Reviews

The acting in this movie is phenomenal. The main character, whose daughter is raped and killed, is phenomenal. Her life has lost meaning, she does not smile during the whole movie, and does not care about any legal repercussions of her actions. McDormand is absolutely believable in her actions and behavior. You just want to keep on watching.

The two main supporting actors, the Sheriff and Dixon. What a performance by them both. At first you actually have a sympathy for the sheriff. He seems like a good guy. He might not be able to solve the case but at least is showing some willingness. Maybe due to the billboards, maybe his inner devotion. Then we have the town idiot policeman Dixon. We hate him throughout the first part of the movie only to later find out that he's not such a bad guy, and my personal favorite character just because of the transition he went through.

As for the storyline/plot. The movie starts out really interesting, full-on. It does die down at times, but it never stops the viewer from wondering what is about to happen next. You just want to keep on watching. On the one hand it is an absolute drama about the loss of your child, probably the worst thing that can happen to a parent. On the other there are small pieces of comedy intertwined where you are really laughing aloud, maybe even livening up what is currently going on. You sit there really hoping that the murderer is caught, engaged in the plot. Plus the movie is not something extremely boring where the plot hasn't moved an inch over the first half an hour like in other best picture nominated movies.

I am not quick to really praise films, usually finding them boring or overrated, but this is a really good piece of work that I would really like to see again in the near future.

This is an overall decent movie but lacks flare, or something that will really grab the viewer.

Denzel Washington does an excellent job as the title character. He is a pleasure to watch from the very beginning to the very end. Roman Israel is a very specific attorney, who suffers from an unspecified social disorder. He is incredibly smart but fails at human interactions, unnecessarily insulting people at times. Roman is a genuine character that the viewer can develop a liking for, even a small dose of pity. He has been fighting for something he believed in for a long time but stands at crossroads during the time of the movie plot. You want him to succeed but you wonder what is his ultimate goal.

The plot is something that is a bit lacking. Finding out this is a legal drama I was hoping for something similar to A Few Good Men, Erin Brokovich, or A Time to Kill. I genuinely expected Roman to get one or two high-profile cases that are in some way interconnected and using his incredible legal knowledge try to free his innocent clients. Unfortunately the movie focuses on an internal battle of the main character. This has recently become quite popular in the movie industry, also exemplified by some motion pictures nominated for the best picture award. This does not make for a more exciting movie, it actually slows it down. Finally, the movie ends way too abruptly. It's as though the director said "ok, we've passed the 2h mark, let's wrap it up in the next few minutes even though there can be so much more done". The ending is a complete disappointment and a much quicker conclusion than one would expect. Regardless, the movie is quite enjoyable, interesting but not phenomenal.

I am a complete politics and history buff and eat up documentaries and historical films very willingly, especially those having to do with WWII. Unfortunately this one was quite disappointing. We follow the footsteps of three characters/groups of characters. A young British soldier stuck at Dunkirk, pilots trying to defend the skies above the English channel to allow vessels safe passage, and a father along with his son and son's friend trying to save the soldiers at Dunkirk with the use of their boat. What could have been a phenomenal movie falls short. On the one hand, it is a little boring, with not as much action as one might expect. In my opinion this is caused by the division of the story between three characters as you don't really develop a connection to any of them. Furthermore, there is very little dialogue in the movie, what typically doesn't increase the excitement level. We are humans and human interaction is typically what interests us most. Granted this is WWII and not a time for deep dialogues, but the lack of thereof decreases audience engagement. Finally, and this is the most confusing/annoying part, the scenes are presented as simultaneous events on the one hand, as they are intertwined and the pilot ends up on the father's boat, but the scenes do not take place at the same time. At one point the scenes jump around between broad daylight and the night, which is rather annoying since we don't really know what has taken place first. A final disappointment was the lack of proper presentation of the amount of soldiers stranded at Dunkirk, over 300,000. On the beach at one time we might see 1000 or 2000. So where have the rest gone? Obviously you're not gonna place actors in giant scenes, but make areal shots and add thousands of people stranded on the beach. That actually shows the reality of the situation. If we didn't know what really happened, we might think that the Brits are saving some 2000 of their men. And then there is the question of the civilian fleet, which was (maybe still is) the largest civilian fleet of vessels ever assembled. Unfortunately we do not see the amount of ships (which in reality was over 800). I feel like the movie is just slightly oversimplified. The story isn't could be more concise and a clear time frame like the time of the day or how many days had passed would have been helpful. Also, the evacuation of Dunkirk took a couple of days, with more soldiers being rescued every day. This could have been exemplified by the following of a second soldier's attempt at being rescued.

The movie itself is decent, average, not really keeping you at the edge of your seat. Basically can be summed up by the following: "a teen girl is going through her senior year of a Catholic high school, not seeing eye to eye with her mother she wants to study at a lib arts college in NYC. She ditches her friend for the popular kids, then reunites with said friend. In the end she graduates high school, gets into college in NY and moves there." and that is more or less it. Very unsophisticated story. Boring at times. Actually made me wonder how is this movie different from half of the stuff they show on Lifetime or Hallmark. The film is funny from time to time, but also makes me wonder about the reality of what is presented. The family of the protagonist is struggling financially despite her mother working double shifts and the father having an MBA from UC Davis. Granted it's not Harvard or Stanford, but an MBA typically does make your career prospects increase. Her brother, a math graduate from Berkeley, can't seem to find a job, and it's because of the piercings in his face. Is that a big surprise? Has no one told him beforehand? Maybe the parents should have shed some light on the fact that you must look presentable whilst going to a job interview. Completely unrealistic. The acting itself was enjoyable. We can see in Ronan a rising star, although I actually preferred her performance in Brooklyn. It's a movie possibly worth seeing if you have nothing to do in the evening and feel like going to the cinema.

I went into the movie knowing absolutely nothing, apart from the fact that it was nominated for an Academy Award. Having a liking for good films since childhood, I went along willingly, and couldn't wait to indulge. The problem is, I just never got the chance. Having no idea what the movie is about dragged on for another 40 minutes, where I got so tired of waiting I stepped out to use the bathroom and buy a drink. When I got back, the movie did not progress even an inch. Granted, it does get a little bit more interesting in the second half, but it is still nowhere near what I would expect from an Academy Award nominated movie. It is utterly boring. The main character is simply unlikable. Very cold and dry, you just wait for him to display some smile, or any feelings at all. As mentioned previously, in the second half the action gets a little better, but it is too little too late. The biggest mystery to me are some of the ratings and opinions of this movie here on this website. I'm wondering whether we've seen the same movie. It's not a masterpiece, the plot and screenplay aren't phenomenal and they are most certainly not keeping you in awe. Are people really enjoying this, or do they just say they do because they are pretentious and think that this is the right thing to say about this film? There were some brief upsides, beautiful scenery and location, good and sometimes great acting by the actors. But that is why I'm giving it 3 stars, because the plot/story was just boring with a rather unsurprising ending.