TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

My film studies professor would never forgive me if I called Greta Gerwig's directorial debut Lady Bird "real" or "relatable." "'Real' as compared to what?" she would say, her face scrunched up. "Relatable as compared to who?" So as to not disrespect her good name by copping out with generalizations, I'll call Lady Bird humble, hilarious, and easily one of 2017's finest films. It's a coming-of-age movie not devoid of cliches, but also not devoid of a massive heart. Saoirse Ronan stars as the titular character, whose birth name is Christine. The deviation from the religious-sounding name is intentional: Lady Bird goes through the motions of Catholic school but she's no saint. She argues with her tough-love mother (Laurie Metcalf, who all but has the engravings of her name on the Oscar statue), romances with her theatre castmate Danny (the recently Oscar-nominated Lucas Hedges) and goofs off with her best friend Juli...

Despite its seemingly straightforward title, Martin McDonagh's new masterpiece doesn't take place in Ebbing, Missouri. It takes place in a slightly alternative world, where everybody is just slightly meaner to one another, slightly more profane in their vocabulary, but is simultaneously slightly smarter than any dialogue you're likely to hear in a movie this year. I call it "McDonaghland," and you should buy your tickets for admission ASAP, because Three Billboards is so far my favorite movie of the year. It may not reach the heights of McDonagh's directorial debut, In Bruges , which I still hold as one of the finest scripts ever produced, but boy does Three Billboards soar. It has the simplest of premises: Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), unsatisfied with the police investigation of the rape and death of her daughter, buys three billboards worth of space to call out the Ebbing police force, singling out Chief William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) by name. ...

If I'm not in college, I'm home, and if I'm home, I try to at least watch a movie a day. I definitely have some OCD tendencies, and one of them is keeping track of how many movies I've seen in my life. Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea was #1332. I'm giving you all these facts to point to the reality that I watch many a movie a year, and they don't always stick with me the next day. Not that I forget about them, but sometimes they're just okay , and then it's on to the next one. Last year, I had images of George Miller's Fury Road burnt into my brain, and this year, I'm very pleased to say two films have been playing in my mind's theater over and over; Barry Jenkins's Moonlight , and now, number thirteen-hundred thirty-two, what will be a tough competitor for my favorite film of 2016, Manchester by the Sea . Casey Affleck stars, and I can't emphasize stars enough, as Massachusetts handyman Lee, going through the motions ...