Little White Lies Issue 72

Released 12 JANUARY, 2018 Try to define grief and you’ll likely end up tongue tied and trounced. Just as that big, unfinishable Sudoku brainteaser we call mortality is something you’ll never quite master, grief too can be a bitch to unpack and understand. It can give rise to ideas and schemes that defy all sensible rationale. Mildred Hayes is hurting hard as a result of the premature death of her daughter Angela. Let’s not beat around the bush: it was bloody murder, the kind that any mother worth her salt can not and will not forget in a hurry. We meet Mildred at a moment of divine inner revelation, when her grief takes on a darker, more corrosively acidic form. As played by the great Frances McDormand (who is even…

Think of the films of Martin McDonagh and the term ‘strong women’ probably doesn’t spring to mind. His third feature, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, could even be misconstrued as a box-ticking exercise, given that it arrives off the back of two decidedly male-centric movies, In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, at a time when female narratives are in high demand. And yet complex, compelling heroines have been a fixture of McDonagh’s work from the very start – his debut play from 1996, ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’, centres on the destructive relationship between a depressive fortysomething and her manipulative elderly mother. McDonagh wrote Three Billboards eight years ago, and always had Frances McDormand in mind for the lead role. She was hesitant at first, however, if only because she thought…

“I’ve always wanted to play a cop. I played one in an episode of Law of Order once, very briefly; I rat out one of my friends who’s a gay cop. But I never really got to do much research for that part. With Three Billboards, you almost get the impression that my character, Jason, watches Cops. I actually watched some of that show in preparation, and even did some ride alongs with real cops: one in LA and one with a guy in southern Missouri. We ran through some of my lines, we had a good time, it was interesting. They have this term for a rookie cop who’s a bit overeager, a little too enthusiastic, and it’s called “blue flamer”. The guys in Missouri talked about that, and…

“I DID SO MANY BAD THINGS. I TRIED TO DO… I TRIED TO DO THE RIGHT THING, BUT I’M WEAK. I’M TOO FUCKING WEAK… PLEASE FORGIVE ME FATHER!” The Lieutenant, Bad Lieutenant (1992) We hold those deposed to protect to us to such impossible standards that we inevitably pounce upon their every human frailty. Harvey Keitel’s mucky lieutenant is often cited as one of the very worst screen lawmen, but even he, during one of his many base, cock-dangling interludes, tacitly understands that the obverse is also true: that our predisposition for all that is wicked and depraved cannot help but poison those sworn to sift through the villainy, inhumanity and chaos we leave in our wake. But what is a Bad Cop? Who is worse – Michael Douglas helping…

Anew star has been added to cinema’s foulmouthed firmament. Frances McDormand, best known for her Academy Award-winning turn as Brainard, Minnesota’s “gee whiz”-ing police chief in Fargo, pulls no punches – linguistic or otherwise – in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. On paper, Three Billboards could be mistaken for another prize-grubbing entry into the “dead kid” cannon (cf Sean Penn’s “Is that my Oscar in there?!” breakdown), but what sets the film apart from the usual prestige pablum is the masterful way McDormand wields McDonagh’s trademark fondness for profanity. A red band trailer might be an unorthodox PR move for an awards season release, but the film – and McDormand’s praiseworthy performance – are in fact apiece with a broader history of great actresses spewing noxious jargon. As…

#4: The Headscarf Whether decorative, functional, or symbolic of female modesty, headscarves have accompanied women in their work and play for centuries. Born as a simple haircovering garment for religions dating back to ancient times - in fact, the garment predates both Christianity and Islam - they have evolved and shifted alongside the history of womanhood itself. From the Virgin Mary to Rosie the Riveter, from the hijab to the bandana, a completist survey of women’s headscarves would likely require a book-length treatment. When it comes to cinema, the headscarf has often epitomised female glamour. Take Clara Bow, one of the bombshells of the silent era, in 1927’s It. The film was a breakout role for Bow, fixing her in the public eye as a so-called ‘it girl’ and trendsetter…