas also made an impression as Jefferson Seaplane, another Jumanji victim who joins their group.

There's much to like about Jumanji's design. The best aspect is Gyula Pados's cinematography, which has many grand scenery shots of Hawaii. It's some of the best filming of the Islands in an action movie since Jurassic Park. Editors Mark Helfrich and Steve Edwards set the pace nicely for the film's action and comedy scenes. Henry Jackman's score was good as was the sound design. The visual effects realize a fine display of animals and Jumanji's powers.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle stands on its own feet with pride. It's distinct from its predecessor and its borrowed story beats aren't a detriment. The main heroes are clearly having fun as their real/digital characters. It's easy to forget that they're two separate casts playing the same characters. The ending is perfectly dramedic. It's a nice way to end this year and prepare for 2018.

Please don't let the world end next year...

The Shape of Water

The Mummy tried and failed to illuminate Universal's Dark Universe last summer. Their new Bride of Frankenstein might not happen at all. What should Universal do? Get Guillermo del Toro, or at least learn from his take on The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Shape of Water. It's one of the most memorable monster movies of this or any year.

It's 1962 in Baltimore. Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) is a mute janitor employed by a government research center. Her best friends are a closeted artist, Giles (Richard Jenkins) and her co-worker/interpreter Zelda (Octavia Spencer). She's present when the center receives a new "Asset." The cruel supervisor, Col. Strickland (Michael Shannon), thinks the Asset can help them win the space race. But the Asset bites his fingers off instead.

While she and Zelda clean the bloody mess, Elisa meets the Asset (Doug Jones), an Amphibian Man from South America. Elisa is instantly drawn to the Amphibian Man and starts to secretly see him during hours. She wins him over with kindness, hardboiled eggs and Benny Goodman. She hatches a covert plan to sneak him out of the facility and out to sea. But she'll have to hurry when Strickland decides to dissect "his Asset." Meanwhile, a Soviet spy named Dr. Hofstadler (Michael Stuhlbarg) is driven by conscience to help the plan.

Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor's screenplay tells a great genre-bending story. Elisa's time with the Amphibian Man makes for a charming love story. They even have a few funny moments. But it's also a legitimately tense Cold War movie. It's also a strong story about outcasts in an uncaring world. They even have time for an imaginary musical number! These moods flow together quite naturally. You'll know the stakes Elisa and the Amphibian Man face. You'll definitely feel it once the ending hits.

Hawkins and Jones are compelling leads. Neither one speaks, but say a whole lot by emoting. They're more compatible than their biology might suggest. The audience is on their side through the movie. Col. Strickland is a truly vile villain who finds new ways to offend the audience. Spencer is great as Zelda, as are Jenkins and Stuhlbarg as their characters. The best bit part is the "Pie Guy" (Morgan Kelly), a seemingly friendly pie shop man who turns out to be a bigot.

The technical crew gives this movie a great shape. There's quite a few subtle visual effects, mainly those that compliment Jones's Amphibian Man makeup. The completed image is a compelling movie monster. The most obvious effects are the film's grand underwater scenes which open and close the movie. The production design creates some alluring, yet dreary environments, such as the lab and Elisa's apartment. It's complimented by Dan Lausten's cinematography. The genre-bending is helped by editor Sidney Wolisky's work, who switches the moods quite easily. The sound designers create a variety of memorable noises for the Amphibian Man to vocalize with. Alexandre Desplat's score is another charming soundtrack.

The Shape of Water is a grand fairy tale as much as del Toro's earlier Pan's Labyrinth. Its story about unlikely romance keeps one's attention for 123 minutes. The characters are memorable people instead of props for an action scene. Its visual style wins you over as much as del Toro's other films. It's a great use of $19.5 million. See it as soon as you can. You won't forget it. It deserves its awards buzz.

Darkest Hour

So how many World War II movies this year? I think this makes four.

Dunkirk made its mark on the big screen last summer. The epic story of that moment in World War II is told again from a smaller, different perspective in Darkest Hour. This makes the second time British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had his own biopic this year. The first, Churchill, was a critical dud. That's the opposite of this movie.

May 1940. The Nazis are quickly invading Europe. Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) is forced to resign as Prime Minister. Parliament unanimously chooses Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) as his successor. Churchill's outspoken personality makes him an uneasy decision. His plan to face down the Axis Powers instead of negotiate peace unnerves Parliament. Chamberlain and Viscount Halifax (Stephen Dillane) decide to resign their positions in Churchill's cabinet as part of a scheme to get the latter appointed Prime Minister. Churchill has to prove them wrong when British soldiers get stranded in France.

Director Joe Wright and screenwriter Anthony McCarten keep things going for a brisk 125 minutes. It's surprisingly brisk given how verbose the movie is. Fortunately, the speeches drive the action rather than grind it to a halt. It's true when Churchill travels the Underground and meets a few folks. The awkwardness of the crowd to this unexpected traveler gives way to their declarations they support the good fight. It all leads to Churchill's climactic speech "we shall fight on the beaches."

Gary Oldman as Churchill makes it work.  His sarcastic personality doesn't win him many friends, but it wins a few laughs. One highlight is when he finds what the "V for Victory" pose also means. The story of him becoming a man of the people is a strong one. He starts the film being rude to his new secretary Elizabeth Layton (Lily James), but he soon learns how to be better to his closest confidants. His determination to face down Hitler wins him the audience's favor.

Oldman may be the highlight of the cast, but the other actors make great impressions. Pickup made a strong Chamberlain, a character more complex than the one depicted in history. Kristen Scott Thomas also did great as Churchill's wife, Clementine. Ben Mendelsohn was nicely cast as King George VI, and his performance is sure to draw comparisons to The King's Speech.

The technical highlight of the piece is the makeup supervised by Kazuhiro Tsuji. Oldman is believably sculpted into Churchill's image and other actors are perfectly aged up too. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel has several strong aerial shots. The claustrophobic production design is also a visual highlight. The editing by Valerio Boneli helps the film move along nicely. On the aural side, Dario Marianelli has another memorable score. The best use of sound is the silent opening montage of newsreels to highlight the Nazi menace.

Darkest Hour is a strong dramatization of early World War II. One can draw their own conclusions about its politics but it's the best film I've seen to realize Winston Churchill's quick wit. Nary a word is wasted in this screenplay. It more than makes up for Anna Karenina.

Downsizing

Who ever thought that Alexander Payne's biggest movie would be his smallest?!

Downsizing's $68 million budget makes it his most expensive film. It's also his first collaboration with his Sideways writing partner Jim Taylor since that movie. It's not a perfect movie. Let's work out why.

Paul (Matt Damon) and Audrey Safranek (Kristin Wiig) aren't happy with their cash-strapped existence in Omaha. Fortunately for them, a pair of Norwegian scientists have found a way to miniaturize people. It's their way to decrease humanity's collective carbon footprint. The Downsizing process is irreversible, but the affected become proportionately wealthier. Paul and Audrey agree to the process. But Audrey backs off at the last second, leaving Paul alone in the Leisureland community.

The rest of the movie has Paul adjusting to his life as a little person. His upstairs neighbor is Dusan (Christoph Waltz), a middle-age party man. He also meets Dusan's housekeeper, Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), a forcibly downsized political prisoner. Paul assists her in assisting the poor people in their shrunken world. As for the standard sized world, downsizing co-inventor Dr. Asbjørnsen sees no hope for it. So he's decided to seal himself and others away in a mountain. Paul's gotta choose something.

The first part of the movie is the best. It was intriguing to see the downsizing process explained. It was even better to see the little people interact with the standard sized. It led to some great visual gags. But the film soon acts as if the standard sized world doesn't exist. It's just Paul's time in the little world, which is now his standard sized world. His dour life and the poverty outside seem to imply a message that there's a downside to the downsized utopia. It gets sidetracked by the end of the world stuff.

Matt Damon as Paul was an average protagonist. He's not really a jerk, but he's kind of dull. His wanting to downsize, to live comfortably, is a valid one. But he's in the same rut the film opens him with until Ngoc Lan Tran shows up. And that's nearly an hour into the film. His climactic decision is bit of a headscratcher.

Hong Chau's performance makes the second half bearable. Her accent might rub people the wrong way (it's not the actress's actual accent), but her story is compelling. She still does good for the impoverished even when downsized. She'll help people even when the world is about to end. As we later find out, it took a while for her to adjust to her state. Again, it would be nice if the film developed its downside to utopia theme more.

I mentioned the great shrinking visual effects earlier. I can also mention the great production design too. The downsized environments, from Leisureland to the first downsized colony in Norway, are appealing. The cinematography by Phedon Papamichael illuminates them quite well. The upsized props were pretty good. The editing by Kevin Trent works when it reveals the size disparity between people. Or when it sets up its final, explosive joke. These technical aspects work even when the story didn't do that well.

Downsizing could've used some more focus to make it work. There are some great ideas here, but they disappear when the film goes off in a tangent. It was disappointing to see the size disparities vanish after the first part. But a few aspects made the rest of the film work. Hopefully, Payne's next film will keep its head out of the clouds, even if it reaches for the stars.

Wonder

The cinematic word of the year is Wonder.

In 2017, we've had Wonder Woman, Wonderstruck, Wonder Wheel, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women and Wonder. It took forever for me to decide see Wonder, the film version of R.J. Palacio's novel. Now here's the review.

Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) was born with the facial deforming Treacher Collins Syndrome. His face is still disfigured even after numerous plastic surgeries. His parents, Isabel (Julia Roberts) and Nate (Owen Wilson), had him home schooled all his life. But they've decided to enroll him into a normal school this year. A few kids quickly become Auggie's friends, Jack Will (Noah Jupe) and Summer (Millie Davis). Another one, Julian (Bryce Gheisar), is far from friendly. Meanwhile, Auggie's sister Via (Izabela Vidovic) deals with her own issues in high school. They include joining drama club, reconciling with her jaded best friend Miranda, and meeting Justin (Nadji Jeter).

Tremblay as Auggie makes the film work wonders. As in Room, Tremblay's performance is emotional and funny. We can feel for him when the world becomes too much. We can laugh at his many jokes. His incisive narration resonates with the audience even if the audio is screwed up (which happened in my screening). He emotes perfectly through the makeup work, which was most recently shortlisted for Oscar consideration.

The screenplay, which director Stephen Chbosky wrote with Jack Thorne and Steven Conrad, gives plenty of story time to other characters. There are segments to develop Jack, Miranda and Via's perspectives. Jack, for instance, unknowingly taunts Auggie behind his back and it really stings. His segment to redeem himself redeems himself in the audience and Auggie's eyes. With Miranda, we learn about her home life and Via is about her being Auggie's sister. Both girls reconcile when the drama club stages Our Town. Julian grew to be unlikable, but his rich snob parents prove themselves even worse. The most sympathetic side character is Daisy the Dog, whose eventual fate is why I put off seeing the movie so long.

Editor Mark Livosi strings together the segments quite well. His best accomplishment is editing Auggie's fantasy sequences. He daydreams himself a famous astronaut and even counts Chewbacca and Emperor Palapatine as his imaginary friends. The Star Wars characters are pretty funny cameos if you see The Last Jedi and this movie back-to-back. Marcelo Zarvos's score was also fine, though I wish the audio issue was fixed. Don Burgess's cinematography gives us some nice views of New York City and Auggie's fantasy life.

Wonder is a strong family movie. It's poignant for anyone with a disability or a relative of said anyone. Anyone bullied for being different will identify with this movie. Its emotional story is well told with barely any overdone melodrama. You'll certainly identify with its optimistic messages. See it if it's still playing.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The Force is still strong with Disney's Star Wars.

Two years after The Force Awakens stimulated the box office, The Last Jedi is ready to do the same. It's a grand space adventure which leaves its mark beyond its visuals. Let's elaborate.

The evil First Order have found that pesky Resistance Force base. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) leads a daring mission which gets the Resistance cleared out but leaves them without a Bomber Fleet. Unfortunately, Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and his fleet get the drop on the Resistance. The First Order have a tracking device so powerful not even lightspeed can save the Resistance. And the Resistance is almost out of fuel. They just need someone to hack the tracking device. So Finn (John Boyega), BB-8, and mechanic Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) head off to find a "master codebreaker" while Poe stays as mission control.

Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on the planet Ach-To. She wants the Jedi Master to teach her the ways of the Force and to help save the Resistance. But he considers the Jedi a lost cause and refuses. Rey also finds herself linked to the evil Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who's not sure about his place in the Force. Ren's got a few secrets concerning him and Luke that'll test Rey's faith. And time's also running out for the Resistance.

Writer/Director Rian Johnson divides up the film's 151 minutes in several concise storylines. There's Finn and Rose's mission, Rey's time with Luke, Ren's Jedi angst and the Resistance fleet stuff. The main characters all get a few memorable bits even if some don't stick around for long. It all goes back and forth in a comprehensive manner and comes together in a climactic fight on a salt planet. There's a nice balance of action, humor and drama in this space adventure. Its last few minutes will leave you wondering how they'll continue the story in Episode 9.

The franchise's technical excellence continues here. The film looked and sounded great. The visual effects featured some of the best CGI in the franchise. The space battles and creatures were outstanding. The production design realized a new batch of wonderfully alien worlds. The most memorable locale is Snoke's chamber for its bright red paint job. The sound mix was also perfect. John Williams's score sets the galactic mood perfectly once again.

The Last Jedi continues the story of that "galaxy far, far away" with style and substance. It might not go down like you'd expect but it worked for me. I'd like to see how Episode 9 deals with the idea of shaping one's destiny that the film's reveals paved. That's a compelling idea. I also hope they'll find a good way to write off Leia after Carrie Fisher's death last year (the credits include a dedication to her). She was another highlight in the galactic ensemble. We have Solo: A Star Wars Story to look forward to next year. Let's see how that is.

Ferdinand

Munro Leaf's book The Story of Ferdinand was already adapted as a 1938 Disney short, the source of one of Walt's many, many Oscars. We'll see if this feature film version, Ferdinand, can follow its Golden Globe nomination this past Monday with an Oscar nomination. We can hope it'll breathe while The Last Jedi is taking over the multiplexes.

Ferdinand loves to smell the flowers. His fellow bulls in Casa del Toro love to butt heads and dream of getting picked by a matador. Ferdinand's dad, Raf (Jeremy Sisto), gets picked by a matador and never returns. Ferdinand makes a run for it and winds up with Nina (Lilly Day) and her florist father, Juan (Juanes). Ferdinand (John Cena) grows up big and strong and still a nice guy. But he's still big. So when he follows Nina to town, he gets stung by a bee and goes on an accidental rampage. He's immediately sent back to Casa del Toro.

Ferdinand is re-introduced to the bullies from his childhood, plus a few new faces. One of them is Lupe the Goat (Kate McKinnon), who wants to coach him to be a prime cut fighting bull. A matador named El Primero (Miguel Angel Silvestre) comes to Casa del Toro to choose an opponent for his swan song match. The bulls have to toughen up or else they'll go to the slaughterhouse. But Ferdinand would rather be "the champion of not fighting." His best option is to get out of Casa del Toro, again.

The screenplay/story was by six people and realized by director Carlos Saldanha. Many of its cutesy gags were teased for months in trailers going back to March. I'm especially referring to Ferdinand's actual bull-in-a-china-shop maneuver. The unfazed shop owner provided a great gag not shown in the ads, however. But its dramatic story was a endearing one. It's a story of a bull, his human, and him wanting to live in peace. It's an easy story to understand. His conversation with his dad was its most cliched; I could smell the retirony when Raf bragged how he'd make it out alive. The slaughterhouse plot point was a legitimately dramatic swerve, though once a second bull went there, I knew there'd be a rescue mission coming.

The cast is a prime selection. Ferdinand is a fun, nice bull who wants to smell the roses. He makes friends out of his enemies and refuses to give in to violence. This endears him to his audience in and out of this movie. Lupe is a fine mentor character with a pleasant, quirky personality. The other bulls were an eclectic bunch, the standouts being Valiente (Bobby Cannavale), Ferdinand's main rival and Angus (David Tennant), the Scottish bull Ferdinand befriends first. There's a trio of horses (Flula Borg, Boris Kodjoe and Sally Phillips) and trio of hedgehogs (Gina Rodriguez, Daveed Diggs and Gabriel Iglesias) who provide some good comic relief. The horses' dance-off with the bulls (long story) ran too long, but they otherwise never overstayed their welcome. Borg's character, Hans, provides the best line "Help, I've fallen and can't giddy-up." El Primero made for a good antagonist; the resolution to his fight with Ferdinand shows him a man of honor.

The art style was exquisite. The view of Juan's farm from Ferdinand's favorite tree was the best scenery in the film. Its recreation of Madrid was also wonderfully stylish. The sound design is where it gets the most points. Switching between the actors' voices and animal sound effects was its most stylish feat. John Powell's score made for another fine soundtrack. The highlight was the source of the film's other Golden Globe nomination, the song Home, co-written and performed by Nick Jonas. It's an emotional and catchy song.

Ferdinand is an amiable family film which keeps going strong for 108 minutes. It doesn't write down to its audience with cheap gags and obnoxious characters. It knows how to be funny and serious when it needs to be. Its moral makes me think of a kid-friendly Hacksaw Ridge and it works just the same with this audience. If you can find the time, and if your local multiplex isn't flooded by Star Wars, take some time to get to know Ferdinand.

The Disaster Artist

Oh hi, The Disaster Artist. I've been waiting for you. Let's describe you, huh?

Tommy Wiseau's melodrama The Room became a cult classic of bad movies after its 2003 debut. Ten years later, Wiseau's co-star and real life friend Greg Sestero co-wrote a book about his experiences on the set, The Disaster Artist. We now have the film of the book, directed by and starring James Franco with his brother Dave.

It's 1998 and Greg Sestero (Dave) is an aspiring student in San Francisco. He lacks the confidence that the eccentric, uniquely-accented Tommy Wiseau (James) has. Greg and Tommy strike a friendship and move to Los Angeles to make it big. But only Greg has slightly more success than Tommy. Tommy decides to make his own movie, The Room.

The film stars Tommy as Johnny, a "wonderful person" who loves his fiancee future wife, Lisa (Juliette Danielle, played here by Ari Graynor), who finds him boring, so she seduces his "best friend" Mark (Greg). Greg agrees to the project, flawed as it may be, and they go to work.

Tommy's unique view of the film-making process causes problems. He wastes money on unnecessary equipment and sets and neglects necessary equipment. He forgets the lines that he, himself, wrote. He shows up late to the set a few times and treats the cast and crew poorly. He can't even explain the plot of the movie. The troubled production strains Greg and Tommy's friendship. It also leads Greg and others to question if The Room would ever be released.

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber's screenplay builds a compelling narrative around the madness. It's a story of Hollywood dreams that made me think of a darker La La Land. Greg and Tommy's story shows how hard it is to break into filmmaking. It even shows how hard it is to run a cheap film set. But it still can be rewarding. Its recreation of The Room's most infamous moments ("I did not hit her. It's not true [...] Oh, hi Mark.") is a laugh riot. The end credits even begin with side-by-side recreations of the actual movie, including multiple takes of the same scenes.

James Franco as Tommy is great. He matches his real-life counterpart's eccentricities and accent perfectly. His unique worldview is a laugh riot. He hams up A Streetcar Named Desire in his first scene. But you'll feel it when Tommy's dark side appears. You won't laugh when Tommy's negligence causes Carolyn Minnott (Jacki Weaver), playing Lisa's mother, to pass out (she recovers quickly, though). It felt like Tommy was venting out his frustrations, some of which we know, on the crew. But that's not right. That subtext made him more like a character than an impersonation. The real Wiseau himself appears in a post-credit scene opposite his movie counterpart.

Dave Franco as Greg is also excellent. He's a strong protagonist whose aspirations are admirable. We can feel his frustrations as the production and his personal life go wrong. It's not easy, for sure. The supporting cast is made of notable actors. Co-Producer Seth Rogen plays Sandy Schklair, The Room's script supervisor and de-facto director, and a perfect sane man. Sharon Stone and Melanie Griffith have notable cameos as Greg's agent, Iris Burton and acting teacher, Jean Shelton, respectively. But the best supporting part has to be Zac Efron as Dan Janjigian, who plays a violent drug-dealer who factors in one of The Room's pointless subplots.

The production and costume designers perfectly recreate the now-iconic imagery of The Room. The characters within the movie-within-a-movie look like the original movie's characters. Cinematographer Brandon Tost gives us a good look at Los Angeles, especially at night. His recreations of the original film look straight out of 2003. It also helped that the film was edited nicely by Stacey Schroeder. Dave Porter's score makes for a memorable soundtrack.

The Disaster Artist is sure to please anyone who adores The Room. It might baffle a few others, though. There were a few things it left out, but the end result is still a capable story about Hollywood and friendship. This might be the closest I get to seeing The Room on the big screen. And I wasn't disappointed.

Ha ha. What a story, Jethro.
Yeah, you can say that again.
Huh?

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Critics Choice Award nominations will be announced tomorrow. Unlike last year, they will not have a supremely truncated schedule, for they will be held on January 11th. A title that's sure to pop up somewhere a few times is the dark comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.

Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) isn't happy with the world right now. Her daughter, Angela (Kathryn Newton), was raped and murdered seven months ago. The police haven't found a culprit. She finds three abandoned billboards and rents them from Red Welby's (Caleb Landry Jones) ad agency. They ask, in sequence, "Raped while dying and still no arrests. How come Chief Willoughby?"  Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) is regarded as a paragon of virtue in the community. So the townsfolks don't take kindly to the perceived attack on his competence. Even the townsfolks sympathetic to Mildred's plight see the billboards as a step too far.

Willoughby wants to help Mildred crack the case but he's sidelined by legal regulations and his terminal cancer. His deputy Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) wants Mildred to take down the billboards yesterday. Her ex-husband Charlie (John Hawkes) also wants the billboards down. Mildred's bitter with the world. It eventually escalates when Willoughby finally dies. But will the billboards yield any positive results?

Director Martin McDonagh's screenplay gets its audience laughing with its audaciously casual dialogue. You won't forget the things Mildred or the Cops have to say. One particularly funny scene has Dixon fail to notice Mildred setting his own station on fire until it's too late. It also has a few shocking unfunny moments like Dixon's assault on Red Welby. Penelope (Samara Weaving), Charlie's much-younger girlfriend, is the much-needed light comic relief. She even accidentally provides the theme of the movie.

Mildred is a compelling lead even if her anger makes her lash out in unsympathetic ways. When Willoughby tells her he has cancer, she says she knows and she's still bitter about the lack of progress on her case. Meanwhile, Dixon's bad cop attitude makes him out to be a bumbling, albeit violent idiot. His attack on Red Welby was so disturbing it made his getting fired by Abbercrombie (Clarke Peters), Willoughby's replacement, utterly satisfying. Both of them learn to be better people later on, and it's surprising that even Dixon is capable of redemption.

Ben Davis's cinematography sets the mood perfectly as it introduces the billboards in a foggy morning. We first hear the mournful The Last Rose of Summer, the film's main theme, here. Davis's night photography is also striking, as is his long take of Dixon's aforementioned attack on Red. Carter Burwell's score is also another memorable soundtrack. Jon Gregory's editing keeps the film nice, tense and funny for 115 minutes.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri may amuse or depress you, but its story is resonant. It's a story of overcoming anger and why it's important to treat others, even disagreeable folks, nicely. It's also a story of people, like Willoughby, who are trying their best to do the right thing. Its themes stick thanks to its candor and characters. Its ending leaves us hanging but it leaves us to assume cooler heads will prevail. It's a truly dark comedy, so be prepared if you see it. You might not regret it if you do.