DVD tip

In Bruges

After the Oscars ceremony each year, it’s fun to explore the back catalogs, if you will, of the nominated filmmakers. With writer-director Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” up for Academy Awards earlier this year, I tried his “In Bruges” — and I was so happy I did. This 2008 release — about two hitmen sent to the quiet and historic town of Bruges, Belgium, to wait till the fallout over a murder dissipates — melds sardonic comedy, dark drama and bloody violence with a fluidity “Three Billboards” never quite achieved. Yes, I said it: “In Bruges” is better than “Three Billboards.” “In Bruges” leans more to the comic side of the equation, and it’s infinitely entertaining. Colin Farrell has never been better than he is here, playing one of the hitmen, and Brendan Gleeson makes for the perfect sidekick as Farrell’s mentor, a big bear of a guy with a kind heart.