Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

A remarkable drama written, directed and co-produced by Martin McDonagh. 

Frances McDormand portrays Mildred Hayes, a grieving woman drawn to increasingly extreme behaviour by her sense of loss and frustration because she feels the police gave up trying to solve the case of her daughter’s rape and murder. 

Given the subject matter, it’s remarkable how funny this film is – a dark, deadpan wit that’s full of empathy for a cast of strange and desperate individuals. Gritty and unsentimental, it refuses to offer a single ray of hope.

Wonder Boys (2000)

Google: “A college professor tries to overcome his writer's block and finish his novel while dealing with divorce, his affair with the chancellor's wife, a thieving student and his expectant publisher.”

The disheveled Michael Douglas is excellent in the main part, and his mid-life crisis is highly watchable. I wasn’t too keen on the queasy blend of comedy and drama, which sometimes feels awkward. The presence of a dank Tobey Maguire doesn't help.

The soundtrack is for men of “a certain age”: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison all feature. 

Directed by Curtis Hanson and adapted from the 1995 novel by Michael Chabon, this is a celebrated film that doesn't quite live up to expectations.

Almost Famous (2000)

Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this account of his time as a young journalist on tour with a rock band. It’s a sentimental and sanitised portrait of the music industry, but that makes for a hugely entertaining film. I love it.

Patrick Fugit is perfect as the wide-eyed, 15-year-old writer William, mentored by Creem journalist Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and desperate to follow his dreams as he takes off with the up-and-coming (fictional) rockers Stillwater. Kate Hudson is expressive and sympathetic as Penny Lane, a 16-year-old groupie who also follows the band and learns too late that she’s being used by them. Frances McDormand is amusing and compelling as the overbearing mother who’s convinced her son will be lost to a world of drugs and decadence.

The soundtrack features Led Zeppelin, The Seeds, Simon & Garfunkel, Yes and Neil Young among others. I’m not a fan of Elton John, but the scene in which everyone sings along to his “Tiny Dancer” is warm and touching. The music by Stillwater sounds authentically 1973, if a little generic.

“I have to go home,” says William, at one point.
“You are home,” replies Penny Lane.