Bleak buddy pic
Flawed but intermittently brilliant, Martin McDonagh's latest pitch-dark comedy begins in 1973 in Santiago, Chile, during the tense lead-up to a military coup. It seems odd that two seasoned CIA assassins would take a weeklong break on Easter Island, now known as Rapa Nui. Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks, the film offers a screwy take on the buddy picture genre.
Lee, played by Sam Rockwell, is the hapless minder of Chris, a veteran operative now aging and ill, suffering from morphine and memory loss. Chris, played by John Malkovich, is disinhibited and freely shares his experiences in Guatemala, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and possibly Dallas, Texas. Their CIA boss, MJ, played by Steve Buscemi, has his own reasons for wanting Chris out of the way.
The trip involves guns, bombs, snooping, surveillance, and dirty tricks, but mostly, it's filled with talk. McDonagh's 2022 film, The Banshees of Inisherin, dealt delicately with Irish history, but Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, was an ill-considered dive into American sociopolitical issues. There's something about American dysfunction that takes McDonagh's sharpness and originality off course.
Written by urgent.news from Winnipeg Free Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
