Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri 2017

• Director: Martin McDonagh
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, Peter Dinklage, Amanda Warren, Samara Weaving, Clark Peters
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Frances McDormand – Moonrise Kingdom, Almost Famous, North Country, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Burn After Reading, Fargo, Palookaville, Barton Fink, Mississippi Is Burning, Raising Arizona, Hill Street Blues
• Woody Harrelson – The Hunger Games, 2012, Battle in Seattle, No Country for Old Men, A Scanner Darkly, Prairie Home Companion, North Country, EDtv, The Thin Red Line, White Men Can’t Jump
• Sam Rockwell – Moon, Frost/Nixon, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Green Mile, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hill Street Blues
• Caleb Landry Jones – No Country for Old Men
• Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea, Moonrise Kingdom, Dan in Real Life
• Zeljko Ivanek – In Bruges, Manderley, Hill Street Blues, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, Homicide Life on the Street, Snow Falling on Cedars, Ellen Foster, Donnie Brasco, the X Files
• Peter Dinklage – X-Men Days of Future Past, Station Agent (nope, I have never seen Game of Thrones)
• Samara Weaving – nothing, but she was very good here
• Clark Peters – London Spy, John Wick, The Wire, Notting Hill
• Amanda Warren – Taken
• Why? The title. Frances McDormand
• Seen: 25 August 2019      

       Didn’t McDormand get an Oscar for this?

       The three billboards are faded and falling apart. Mildred Hayes (McDormand) rents them for a year. Her message: ‘Raped while dying.’ ‘Still no arrests’. ‘How come, Chief Willoughby?’

       Her daughter was raped and murdered seven months ago.

       Officer Dixon (Rockwell) is racist, homophobic and somewhat stupid. Willoughby (Harrelson) is basically decent and dying of pancreatic cancer. He tries to explain to Mildred why no arrests have been made.

       Mildred’s ex-husband is a cop and wife-beater and now has a 19-year-old girlfriend (Weaving). Mildred’s relationship with her daughter hadn’t been great, either. Guilt feelings run deep.

       Complex relationships within families and within the small town of Ebbing make this much more than a bad cop vs victim film. The drama and the twists and turns are almost unbearable but it’s actually quite often funny. The acting is incredibly good. Yes, McDormand got an Oscar. So did Rockwell. They deserve it. I wonder why the film didn’t get it. The Shape of Water did and while Sally Hawkins was very good, as always, the film didn’t come close to this one.

5* of 5