LWLies 72: Three Bill­boards Out­side Ebbing, Missouri

Some­times, being polite just doesn’t quite cut the mus­tard. Three Bill­boards Out­side Ebbing, Mis­souri is a bril­liant new film from British writer/​director Mar­tin McDon­agh which tests this the­sis from all angles, show­cas­ing the actions of a bit­ter local res­i­dent and the chal­lenge she throws down to the local police constabulary.

Frances McDor­mand stars as lone female avenger Mil­dred, who buys up the space on three musty old bill­boards to ask why the local sher­iff has failed to make inroads into the case of her dead daugh­ter who was raped and mur­dered one year back.

In this exple­tive-rid­den issue, we explore what it means to abide by the law, and what it means to crave jus­tice. We spoke to the tal­ent­ed peo­ple behind the film and dis­cov­ered the clues to bring­ing an intri­cate script to life – and the intri­ca­cies of play­ing a police offi­cer on screen. The cov­er was designed by our very own Art Direc­tor, Lau­rène Boglio.

https://​www​.insta​gram​.com/​p​/​B​b​M​6​9​e​D​B6t6/

In this issue…

Mas­ters of War
A con­ver­sa­tion with Three Bill­boards direc­tor Mar­tin McDon­agh on get­ting the best from his lead­ing lady, Frances McDor­mand. Inter­view by Adam Woodward.

Blue Flamer: A Sam Rock­well Con­fes­sion­al
The beloved char­ac­ter actor offers his first-per­son tes­ti­mo­ny on how best to play a mem­ber of the police. As told to Adam Woodward

Good Cop / Bad Cop
Our defin­i­tive line-up of cinema’s most angel­ic and dev­il­ish screen law enforcers. By Adam Lee Davies and David Jenkins.

Woman Blue
A short his­to­ry of the most pot­ty-mouthed dames that Hol­ly­wood ever saw. By Car­o­line Golum.

Threads # 4
Christi­na New­land explores the world of female head­scarves in her reg­u­lar col­umn on clothes and movies.

In the back sec­tion, we speak to the mae­stro David Finch­er about the cre­ation of his ace new Net­flix series MIND­HUNTER; Aus­tri­an direc­tor Michael Haneke reveals why he start­ed his own Face­book account for his new film Hap­py End; Dee Rees, mak­er of the breath­tak­ing civ­il rights epic Mud­bound, on pick­ing apart ingrained Amer­i­can big­otry; actor Andrea Rise­bor­ough on her role in true life ten­nis dra­ma, Bat­tle of the Sex­es; and Sean Bak­er dis­cuss­es what makes a movie star and his sen­sa­tion­al new film Flori­da Project.

Plus…

Reviews of new releas­es reach­ing cin­e­mas through­out Novem­ber and December.

The best of Takashi Miike
Upon the release of his 100^th film, Blade of Glo­ry, we look back at a selec­tion of some of the director’s great­est movies. By Anton Bitel.

Fam­i­lies at TIFF
A post­card from the 2017 Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val explores this year’s focus on evolv­ing fam­i­ly struc­tures. By Sophie Monks Kaufman.

LWLies 72 is on gen­er­al sale 10 Novem­ber. Sub­scribers will start receiv­ing their copies from 8 Novem­ber. Sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss anoth­er issue.