Well, I tried to watch a movie tonight, and being your Loyal Reviewer I tried to hang in there and watch it all the way through, but by the 58 minute mark I could stand no more and I turned it off.
The movie was "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri". Grimsley went on a tirade about "Three Billboards" a few months ago when he saw it in the theater, proclaiming it a violent piece of trash. I hadn't even heard of it and didn't give it a second thought until it got nominated for about a dozen Academy Awards. Then I took notice, and I figured, "well, maybe Grim got squeamish". He and I have a few differences in what we can tolerate. I can stand cinematic violence in a proper context, even extreme horror movie stuff, so long as the director knows when to cut or pull away. And I never like gross or gratuitous stuff. Grim, can't stomach much onscreen violence. He won't go to war movies or most horror movies, which is fine. Those genres aren't his thing. He's a comedy guy as I have mentioned.
But after "Three Billboards" was nominated for so many Oscars, and after it won Oscars for Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand, I figured I'd give it a try.
"Maybe Grim just got squeamish" - Me to self.
One thing became apparent right off the bat, however, as I began watching. The director, whoever he was, was deliberately trying to make an "edgy" movie. Right from the get-go, the script was packed with ugly, crude dialogue. I have mentioned even the Revered David Lynch's overuse of The F Word in the recent "Twin Peaks" series, which disappointed me just a bit because he is a genius who doesn't need to use that word as many times as he did.
But the language in "Three Billboards" goes beyond that. It is gutter level, and what's worse is that you can tell it is deliberately thrown in, in order to shock, or more precisely to show that "these characters are uneducated angry hicks".
To jump ahead in my story, I later IMDB'ed the director, and it turns out that he is a Brit, born in 1970, which means he came of age in the Punk Rock era, and you can tell by his photograph that he feels he is "edgy", and has an attitude. But really, though he has Your Basic Technical Facility that is de rigeur nowdays, he is still a no talent hack. I saw that one of his other masterpieces is titled "Seven Psychopaths". Sounds like low grade Tarantino, who also sucks (ditto the Coen Brothers, and that other English director Guy Ritchie, who made a whole bunch of awful films ).
So it turns out that Grimsley, though he can be a cinematic Snowflake in certain cases, was right on the money with "Three Billboards". I'll not extend my tirade further except to say that the movie does pull you in at the beginning, with what seems like a promising story, even though the language and the suggestion of horrific violence is there from the start. This is the purpose of the Three Billboards, to convey a message that a terribly violent crime has gone unsolved, and to blame the local police chief.
So you start watching, thinking, "well, the script isn't my cup of tea, but maybe it will be interesting".
I am amazed that I made it as far as I did. "Three Billboards" is an ugly movie with ugly language and unpleasant characters. It is a complete piece of garbage, and the fact that it was nominated for so many Oscars, and that it won two of them, speaks volumes about the current state of the Academy and the motion picture industry in general. New "directors" with nothing to say, and nothing to show except shock and degradation.
And you wonder why I watch TCM.
May Hollywood and the Industry in general return soon to the greatness it is renowned for. ///
After I pulled the godawful movie from the player, I substituted an episode of "The Loner", from the dvd set of that Western series, which I own. "The Loner" was created Rod Serling after "The Twilight Zone" ended. Right away, the stark difference in language is apparent.
And not only the language, but the articulation and the ideas conveyed between characters in the show.
I have long thought, probably since my 30s, that the English language is like some kind of magic code. Perhaps this is true of any language, I don't know, but English seems to have the most variation, and can be used to describe emotions and nuances of the human condition in a way that comes as close as possible, via language, to describing these things in the way that we feel them.
I love the English language and wish I had the ability of the great speakers and writers in English, so that I could articulate exactly what it is I have wanted to say, every time I write and every time I speak.
As I say, I feel as if there is a magic code embedded in the English language, which could one day bring about World Peace, if only we could speak to one another in such a way as to unlock that code.
If we could speak properly, in other words.
If we could speak properly, which my generation was taught to do in elementary school, then maybe one day we could unlock that magic code toward peace, which only language can bring about.
That is why a cavalier movie like "Three Billboards" disgusts me, because it is all about aggrandizing the newly minted "director", who is primed to take down our language, and our human condition, so that he can describe our stories in the crudest of ways, in order to debase all of us so that he can show us all how edgy he is.
I have no power in the material world, but I believe I have a lot of power in the spiritual world, and I want to move things back up to a high level of discourse, so that the power of ideas can create possibilities to alleviate violence and reverse a debased culture instead of mocking or championing it, as so many so-called artists are now doing.
That's all I have to say for tonight. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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