I was initially hesitant about all the positive buzz around this film because while I liked In Bruges, from writer/director Martin McDonagh, I thought his last outing, Seven Psychopaths, was a masturbatory, meta-pretentious mess. Thankfully, McDonagh has written and directed one of the best films of the year in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. The film is a sweeping southern story about a woman named Mildred Hayes (Francis McDormand) who buys three billboards outside the eponymous town to shame the police, specifically its chief (Woody Harrelson), into solving her daughter's gruesome murder, which has since turned into a cold case. Hayes takes the police and town to task while they attempt to get her to remove the billboards through both legal and extralegal means.

Image Via: Public Broadcasting

I am a Tarantinophile. I can vividly remember the first time I saw a Tarantino movie. I was fourteen years old, and my family had gotten one of those super cable packages that included HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax on demand. Ironically it was my mother, a woman who vociferously hates cursing and violence, who recommended Pulp Fiction to me. I reluctantly tuned to the uncensored HBO showing of this film expecting a miserable affair, but I was instantly hooked by Tarantino’s trademarks: witty banter, extreme violence, bizarre circumstances and situations, and above all his love of movies. Having said all that, The Hateful Eight, is not my favorite Tarantino film. It has the pomp and circumstance of his latter releases (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained), yet it suffers from what I’d term a ‘reverse Kill Bill’, with much of the setup coming in the first half, and much of the brutal violence coming in the second. The Hateful Eight, like most of Tarantino’s films, is a unique violent medley but it’s not among his best. The film’s interesting premise is let down by a plodding first half which is punctuated by an extremely bizarre scene.

Image Via: Independent.co.uk