Crisp Criticism - "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", "First They Killed My Father", "Ferdinand"

by

Julien Faddoul

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri **

A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.

Socio-politically, a restless excursion: Many will find McDonagh’s capricious emotional inquests and tonal shifts to be either baffling, lame or objectionable. The sincerity of his themes – eternal anger, vigilante justice, communal sympathy and forgiveness – certainly come through, but only half of the character types here, and the situations they’re placed in, are plausible; the other half is posturing. The cast, however, is superb.

wd – Martin McDonagh

ph – Ben Davis

pd – Inbal Weinberg

m – Carter Burwell

ed – Jon Gregory

cos – Melissa Toth

p – Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh

Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, Abbie Cornish, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, Kathryn Newton, Clarke Peters, Zeljko Ivanek, Kerry Condon, Samara Weaving, Nick Searcy, Sandy Martin

First They Killed My Father *

Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung recounts the horrors she suffered as a child under the rule of the Khmer Rouge.

Far too reliant on professing its message to work as a piece of filmmaking. Jolie presents the suffering with total graciousness but not at any point does she justify why Ung’s book needed to be made into a movie.

d – Angelina Jolie

w – Loung Ung, Angelina Jolie   (Based on the Book by Loung Ung)

ph – Anthony Dod Mantle

pd – Tom Brown

m – Marco Beltrami

ed – Xavier Box, Patricia Rommel

cos – Ellen Mirojnick

p – Angelina Jolie, Rithy Panh

Cast: Sareum Srey Moch, Phoeung Kompheak, Sveng Socheata, Mun Kimhak, Heng Dara, Khoun Sothea, Sarun Nika, Run Malyna

Ferdinand *

After a nice bull is mistaken for a dangerous beast, he is captured and torn from his home. Determined to return to his family, he rallies a misfit team to help.

Pleasant but charmless animated film based on the famous children’s book that might appeal to the undemanding youngsters.

d – Carlos Saldanha

w – Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle, Brad Copeland, Ron Burch, David Kidd, Don Rhymer   (Based on the Book by Munro Leaf, Robert Lawson)

ph – Renato Falcao

ad – Thomas Cardone

m – John Powell

ed – Harry Hitner

p – Lori Forte, Bruce Anderson

Cast: John Cena, David Tennant, Anthony Anderson, Gabriel Iglesias, Kate McKinnon, Boris Kodjoe, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Raúl Esparza