The Big Picture · Discussion

Is ‘Three Billboards’ Actually Just ‘Crash’ 2.0? Plus, Other Oscars Takes | The Big Picture (Ep. 52)

February 27, 2018/ 59 min/ Sean Fennessey · Wesley Morris · Amanda Dobbins · Chris Ryan · Cameron Collins

Two Oscar-week roundtables, pulled from The Ringer's video panels: whether 'Three Billboards' is 'Crash' 2.0, and whether a fish-sex movie can win Best Picture.

22 films across 2 segments.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

Is ‘Three Billboards’ just ‘Crash’ 2.0?Sean, Wesley, Amanda, Chris and Cam on Martin McDonagh's Best Picture nominee

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri poster

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 2017

The subject. The panel finds it counterfeit, a British-Irish playwright's algorithmic pass at race, gender and small-town America, with a last shot that retroactively exposes everything before it. Wesley grants Frances McDormand's performance but not the movie.

Crash 2004

Paul Haggis's Best Picture winner, the benchmark for a film that thinks it's seeing America and isn't. Wesley rates Three Billboards worse in some ways, but says at least Crash is legibly, satisfyingly wrong.

In Bruges 2008

McDonagh's debut, raised to argue his violence-and-absurdism register worked before the big-themes reach, and that its priest opening is playing with less dynamite.

Seven Psychopaths 2012

McDonagh's second feature, same absurdist mode, held up as the frivolous company Three Billboards is being lifted out of.

Fargo 1996

McDormand's first Oscar and the no-bullshit reputation the panel weighs against how hard she's campaigning here.

12 Years a Slave 2013

Wesley's counterexample: proof a non-American can tell a searingly true American story, which is the thing he says McDonagh can't.

La La Land 2016

Last year's polarizing fight. Wesley calls it a fine movie that benefited from the discourse rather than being victimized by it.

Can a fish-sex movie win Best Picture?Cam out, Chris in: the panel handicaps 'The Shape of Water' and the field

The Shape of Water 2017

The subject: del Toro's 13-nomination front-runner. Wesley is the lone defender ('this movie's congressman'); the rest call it well-made but out of step, the movie only people who make movies love, boosted by the preferential ballot and guild strength.

Pan's Labyrinth 2006

Del Toro's real masterpiece, per the panel, lightly passed over in its time, which is why the Academy is belatedly rewarding him now.

The Departed 2006

The analogy: a lesser 'karaoke' film that finally got Scorsese his Oscar. Shape of Water is cast as del Toro's Departed.

Get Out 2017

The genre movie the couch would rather see win, and the model for a savvy year-long campaign.

Lady Bird 2017

Among the movies the panel likes more than the front-runner.

Phantom Thread 2017

Sean's singular pick: a movie that hits one note hard instead of ticking every box.

The Post 2017

The classic nominee the journalists on the couch liked and the field forgot; early buzz said just FedEx the statues to Spielberg, Hanks and Streep.

Dunkirk 2017

A onetime July front-runner that never got traction.

Darkest Hour 2017

The 'dull' punchline of the group. Wesley bristles when it's called duller than a fish-sex movie.

Call Me by Your Name 2017

Amanda's cause; pegged as likely first-out on the preferential ballot.

Black Panther 2018

Two weeks into release. The panel games out whether audiences (not Marvel, which doesn't campaign) can hashtag it into next year's race the way voters hashtag people out.