'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' [Adjust Your Tracking Podcast]

Sometimes a filmmaker just misses the forest for the trees…

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I start things off by riffing on problematic filmmakers, especially in the light of the now-it’s-official Louis C.K. sexual harassment allegations, and his subsequent admission to the wrongdoing. I had a chance to see his latest, now-forever-buried “I Love You, Daddy,” and it ain’t pretty. Regardless of his public persona and awful misdeeds, this movie is just terrible. Plain and simple.

What’s not so clean cut and easy to dismiss, though, are our thoughts on “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” The film, a surefire Oscar-contender with a strong cast — led by Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell — and the third feature from writer/director Martin McDonagh (“In Bruges“), is already gaining strong numbers at the limited box office. The audience is clearly hungry for this odd mix of prestige picture and righteous, brutally comic melodrama. And that’s a good thing, as we get into what works about the confrontational, timely film (a lot), but we do have some strong complaints about it as well.

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At the back half of the podcast, we discuss my choice for our special segment HOLD UP, in which we look back at a movie to see if it, in fact, holds up: David O. Russell‘s 2004 misfire (or masterwork?), “I Heart Huckabees.” We get into it, so tune in.

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As always, thanks for listening!