After making his feature-length directorial debut with In Bruges, a beautifully made dark comedy with strong themes and a pitch-perfect script, Martin McDonagh proved that he wasn’t a one-trick pony with Seven Psychopaths, a delightfully meta, similarly darkly comic thriller with a larger ensemble cast.
And then, as if that wasn’t enough to showcase McDonagh’s filmmaking prowess, he proved that those two movies weren’t flukes with his third directorial effort — Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — the movie that finally got the Academy to recognize the writer-director’s talents. A large part of what made the movies work so well is McDonagh’s perfectly cast actors bringing his words to life.
In Bruges: Colin Farrell As Ray
The audience doesn’t know much about In Bruges’ lead characters Ray and Ken when they begin hiding out in the titular Belgian city, but it’s slowly revealed that they’re there while their boss deals with a hit gone wrong in which Ray accidentally killed a child.
In addition to having the necessary dramatic chops to play Ray’s inner turmoil, Farrell has the deadpan comic stylings required by the script’s pitch-black comedic moments.
Seven Psychopaths: Sam Rockwell As Billy Bickle
In the first act, Sam Rockwell’s Seven Psychopaths character, Billy Bickle, fills the role of supportive best friend, comforting Marty through his various insecurities.
However, as the story develops, it becomes apparent that Billy is himself one of the titular psychopaths. Even through this startling development, Rockwell’s hysterical performance never waivers and the character remains oddly lovable.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Frances McDormand As Mildred Hayes
McDonagh directed Frances McDormand to her second Academy Award for Best Actress in the lead role of Mildred Hayes in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. A mother demanding justice for the rape and murder of her daughter is universally relatable.
Not all of Mildred’s actions are totally moral, but McDormand plays them in such a way that makes her motivations understandable.
In Bruges: Brendan Gleeson As Ken
While In Bruges’ central conflict is between Ray and Harry, Ken acts as a sort of mediator between the two. Brendan Gleeson brings a melancholic quality to his performance to contrast the high energy of his co-stars Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes.
Gleeson shares an odd-couple dynamic with Farrell that’s always a joy to watch, while the actor keeps his character’s underlying conflicts simmering just under the surface of every scene.
Seven Psychopaths: Colin Farrell As Marty Faranan
In keeping with Seven Psychopaths’ self-aware tone, Martin McDonagh cast his go-to leading man Colin Farrell to play the lead role, an Irish screenwriter named Marty. The extent to which the character is an avatar for McDonagh himself is hidden under all the film’s violence, but one thing that’s clear is that Farrell nails the role.
From writer’s block to alcoholic’s remorse, Farrell captures Marty’s various emotional states with both dramatic authenticity and comedic wit.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Woody Harrelson As Chief Willoughby
The trailers for Three Billboards showed that the movie revolved around Mildred putting up billboards out of anger toward the local police chief, Bill Willoughby, for making no progress in the investigation into her daughter’s rape and murder. What they left out is that Willoughby is suffering from cancer. Chief Willoughby could’ve easily just embodied Mildred’s frustrations as a one-note villain, but Woody Harrelson brings a real humanity to the role.
Obviously, he doesn’t want those billboards up; he understands Mildred’s anger, but she’s oversimplifying very difficult police work. Scenes like when he accidentally coughs blood on Mildred strip back the thematic overtones and reveal the characters as two human beings co-existing at very challenging moments in their lives.
In Bruges: Ralph Fiennes As Harry
Although movies like Schindler’s List and The English Patient proved him to be a formidable dramatic actor, Ralph Fiennes is just as talented when it comes to comedic characters and line deliveries.
Before taking center stage in Wes Anderson’s hilariously quirky The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fiennes gave a scene-stealing performance as Ray and Ken’s foul-mouthed boss Harry in In Bruges.
Seven Psychopaths: Christopher Walken As Hans Kieslowski
Christopher Walken’s character in Seven Psychopaths isn’t initially likable, because he’s running a dognapping ring, but he becomes sympathetic when we learn that his wife is suffering from cancer.
After Woody Harrelson’s crime boss antagonist kills Hans’ wife, he has nothing left to live for. As he heads out into the desert with Marty and Billy, Walken delivers some powerful monologues.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Sam Rockwell As Jason Dixon
The use of the overdone “redeemed racist” arc in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri faced some valid criticisms when the movie hit theaters. The Dixon character is a violent racist throughout the whole movie and then, just because he teams up with Mildred to kill a remorseless rapist, all is forgiven.
However, regardless of the controversial undertones in the writing, Sam Rockwell gave a typically incredible performance in the role, particularly in scenes that exemplify his character’s stupidity (“Don’t say, ‘what,’ Dixon, when she comes in calling you a f***head!”).
