Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri: Or how the independent cinema of the USA is the fiercest critic of American society

The Oscars are on Sunday, March the 4th, at 5 pm at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, and "Alea iacta est", as Julius Cesar said: the members of the Academy have already voted and the statuettes destination is decided.

I only hope that this year they do not remove more actors from their asylums to deliver the Oscars -this can be catastrophic- but they sit them quietly in the theatre, invite them on the stage to sing and dance if they still can, in order to receive standing ovations... But don't let them read, please !

I can not give favorites because I don't play pools, nor will I make critics or reviews of films that already have been seen and commented on all over the planet.

I want to share my sociological and aesthetic impressions of the film "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri", written and directed by Martin McDonagh, who is nominated for best film.

This is because all those who suffer from the anti-American obsession, as the French liberal philosopher Jean Francoise Revel baptized this syndrome, believe that their stale Internet articles against Hollywood cinema and against the USA are a kind of "Critique of the Cinematographic Reason", the summit of the deconstruction of what they call "The Empire of Evil".

I will argue that a good independent American film can be much more ferocious against American society than the articles of these pseudo intellectuals (especially in France), as well as in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

Such is the case, in my opinion, of the movie "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri".

The United States does not have a Ministry of Culture like France or Latin American countries. His ministry of culture is a multi-million dollar business - Hollywood - that sells American values ​​around the world and that shapes the taste and conscience of its citizens, whether it seems right or not.

One of the characteristics of the empires is that everyone wants to be part of it: the barbarians wanted to be Romans to have roads, theaters, bathrooms, bread and circus. That is, they were colonized not only militarily but also mentally.

Everyone wants the Greencard, get American citizenship, earn in dollars...

Do you know someone who wants to be Chinese, Russian or Cuban (from the island, not from Miami)?

The day I meet someone like that I will change my opinion, but I will say that the world is ending, so turn off the light and let's go.

The USA criticizes itself as a country, and in a fierce way, not only to try to correct historical blunders such as slavery, but because freedoms were made to exercise them inside, and not simply to tolerate reluctantly to those who from the outside point out the sins of the Empire (which has a lot, and of the same size of his achievements.)

That's why you can say that the Marvel blockbusters, the sagas like Batman, X-Men or The Hunger Games, are light commercial products, pure entertainment and business that makes kids silly, brainwashed, and distances them from the confused social conscience that these hot heads proclaim.

Now, let's suppose that one admits that the empire commits calamities everyday and everywhere: still, you don't have to go to Cahiers du Cinema to look for films that fiercely criticize American sins, better look for them inside the United States: Nebraska, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri...

In these films, you will not see glamorous blondes, or superheroes that face extraterrestrial invaders or powerful villains with human DNA.

You will see the forgotten, a fool oldman who wants to travel thousands of kilometers on foot to collect a fake lottery prize (Nebraska), surrounded by a family full of taras, obese, who eats in front of the television day and night, and laughs stupidly, simply waiting for death, yes, but beging to see first the death of the one on the next chair, as if thanks to the death of the others we could get rid of ours.

You will see a boat full of little niggers (I beg your pardon, little African-Americans), starved, aimless, the diaspora left by Hurricane Katrina, from the point of view of a little girl who has nightmares about the Uros, and dreams that these mythological animals - already extinct in Europe - destroy her house and her dreams (Beasts of the Southern Wild), animals which push her towards a cruel and hostile world where her father will no longer be able to protect her, because he's dying of cancer.

You will see a mother, whose daughter was brutally murdered, putting three billboards on the outskirts of the town ("Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"), not even calling for justice, but for the police to do their work, to at least investigate. A mother who agrees to go out with a dwarf accomplice to have an alibi when she begins to take justice into her own hands and sets fire to the town police station.

You will see a police chief who blows his brains out with a bullet so that his family does not have to suffer the last and painful days of his terminal cancer.

You will see a former police officer who is allied with the victim's mother for, since they can not find the rapist and murderer of the girl, at least begin to dispatch other rapists and murderers, becoming themselves serial killers, but supposedly on the side of justice.

I do not see that kind of things in the pretentious French cinema. I have seen it more in the Iranian cinema, in the Argentinian cinema, almost never in the Spaniard, but I prefer the USA independent cinema , because is more audacious aesthetically, and doesn't have a double discourse against the statuettes.

The authors go up the stage to pick up Oscars to films like Manchester By the Sea, the story of a loser latrine cleaner who accidentally killed his two daughters.

They are going to go up to collect statuettes - I still do not know how many - for films like "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri."

And additionally they send this metamessage to the world:

-Do you see that by criticizing ourselves in a fierce way, we are able to triumph, to win Oscars and to be a global success?

That's why this movie "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri", along with Frances McDormand in the category of leading role actress, are my favorites.

Óscar Reyes-Matute (Samuel Ibn Motot / שמואל אבן מתת)

Crew: Director: Martin McDonagh Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Screenplay: Martin McDonagh Cinematography: Ben Davis Edition: Jon Gregory Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage, Abbie Cornish.

Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri Trailer: