This is truly a terrible title for a really great movie.

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri is a fairly accurate description of the initial set up for the film, but seems to be too much of a mouthful to do this justice.

Despite the clunky title, the film is a tremendous film filled with dark comedic elements (I hesitate to call it a dark comedy), shocking moments of unpredictability and sensational performances by just about everyone in the ensemble cast.

After having her daughter raped and murdered seven years prior and seeing little advancement on the case from the local police, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) decided to take matters into her own hands and attempt to give the police a push into activity.  Mildred rented three little used billboards on a stretch of roads rarely used anymore and put up signs asking the question about why her daughter’s killer had not bee caught yet.  She called out popular local sheriff Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) on the billboards by name, starting a storm of trouble throughout the small town.

Much of the trouble is stirred up by police officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell), a racist, crooked cop who is known for reportedly torturing African-American suspects, but whom Willoughby keeps around because of his faith in the man inside of him.  Dixon is just about everything that you wish a police officer would not be.

Things happen in this film that you cannot believe as characters continue to escalate their behavior into ways that become worse and worse.  The film has many moments of humor, but, there are some times, when you will feel horrible for laughing.

There is no doubt that the three main actors here, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell are absolutely brilliant in their portrayals of these complex and, and in many ways, disturbing characters.  You begin the movie expecting to be rooting for one character in particular, but not too long into it, your choice is uncertain.  All three of these actors have a really good chance of being nominated for an Academy Award for this work.

McDormand, in particular, is at her very best, arguably.  She brings such pain and unforgiving anger to her character of Mildred that, despite her doing some things that may weaken her support, you understand the lengths that she takes it.  She feels like a natural disaster, a tornado of some kind pointed in a certain direction.

Rockwell gives an impactful performance as Dixon.  This is a character that could easily become one of those one-note villains that is there simply to provide a counter balance to the justice warrior that is McDormand.  However, Rockwell creates a much more interesting character that is fully developed and one that you actually relate with, despite his own, deep seeded issues and his horrible acts of anger.

That is the truth behind this movie.  The movie is not about justice.  This movie is about grief and loss and how these emotions are capable of creating an anger that can fester and rot inside of you until it explodes, changing the person that you are and suddenly washed by a wave of hostility.

I was into much of this movie, but I must say that I did not truly like the way the film ended, leaving too much ambiguity for this film.  I am also unsure if what they were thinking about doing really fit with either character.  For such a strong film, the ending was not what I had wanted.

I was also not too impressed with the inclusion of Peter Dinklage.  His character felt like he was included because they had Peter Dinklage and they needed a role for him.  I mean, he does fine in the role, but, without this character, I am not sure how this film changes and that feels like a waste of talent.

There were other good performances in the film though.  Lucas Hedges (from Manchester by the Sea) is really good as Mildred’s son.  Zeljko Ivanek was here as another cop.  Caleb Landrey Jones has a vital role as Red, who rents the billboards to Mildred.  Red has one of the most human scene in the film, providing almost a redeeming nature for the film.  John Hawkes brings more to the role of Mildred’s abusive ex-husband than you would think possible and, Samara Weaving brings an innocent humor to the stupidity of his new, 19-year old flame.  Finally, Sandy Martin is a hoot as the trailer-park-like momma for Dixon.

This movie will certainly be discussed come award season and it will be well deserved.  With the exception of a misstep at the end, Three Billboards outside Ebbing County is a very strong film with dynamic performances.

4.2 stars

There are certain movies where the performance of the lead actor/actress is far greater than the film itself.  Many spring to mind immediately including Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in Fences to name just a few.

Well, Denzel Washington has appeared in another movie where his performance is much better than the film itself.

Now, sometimes the great performance elevates the material and you start to see them as one and the same.  My three previous examples all received Oscar nominations for the films though none of them actually were Oscar worthy outside of individual performances.  I do not think that Washington’s new film, Roman J. Israel, Esq. will be nominated like these other films were, but it certainly falls into the same category.

The problem with the film is that there is not much more to it beside a strong and oddball performance from a great actor in Denzel Washington.

Roman J. Israel is a lawyer who has been working in a partnership with another lawyer for years.  Roman was the behind-the-scenes, legal expert and the partner was the “face” of the company.  Roman was an advocate for change within the system, carrying around a briefcase full of case action suit targeting the process of overcharging defendants to get plea bargains.

It was clear that Roman J. Israel had his priorities straight and that, despite being most likely somewhere upon the Autism Spectrum (though technically never stated), never lost track of who he was.  When his friend and partner died, Roman was thrown into situations that he had been shielded from for years and, suddenly, things like money and people’s opinions started to weigh heavy on the lawyer.

Denzel Washington does an amazing job creating this character and showing you how the situations really make him mortgage his personal ideals.  Washington engulfs himself in bad haircuts and misfitting suits, though you always see Denzel when watching.  He does not disappear into the role such as Jake Gyllenhaal’s in Nightcrawler, a film, like this one, also directed by Dan Gilroy.

Unfortunately, the story really wanders around too much, lacking focus for much of the film and eventually devolves into a dramatic thriller that stretches credibility too far.

Colin Farrell plays lawyer George Pierce, who hires Roman after the loss of Roman’s friend and colleague, but, unfortunately, the character of George is all over the place.  He seems to be a douche at first, and then suddenly appreciates Roman’s skills and then becomes angry with him for an error and then wants to be his friend.  I love Colin Farrell and he does a fine job as an actor in this film, but his character needed to be defined better.

Denzel Washington’s performance almost made this movie a movie that I would recommend, but I cannot quite get there.  The plot is just not there enough and the last third of the film becomes nonsensical.  However, it is clear that Denzel Washington is one of the top actors of our generation and his performance nearly pulled this film into respectability.  If you are someone who enjoys an amazing acting accomplishment, you might find Roman J. Israel, Esq. a meaningful watch.

2.9 stars

A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous and beloved pieces of fiction that had ever been written.  Charles Dickens wrote many amazing novels, but this is arguably his finest and greatest work.  The new film The Man Who Invented Christmas explored how a famous author like Charles Dickens creates such a classic work of fiction.

Playing like a biopic, the film adds an element of magic to the manner in which Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) created the characters of A Christmas Carol and eventually wrote the book.

Dickens had gone through a period of failure, having had three books flop after the massive success of Oliver Twist.  Seeing debt building up, Dickens set out to write a Christmas story with six weeks to go until Christmas.  These are true facts.

The film, however, takes the writing process to a different and remarkably original level.  Dickens would picture a characters, name a character and then they would appear to him.  When Scrooge (Christopher Plummer) showed up, he began to show what a rotten person he was, belittling Dickens as he struggled against the deadline, the writer’s blocks and the seemingly never ending interruptions from his family, staff and friends.

Each of these interruptions were involving some intriguing side characters in Charles Dickens’ life.  His father John (Jonathan Pryce) is a bit of a blowhard and huckster, but he is responsible for some serious baggage for Dickens.  The relationship between Dickens and his father is an important one in the creation of the character of Ebenezer Scrooge.

There is also a great relationship between Dickens and his friend Thackeray (Miles Jupp).  Thackeray was as loyal to Charles as anyone and his friendship and belief in the writer was a solid rock for Dickens.

The movie was remarkably charming. I was fully enthralled in the film as it continues, showing the “real-life’ inspirations Dickens took to create the characters and scenes of A Christmas Carol.  It was fun to hear certain well known lines from the story (ex. “if they are going to die then they should get on with it, and decrease the surplus population”) placed into the script in such a clever way.

Dan Stevens does a great job with his role, showing us a continuously nervous Charles Dickens, whose vivid imagination is amazing, but whose life threatens to drag him down and prevent him from finishing.  The flashbacks used help highlight the horrors of the young Charlie Dickens’ past were effective and brought us back around successfully to what the narrative was wanting us to understand.  Much like Scrooge, the key to Charles Dickens successful future lied in the past and the present and Dan Stevens is so likable that he makes a perfect protagonist here.

There were some secondary characters that are introduced that are not developed very much.  Charles’s wife Kate (Morfydd Clark) has a nice scene near the end of the film, but it seemed to come out of nowhere.  The inclusion of a character named Tara (Anna Murphy) seemed an odd choice and I was not sure why she was meant to be significant but she clearly was.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Man Who Invented Christmas (though that was an odd title, somewhat misleading) and I found it extremely charming.  If you are looking for a good Christmas movie this year, don’t waste your time on Daddy’s Home 2 and instead look this one up.  God bless us.  Everyone.

4 stars

In 1999, the movie Man on the Moon came out and told the story of comic Andy Kaufman, being played by Jim Carrey.  By all appearances, this was your standard biopic that we see all the time.

However, Jim Carrey had taken it to another level.

Famously reported during filming was the fact that Jim Carrey had completely encompassed the role of Andy Kaufman to an extent where he was actively, 24/7 being Andy Kaufman.

Jim Carrey took Method acting to a whole new level.

Now, 18 years later, a new documentary appeared on Netflix featuring behind the scenes footage shot for a documentary at the time showing just how lost Jim Carrey had become inside the role of Andy Kaufman… and the very special contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton, too.  This footage is reportedly hidden away to protect Jim Carrey from himself.

These images of Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman were interspersed with a present day interview with a heavily bearded Jim Carrey, providing contradiction to the antics of the sprite that had apparently possessed the actor during the movie’s filming.

It was a tremendous documentary, with an almost unbelievable pretense.  The shocked expressions of cast mates like Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch down to Andy Kaufman’s real family members told the story of how Jim Carrey was no longer there.  He spoke in third person when referring to Jim Carrey.  He spoke like Andy Kaufman (or Tony Clifton)

Jim Carrey with the beard kept saying that, at the time, he kept asking himself, “how far would Andy go?”

I felt bad for Jerry “The King” Lawler, who seemed to take his share of grief from “Andy” and he reacted,at times, like the professional wrestler that he is.  Lawler spoke of how back when Kaufman and he were doing their wrestling shtick in Memphis how Andy would always be respectful behind the scenes and how they would plan out things together and that aspect seemed to have been pushed aside by Carrey for the sake of realism.  In pro wrestling, it is called kayfabe and Jim Carrey was all about that.

The documentary is well put together and really has a great hook with the missing footage from behind the scenes.  Just looking at the other cast members staring at Jim Carrey in disbelief is worth it, but we get more than just that.  We have a look inside the mind of two of the most fascinating comedic actors/performers of recent memory.

4.5 stars

This is not a film about LBJ’s wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

At first, I thought that this was a biopic, but, after seeing a recent trailer, I realized that I was wrong.  Instead, it is a coming of age story about a young girl and her struggles in school, in family and in life.

The film is very well done.  Honestly, there is not a huge plot involved here.  It is basically the senior year in high school for “Lady Bird” Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) and the family struggles that she faced.  Her mother is played by Laurie Metcalf, who is remarkable here.  Metcalf, whether she is in sitcoms like Roseanne or the Big Bang Theory or movies like Toy Story or Meet the Robinsons, is always fantastic.  Here is just more of the same from her.  Great work.

I also enjoyed the work of the actor playing Lady Bird’s father, Tracy Letts.  I recognized him in the film, but I wasn’t able to place him.  He was very solid as the older man who had to struggle with depression and tried to avoid being overwhelmed by the more dominant Metcalf.  He was softer and quieter and very compelling.

There were plenty of typical scenes you would see in a coming of age story revolving around the final year of high school. Lady Bird wanted to escape from Sacramento to the east coast, but her mother was against that.  In fact, her mother found many passive aggressive ways to get a message across to Lady Bird that had the teen ready to get out of the house.  There was the first sexual encounter with the band member.  There is a school play and musical.  There is the friend who turns out gay.  There is a lot of dealing with the differing class structure of the school, with Lady Bird and her family certainly on the lower level of money.

While many of these topics are dealt with in other coming of age stories, they fit together very nicely with the strong performance of Ronan, which makes these topics fresh.  Ronan and Metcalf are excellent together and you can feel the connection between them.  It’s one of those things that make you think these two women are too much alike to really get along with one another.

There is something in this film that everyone will relate to and that is what makes Lady Bird special.  It has a great relationship, albeit negative many times, between Lady Bird and her mother  and the movie rides that relationship throughout.

3.5 stars

I was able to keep myself from blubbering out loud and the 3D glasses hid the tears fairly well.

Coco is the newest emotional wallop released by Pixar Studios in the same vein as former films Inside Out and Toy Story 3.

In the new movie, we meet 12-year old Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) as his family prepared for the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) by setting up the remembrance photos of family members who had since passed.  The family had been devastated decades ago when Miguel’s great great grandfather left to follow his dream to become a musician, leaving behind his wife and infant daughter.  Because of this betrayal, the family had rejected music in any forms and had become shoemakers.

The problem was that Miguel had music in his soul and would sneak away from his family to play his guitar, and watch movies and tapes of his hero, the late Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt).  When Miguel discovered that his great, great grandfather was actually de la Cruz, he planned on entering a talent show on Día de los Muertos, despite the objects of his family.

When she found this out, Miguel’s grandmother Abuelita (Renée Victor) destroyed his guitar and insisted that Miguel give up his dreams of music and that Miguel help fix the pictures for his great grandmother Mamá Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguia), who had started to lose her memories and was slipping away from life.

Miguel would not give up his dream, reacting impulsively and running away from his family.  Sneaking in to steal the original guitar of the legendary de la Cruz, Miguel found himself magically transported to the Land of the Dead.  There he came across the skeleton corpses of his deceased family members who want to help Miguel cross back over to the land of the living before the sun came up and turned the boy into a skeleton, trapping him in the Land of the Dead forever.

While in the Land of the Dead,Miguel meets a trickster named Hector (Gael García Bernal) who is afraid of being forgotten in the Land of the Living and agrees to help Miguel find his great great grandfather de la Cruz in exchange for Miguel to return to the Land of the Living with a photo of Hector, to keep him from fading away into forgetfulness.

Coco is a beautiful, heart-warming, heart-wrenching story of family and love and what it means to honor those who have died.  It provides us with amazing culture insights into the Mexican culture and creates a spectacular world of color and joy.

The animation is astounding once again.  Pixar has never had issues with the visual imagery of the animation and Coco is no exception.  It is full of colors, breathtakingly gorgeous and as imaginative as any world you could ever think of.

The story of Miguel is wonderful as well, full of emotion and characterization.  I will state that there is a twist in the film that I picked out, but this did not affect my enjoyment of the film.   There was an audible gasp in my theater when it was revealed so it obviously caught some people off guard.

The music was amazing, with the song “Remember Me” probably going to be remembered again during Oscar time.

The character designs of these skeletons were tremendous, taking what could have been a frightening concept and turning it into a funny, warm, almost-magical appearance.

You become so engaged with these characters, especially Miguel and Hector, that the strife affecting them really hits home hard.  The last 25-30 minutes of Coco is about as emotionally powerful as any Pixar movie had ever been.  Richness of story and theme drove home the impactful message of Coco in a sequence that, simply put, reduced me to tears.  Such a lovely and beautiful segment.

The film was emotional, extremely funny, filled with Mexican culture and enthralling music.  As if there were any doubt about Pixar after this summer’s weaker Cars 3, Coco shows the world that the studio is still capable of creating original movies with powerhouse poignant moments for the whole family.  Unlike many animated movies, Coco is for both the children and the parents.  Young and old.  Everyone can enjoy this film.

Coco is a brilliant film and one of the best films of the year.

5 stars