Darkest Hour movie review

Here's what you need to know; it's 1940, and the unstoppable advance of the Nazis across Europe has sent the British Parliament into complete anarchy, forcing the resignation of the Prime Minister, and triggering the creation of a new Government, with Winston Churchill, the most hated man in the party, as PM. Churchill isn't prepared to let his detractors win however, as he defiantly pushes forward against the undefeatable Germans, still holding onto his belief that Britain should never bow to the Reich, but should resist its tyranny until the very end, even if the very end means the complete destruction of Britain itself.
I'd pretty much concluded that I'd not be watching this film in cinemas since I went to see Three Billboards a few weeks ago, given that I've been grinding away on Borderlands 2 since the start of December, but as usually happens, I took up the opportunity to go to the cinemas again and went to see this, an Oscar nominated political drama, I can imagine the person I saw it with wasn't expecting it to be so political.

The film's opening struck me immediately; with grainy black and white footage showcasing the Nazi's military might, the use of music in this sequence is fantastic, setting a very sombre and bleak tone that accompanies certain points of the film. I say only certain points because this film actually has humour in it, a surprising amount in fact; and unlike the last film I reviewed, and especially like the next, this one's actually funny. But the film doesn't overdo it, the comedy, while there, and effective, is sparse, Darkest Hour is a Drama and a Political Thriller, and it makes sure to stay on target for the vast majority of its runtime. This film is also very much about the politics; don't go into this film expecting a biopic about Winston Churchill, that's in here, but the film very specifically takes place in the early stages of him being PM, portraying the political crisis of the time, both the one coming from Europe, and the one coming from within the conservative party, as the knives come out against Churchill, it's nice to know that British politics hasn't changed. That however may work to the film's detriment, as this is a very political film; there's a lot of political jargon getting thrown around, and, it being a historical piece, a lot of references to real world people and events that will leave a casually viewer that doesn't care much for history a bit lost. The film's more intense moments usually take place inside the tight, claustrophobic, beautifully shot confines of the war rooms, so don't expect to see anything like Dunkirk or Saving Private Ryan, there's practically none of that here. A major subplot in this film is the conspiracy in the Conservative party to trigger a vote of no confidence, while also trying to pressure Churchill into entering negotiations with the Germans, Operation Dynamo A.K.A Dunkirk also has a big part to play in this film's story, and is a cool parallel on the events of the recent Dunkirk film, though the two aren't related. Also, like Dunkirk, the film doesn't stay entirely true to historical events, it goes off book in a few key scenes, this I'm alright with, since it's a film, and films generally need to take on some sort of narrative or dramatic structure, so as for them doing a bit of fictionalising to make the film more coherent, if anything it's a good thing, as it makes for a hyper badass ending speech, and a really sweet scene with Churchill on the London Underground, and I mean sweet in the mushy sense, unfortunately.

In addition to being heavily political, the film is also quite heavily dramatic, as Churchill takes on various forms of opposition, including but not limited to the threat of a coming German invasion, and the threat of him being ousted from his position as PM through political backstabbing. What's strange is the film's portrayal of Churchill himself, as the film doesn't portray him as a wise, kind old man, but instead as a mumbling, rude alcoholic with a temper and questionable judgement, in his first scene with Lily James, he makes her cry and run out of the room, though it is played for comedy. Churchill, despite being a twat in some scenes, is absolutely the highlight of the film, and naturally a huge part of that is Gary Oldman, who's practically unrecognisable in the role under all that makeup, and mumbling, but IRL Churchill was a mumbler, so that's bonus points. I found myself really liking Churchill in the film, as it delves into his reasoning for the actions he takes, and him and Lily James have some really good scenes together, as well as with Kristen Scott Thomas, who plays his wife. Possibly the second best thing in the film behind Churchill is Ben Mendelsohn as King George, who starts off on very rough terms with Churchill, but the evolution of their relationship from enemies to friends was really awesome to watch. The film also delves a bit into George and the reasons for his actions too, and it lends the film an excellent sense of scale, expanding its scope beyond the confines of the war rooms, as he is forced to also consider the prospect of his nation being invaded by the Germans, which, as well as expanding the film's scope, excellently adds a sense of bleakness that is reflected brilliantly in a few scenes throughout the film, including the opening. The film does however, surprisingly, have a lack of war scenes, clearly that's not the point of the film, but I was still surprised that this film didn't focus more on the war itself, it doesn't effect the film anyway, but it's definitely something to keep in mind if you want some excitement in your viewing experience, this film isn't very exciting. The film's characters really are the highlights, that and the excellent speech, damn that was a good speech, though it is a bit more dramatic in the film than it is in real life, just a bit.

Darkest Hour is a fascinating film; I can see this film easily boring a lot of casual movie goers with its intense focus on politics, but the drama and comedy redeem that political stuff, assuming it's not your cup of tea, I personally found it really interesting. But what really makes this film worth watching is it's cast; Gary Oldman, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily James and Kristen Scott Thomas are all really, really good, particularly Ben Mendelsohn and, of course, Gary Oldman, who, if I gave a shit about the Academy Awards, would say deserves to win that best actor award, as he completely steals the show. Darkest Hour is not for everyone, but if you fancy a good drama that's excellently performed, of you fancy a bit of politics that isn't complete bullshit, Darkest Hour's for you, I'd say it's worth watching.

Transformers (2007) movie review

Here's what you need to know; Sam Witwicky is having trouble attracting the ladies, and reckons his new car, a 1975 Camaro, will improve his chances, little does he know what he's about to find himself embroiled in, as a US military base is wiped out by an unknown enemy, and mysterious beings begin raining from sky, he discovers that his car is in fact a Transformer, and that an ancient, alien war is on its way to Earth, one that will leave the fate of Humanity hanging in the balance.
Backstory time, 10 years ago I watched a film, and that film was the coolest thing 11 year old me had ever seen, that film was Transformers, and it introduced me to a franchise that I've held close to my heart ever since. But while I went on to love shows like Transformers: Prime and games like Fall of Cybertron, my love of the films waned significantly, as I was becoming more critical of films, and I was realising that they aren't all that good. Fast forward to now, I bought the original movie from 1986 on Blu ray, and watched it a few times, and then I started listening to Steve Jablonsky's score for the 2007 movie, which I already had on Blu ray, along with the rest of the series, because I knew this day would come, the day I go on a Transformers kick. What surprised me was how little of this film I actually remembered, which if anything just means I can watch it fresh, so does Transformers suck, let's find out.

The film, in all honesty, probably has the best opening that a transformers film could have, as we have a little prologue where Optimus Prime pontificates about the Allspark, and we see probably the coolest scene in the film right out the gate, as a Decepticon wreaks havoc on a Military base in Qatar,though this scene is actually a perfect metaphor for the rest of the film, including the warts, oh those warts. This is actually a somewhat interesting film for me, as while the common consensus is that this franchise sucks, there are actually good things about this film, there are also bad things, but we'll get round to explaining later. This film's characters leave me somewhat conflicted; let's start with Sam, the film tries to make Sam believable as a dorky social outcast who can't get ladies, and it does it well, the problem the film has however is making him likable, as it struggles to differentiate endearing and annoying. Some of the humour in the film works, and some of it doesn't; the parents for example are not funny, they're awkward and annoying, and while that was probably the film's intention, it does it too well. The same can be said of Megan Fox, whose name in the film I don't remember, some of her humour works, and some of it's really awkward, and then you have the inconsistent delivery, which only makes the awkward worse. A problem that sadly isn't unique to Megan Fox is shallowness, the film struggles with developing its characters effectively, Sam is exactly the same character at the end of the film as he is at the start, and while the film weaves an interesting past with a family artefact of his, that doesn't make Sam any more compelling, it's just a plot convenience if anything, the film tries to give Megan Fox a backstory that's morally muddy, but it still fails to make her character any more compelling. The line between funny and annoying is also walked by John Turturro, who plays a Sector Seven agent on the tail of the Transformers, but it's a problem that applies to everyone in this film, so going case by case would be a waste of time. The standouts in my opinion are the soldiers, they were very conventional soldier characters, yes, but there was a good sense of comradery between them, and they actually put up a fight against the Decepticons, making them not completely useless. The film juggles several plots for its absurdly long runtime of 140 minutes, and it's at least consistent in its flaws, as they all suffer from poor attempts at comedy and shallow, poorly developed characters, it's cool to see these three main plots converge in the finale, though there is a distinct divide between the three in terms of being engaging, and none of them are free of the film's flaws. You have the story with Sam and the Autobots, then the story with the Secretary of the Defence, the unrealistically hot Australian hacker and her basement dwelling video game playing super hacker trope friend, then the story of the Qatar airbase soldiers being stalked across the desert by a giant Cybertronian scorpion. All of these stories work on paper, as we see a civilian, government, and military perspective on this invasion, the problem is in execution, as the film at times seems to think that it's a comedy, and it's poor characterisation leaves the film severely lacking in emotional weight, the stakes in the more intense moments are weak as hell, and when a supporting character is killed, quite brutally, in the film's finale, it's a frustratingly hollow moment. Add onto that an abrupt ending and you have the essentials of a dumb movie.

Something that very strangely gets sidelined in this film is the Transformers themselves, the film delivers disappointingly little when fleshing out the Transformers, the basics; Autobots, Decepticons, Cybertron, Allspark, are glossed over in a few exposition scenes, but the film falls far, far, far short of doing the story of the Transformers justice, and sadly, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The weak characterisation and poor comedy that plagues the film's human characters, inexcusably, carries over to the Transformers too; Bumblebee probably has the most distinct personality of the Transformers, which is really bad given that he can't talk, Jazz is simply 'cool' as in vague, vacuous cool, Frenzy's a twitchy little shithead, and is admittedly pretty entertaining, and Iron Hide is the heavy weapons specialist, 'nough said. The Decepticons get it the worst in this film, Barricade gets a funny visual wink and nod, Brawl has the strange issue of the writers not knowing what his name is, but what really sticks in my side is Starscream, easily my favourite character in the Transformers franchise, who has literally no personality in this film, none of the character's sliminess or cowardice is present in the film, Blackout gets given more personally than him, and all he says is "All Hail Megatron." But despite this film's injustice towards Starscream, it's nothing compared to what they did to Optimus Prime. Peter Cullen voices Optimus Prime, and not a single ill word can be spoken about that combination, it's timeless, and there are moments when Optimus Prime really gets to shine, he has a great monologue in the film, one that emphasises his values of freedom and his compassion towards humanity, but even with Peter Cullen doing the voice, the wisdom and nobility of Optimus Prime struggles to shine through, instead we get a character that spouts the same clumsy writing as the human characters, and the fish out of water scenario, in addition to being about as standard as you can get, is just unbefitting of the character, as is the line, "Sorry, my bad," it just seems off. Megatron doesn't fair much better sadly, like Optimus Prime, there are instances where he shines, but then there are times when he's just a bad guy, the malicious, tyrannical monster is there, but with none of cunning. Apart from mutilating one Autobot and having the obligatory fight with Optimus at the end, he doesn't really do much, which is made even sadder by the fact Hugo Weaving is really good with the voice, and again, like Optimus, there are slithers of Megatron buried in there somewhere beneath the shallow characterisation and clumsy writing, he has a great line about Optimus fighting for the weak, the film just needed more. Make no mistake, this isn't as bad as Thunderbirds, where they replaced the Tracy brothers with boy band members, or Godzilla, where they replaced Godzilla with whatever that thing was, this film gives you the basics of the Transformers lore and doesn't completely shit on it, I just wish they focused more on the Transformers, rather than Sam and his awkward parents, or the US Government not knowing what country to go to war with.

So far I've been, shall we say, unkind to this film, but I did say that there are good things in this film, and that at some point I'd get round to them, well sadly I'm not done criticising yet, so be patient. The film, as previously stated, is long, really long even at 140 minutes, and a film with a runtime like that can still be great; The Dark Knight, which came out a year later and was 10 minutes longer, was amazing, but where this film slips up can be quite adequately summarised in the first 10 minutes of the film. We are first shown an action sequence with Blackout wiping out the US Army in Qatar, this scene is action packed and exciting, and is one of the times when Steve Jablonsky's excellent music really comes into its own, the scene doesn't outstay it's welcome, but what follows is a complete detachment from that scene, both in terms of story and, more importantly, in terms of tone. We go from people dying and the Army being powerless to stop it, emboldened by Jablonsky's music, to Sam being stupid in a class room, while being laughed at by the cool kids who think that sextant is a funny word, in addition to being really immature, given the previous few minutes of death and destruction, the tonal shift from that death and destruction to childish immaturity is really jarring, and this isn't the only time the film does this, as it bounces from awkward high school comedy with Sam, to political thriller with the Secretary of Defence, to war film with the soldiers in Qatar, it's like three films got smashed together, and it really hurts the film's pacing. Equally damaging to the film's pacing is the previously mentioned poor comedy and poor characterisation, which make getting invested in the characters a challenge, leaving only the serviceable sci fi thriller plot to drag it out of the dirt, one that's bogged down by awkward humour, what's truly funny is how all of this film's flaws stack on top of one another, making it harder and harder to like the film the more you think about it, wait, how many paragraphs in am I? That's not a bad note to start talking about the good on, yes, despite 2 and a half paragraphs of negatives, it's now time to get to the positives. In terms of presentation, the film is a mixed bag; and for once I speak not of visual effects, which are actually kind of flawless across the board. The CG effects are fantastic, the Transformers look really nice, their transformations are massively intricate, as are their robot modes, with so many moving parts that it's honestly staggering that it looks as good as it does, and this film even uses practical effects in some shots, which is both unexpected and really nice, but that's because I'm a sucker for practical effects, so seeing a physical, real Frenzy aboard Air Force One, before again seeing the CG one scampering across the ceiling and taking out secret service guys, reinforces the illusion that these things are supposed to be physical.

What I mean by mixed bag is editing and cinematography; some of the cinematography is excellent in this film, even if a lot of it stinks of Michael Bay, but I guess he knows that the only way to make a sunset more beautiful is to silhouette a MH-53 helicopter against it, I'm telling you, it's downright pornographic. On the subject of pornographic, this film is directed by Michael Bay and stars Megan Fox, and we all know what that means; a lot of shots of ass and midriff, I don't really know how appropriate that is for a film based on a kids show, and if anything it's one of the Michael Bayisms in this film that borders on obnoxious. My biggest issue with the cinematography is the shaky cam, which the film uses a lot, and doesn't go very well with the fluid, gorgeous cinematography showcasing the CG Transformers. The opening sequence with the attack on the base has this problem, while also showcasing that Bay knows how to make an action sequence that isn't completely incoherent, the film uses a lot of hand-held camera shots, which look good alongside the delicious mounted and tracking shots, but at the justifiable expense of the shaky cam, which is just plain bad. The editing is mostly solid, save for the film's weird habit of reusing footage, in fact in the first 5 minutes there's a scene where they use the same shot, as in literally the same shot, twice in the span of 15 seconds, they use another 2 shots from the base attack, as well as a shot from a car chase later in the film, again during the setup to the finale, maybe it's something only an aspie like myself would spot, and I will admit that it doesn't destroy the viewing experience, but it's just something I noticed. Another thing that I think is solid about this film is its music, with a score composed by Steve Jablonsky, granted it's not the most original musical score in existence, especially if you've seen any films with scores by the likes of Hans Zimmer, but the music can be effective in this film at times, I like it. And on a note that I honestly can't knock the film for, in the finale, when the Autobots and Decepticons finally throw down, it's entertaining, granted it's very mindlessly entertaining, there isn't any grace to it, similar to the good parts of a Roland Emmerich film, but I guess that's exactly what a kid would want to see in a film about giant alien robots fighting each other, I know, I was there. It honestly is a lot of fun watching this film's finale, it's big, dumb and action packed, as Transformers are flying and driving around and pounding each other into scrap metal, it's not particularly stylish or flashy, in fact it's kind of a mess, but it's fun, I can't deny that. And the film's ending, while abrupt, does leave the film on a positive note, following the cool battle.

This may be the longest movie review I've ever written, but I suppose I've just got a lot to say about this film. Transformers is a very interesting film for me, because I don't hate it, nor do I want to hate it. The film is not good; it's overly long, poorly paced, has bad writing (kind of like my reviews,) has underdeveloped and weak characters, a muddled plot, and only a surface level representation of the Transformers. But the film has excellent special effects, some excellent, if baseline music, some excellent cinematography, shaky cam notwithstanding, and some really fun action, as the Transformers kick the piss out of one another in the film's climax. I do have fun when I watch this film, it's a completely serviceable movie; not good, but not bad enough that you want it to die in a fire, I hear that comes later. Transformers is a perfectly competent, if dumb movie, and it's not a complete waste of time to watch.

A winter wasteland

 My camera and I had a busy few days over the weekend; first we went to a birthday party and took a few hundred grainy, dark photos of drunk people, I'll be honest, that wasn't the most fun thing I've ever done with a camera, but the party people seemed to like them, and I got video of my drunk sister dancing to Dua Lipa's New Rules, which is about as funny as it is awkward. Fortunately my camera had a far more exciting mission the following day, when we had to take my sister back to Uni, which meant driving to Huddersfield, again. As is only right, I insisted that we drive over the Moor again, as I'd packed my camera again and we could see that the moor was covered in snow, and to my surprise, we actually did end up driving over the Moor, and it was awesome. Honestly, these will probably be the best photos I'll take in 2018, and trudging through snow, eyeing rolling snow covered hills and a gorgeous sunset through the lens of a DSLR camera, is just on another level of euphoria to being surrounded by drunk strangers, though that's just me. And as I sometimes do, I went a bit cuckoo on my free photo editor of choice, and created a few hyper saturated abominations that make the sky look like it's on fire, but it never hurts to have fun, unless you're a sadomasochist.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri movie review (with spoilers)

Here's what you need to know; in the quiet, unassuming town of Ebbing, Missouri, the rape and murder of Mildred Hayes' daughter has been all but forgotten, but after months of the case going nowhere, Mildred decides that the police in charge of the case need a little more motivation, completely aware that the three billboards she plans to put up will bring complete chaos to the little town, and make her a lot of new enemies, what she doesn't know is just how insane things are about to get, and of the unlikely friends she makes in her quest for justice.
In an unexpected twist, my dad is the one who wanted to watch this film, after reading in the local paper that it was the best film ever, I actually fancied watching Darkest Hour instead, but I didn't mind watching Three Billboards, since I'd heard such good things, my concern was actually that dad would fall asleep, second unexpected twist, he actually didn't, to my surprise, third unexpected twist, we really liked it, and won't shut up about it, I guess I now know how that feels. On an important note, I will be bringing up spoilers in this review, but I'll save them for the end, and trust me, if you have any interest in watching the film, which you should, you don't want spoilers, so give them a skip if you haven't seen it.

Three Billboards is a hard film to talk about, since it's such an interestingly structured film; a lot of the beats you'd expect in a film like this never happen, it's something that must immediately be brought up, since a lot of audience expectation is going to be subverted and undermined, what this means however is that this film is an amazing piece of storytelling, the film's twists are excellent and the directions it takes a lot of its characters is striking, there are moments in this film that were really giving me the feels, as huge emotional moments were happening, and I genuinely didn't see a lot of them coming, one in particular that really changed how I look at this film, for the better. This does mean that people who want a certain thing out of their films will possibly be disappointed; someone who looks at this film wanting a go-girl quest for Justice will not be getting that, the film doesn't play it safe with its story, nor does it play it clean, which is something I adored about it. If you'd watch the red-band trailer on YouTube, you'd know that this film has some colourful vocabulary, but believe me, the trailer was just a taste, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and the rest of the cast fuck, piss, shit, cunt, bitch and nigger their way through this entire film and it is hilarious, way more so than it really should be, but the film's language doesn't feel out of place, rather it feels justified, deserved, it works for the story and characters, and I can't stress enough how funny it is. This film doesn't hold itself back, not just in its language, but in its content and depiction of violence, which is both unexpected and extreme; this film deals with a lot of touchy subjects like domestic abuse, police brutality, racism, and depression and grief in a very brutally honest way, and despite showing some real nasty shit, it still manages to be an uplifting film, that is down to the fantastic writing, but it's even more down to the excellent characters. Frances McDormand's Mildred is not your typical hero in this film, she's not this paragon in search of justice like a film with this subject matter could have employed, rather, she's kind of cunt; she's in it for justice, sure, but she doesn't care about how other people may feel about it, and she doesn't get weighed down by the abuse and harassment her and her son get, she just gives it back, and it's usually violent, which in this context is interchangeable with hilarious. It's amazing that the film can take a character like Mildred and make her so likable, but it does, she's awesome, you're completely on board with her one-woman army mentality, even when the film forces you question whether or not what she's doing is right, which is actually does, rather than making Mildred a Mary Sue. This is where Woody Harrelson's Willoughby comes in, the Chief of police and seemingly the target of Mildred's campaign, this is another area where the film doesn't play it safe; as Mildred and Willoughby are both going through turmoil in their lives, and are actually sympathetic to each other's problems, Willoughby isn't played as a villainous, lazy cop who never does anything to catch the bad guy, he's a family man, he's loved by the community, and wants to get justice for Mildred and her murdered daughter, he's legitimately a good dude, the villainous, lazy cop role is instead filled by Sam Rockwell, who plays Dixon. Dixon is the epitome of douchebag in this film; he doesn't care about his job, abuses his position of authority in the police force, and is the antagonistic force in Mildred's crusade, as his hatred for the billboards is unjustifiably intense. And it would have been so easy to make Rockwell the villain of the film, since he's such a monumental twat, but this is where the film really takes risks, as it gives this racist, arrogant, hateful, abusive guy a chance at redemption, one that makes him a surprisingly humble and likable character, and is another testament to this film's excellent storytelling. Also Peter Dinklage is in this film, and he rocks that pornstar moustache like a boss, and did I mention this film was funny. The film is darkly comedic, yes, but it's also very well paced, I was never bored, and clearly neither was my dad. If there is a flaw with the film's storytelling however, one which I myself don't hold to be a flaw, the film's ending is abrupt; the film doesn't build to a big climactic conclusion, instead relying on implication to round out its story, and I know for sure that the final big twist of the film is something that a lot of people will not like, I'll explain why when I break out the spoilers, and I personally really like it, but I can understand why others would not, even why they would hate it, it's just one of those divisive endings, I guess.

Right, now for the spoilery stuff, the real reasons I love this film, so there's the warning, there's going to be Spoilers for Three Billboards past this point, so if you don't want them, which you don't, skip to the end. I'll start with Sam Rockwell's Dixon. For the majority of the film, he does fill an antagonistic role; with the film repeatedly referring to his history of being abusive to black people, which makes for a scene that had me in stitches when Mildred tries to get a rise out of him by asking about the nigger torturing, and he tries to correct her by being politically correct, arguing that it's now people-of-colour torturing, which almost made me keel over from laughter. But there's a scene where he goes to the offices of the guy who's renting the billboards out to Mildred and gets really violent, smashing their front door in, punching him and his assistant in the face, and then throwing him out of an upstairs window, which is about as low as he gets in this film, and is made even better by the fact that it costs him his job. I bring this up because it's at this point that his redemption begins, through circumstances I won't go into, he ends up in the hospital, and ends up sharing a room with the guy he threw out of a window, and he says sorry. Past that point he instigates a bar fight with someone who he overhears bragging about something that sounds very similar to Hildred's Daughter's murder, with the goal of collecting DNA evidence, right now in the film he's on his way being a hero, as it looks like him, of all people, will be the one who gets justice for Mildred, and by the end of the film, him and Mildred form some sort of alliance/friendship in their now shared quest for vengeance. Like I said earlier, the film could have easily just made him the villain, and he'd have been a serviceable villain, but it didn't, because this film isn't that simple. What else isn't that simple is Mildred; there's a scene where we see that Mildred really is on her own in this campaign, even her son and ex-husband hate the billboards, and we see it really straining the relationship between her and her son, and the film goes out of its way to not be one-sided. You get why her son hates the billboards, and you get why she feels the need to push forward, because she has nothing left; her relationship with her son is broken, she's lived an abusive life with her ex-husband, she's been all but forgotten by the rest of Ebbing, and, something we learn in a very dark scene, she feels responsibility for her daughter's murder, and it's this exploration of grief and guilt that is yet another reason I love the film. Then there's Willoughby, who is terminally ill, there's a few things about that that caught me by complete surprise, first, when he suddenly coughs up blood during a scene with Mildred, it literally comes out of nowhere, it happens mid sentence, and things like that add weight to the film, the film grounds itself in things like that; it's hard to find justice when there's no evidence to make any arrests, which really sucks when you're a grieving mother, but when you're the chief of police, there's not a lot you can do, unexpected things will happen, and some of them will be bad things, like terminal illness, or a murder, the film does a good job of giving its characters positive and negative attributes, even its heroes. And then Willoughby kills himself. I'll be honest, that was the moment that I decided that I loved this film, it cemented Willoughby in my mind as an awesome character, and it brought a new level of weight to the film, as we hear through a narrated suicide note his reasons for taking his own life, and it's simultaneously beautiful and harrowing, and puts the previous ten minutes or so of the film in a context that punched me in the gut with how good it was. The fact that he likens the billboards to a game of Chess, and admits to paying for the next month of her rent as his countermove, was fucking brilliant. And then there's the biggest spoiler of all, they don't catch the killer, yup, after an entire film of trying to get justice, Mildred ends up not getting justice. This is easily the most unsafe play the film makes, since you'd really expect that in the end, there'd be a happy ending, but there's not, the guy who Dixon suspected wasn't the killer. This is what I think will really disappoint some viewers, even piss them off, but I think it's brilliant; the film has relentlessly never given any of its characters a break, to me, it would have been weird for the film to change that for the sake of a happy ending, and I can understand why it would piss people off that the murderer ends up not going down, but I love it all the same, as well as Mildred's decision to screw justice and settle for revenge, as her and Dixon set out to murder Dixon's suspect, who isn't their guy, but who Dixon is convinced is a rapist. It's then left ambiguous as to whether or not they kill the guy, or even if he is or isn't a rapist, which is a bit unfulfilling, but is no doubt deliberately so, since the film had been so unapologetic up to that point, and up until that point hadn't given a damn about audience expectation or fulfilment.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a film that I love more and more the more I think about it, and I wasn't even too excited to watch it, but damn is it good. Where the film really shines is in its characters and writing, with it's strange ability to make thoroughly unlikable people likable, and it's insistence on using adult language like it was going out of style, but what really makes this film stand out to me is how it tells its story, with twists and turns and a subversive ending that, in keeping with the bleak tone of the film, really worked, the film is an alluring mix of comical and entertaining, and morbidly depressing, and I really enjoyed it. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is great, and is definitely worth watching.

Moar Blu Rays: December 2017

New year, new idea, and no, it isn't converting to Buddhism or throwing myself off a cliff, though both of those options have been on the table in just the past few days, 2018's off to a great start. The new idea comes from me running out of Blu Ray storage space, since I have so many of them, literally hundreds, and since there's always a steady supply of new ones coming in, I thought maybe keeping up to date on them would be a good idea. Christmas saw a heavy influx of new Blu Rays this year, so if I bother to do one of these every month, which is the plan right now, this one will be a lot bigger than usual. Since the start of December, I've acquired 21 new Blu Rays, and we'll start with the obvious; half of them are Marvel movies, that's simply because Infinity War is coming, and I want to catch up with the last decade of Marvel releases before it comes out, only Hulk to go now and I'll have the complete set, I just have to then watch them. We also have 4 Tim Burton films, only one of which I give a shit about, and that's The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it was bundled with Ed Wood, Alice in Wonderland and Frankenweenie, 3 films I haven't seen, and am not in a rush to see, maybe Frankenweenie, maybe. Surprisingly, while I'm unashamedly a fan of the new Disney Star Wars films (crucify me, go ahead) I only own Rogue One and The Force Awakens on Blu Ray, so I decided to rectify that and buy the complete set. Upside, I now have the complete Star Wars collection on Blu Ray, downside, I now have the Star Wars Prequels on Blu Ray, but that's all very by the by. Possibly one of the strangest films to now be a part of my collection is The Transformers: The Movie, the original animated film from 1986, I was actually quite the little Transformers fan in my younger years, and while it was a really dumb, stupid movie, I saw it at HMV for £10 and bought it without hesitation. Dunkirk, given that it was in my top 5 favourite films of 2017, I really don't think that one needs an explanation. Then there's Atomic Blonde and American Made, two films that I'm lumping together because they were in the category of films I saw in cinemas that I never reviewed, not because they're comparable, because they're not, but they are both alright films. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, a surprise addition, coming from someone who assumed that it would make an alright Christmas present, but I didn't think it looked that bad from the trailers, so I'll probably end up putting that one at the top of the pile, figuratively speaking. And then there's the odd one out; Shin Godzilla. I did enjoy it when I first watched it and wrote my review, but me and some friends watched it just a few weeks ago, and they were bored out of their minds, and I couldn't blame them, because I was bored too. So why's it in my Blu Ray collection instead of my foreign language DVD's, simple; it's Godzilla, All Monsters Attack is a fucking terrible movie, but if I ever had the chance to get it on Blu Ray, I'd jump on it, because it's Godzilla. And with that concludes my December 2017 Blu Ray hoard, January 2018 will be smaller, but I'm cool with that, because movies are pretty much the only things left in my life that I get any enjoyment out of, so I might as well keep feeding that addiction.