Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

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With Oscar season here, and this title being the "talk of the town" when it came to this year's Golden Globe nominees, I had to check it out. Lo and behold, I enjoyed the movie enough to completely shift my end-of-the-year Top 10 favorites list, placing this in the #3 spot, only behind two personal favorites that spoke to me in their own way. I even state that this may be the best movie of the year for general audiences. Er, general audience over the age of 18, anyway.

Our story here has to do with a woman named Mildred (Frances McDormand) who, after the rape and murder of her daughter, pays to have three billboards displayed on a stretch of road not far from her house. The three billboards in question manage to call out the chief of police in town, Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) when no arrests have been made, and the town's police force are allegedly sitting on their asses. This of course upsets not only the police department, but various citizens in town as well, including her own son, Robbie (Lucas Hedges). But she manages to stand her ground on all accounts, refusing to take these billboards down until something is done.

Getting into award territory here, at this point, it has been nominated for six Golden Globes, winning four of them including Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell, who, by the way, is a thoroughly well-done character in this), Best Screenplay and Best Dramatic Picture. It was also nominated for Best Director (Martin McDonagh) and Best Original Score. All of this will lead to this title being a potential front-runner for the Oscars this year, and it's all very well-deserved. This was excellently done!

I urge my readers to check this title out while it's still around, or at least catch it when it gets a home video release. It's very well-worth it, being a rather hilarious comedy, but at the same time balancing some rather dark issues, and being as dramatic and dark as it needs to be.

The film is based on a true story as well, leaving one to ponder how much of what unfolded was real and how much of it was done for dramatic effect - which the film happily reveals in the end, just in case some of the more critical out there have the dire need to point out differences in the story vs the reality. So check it out with an open mind when it comes to that. Otherwise, I really have nothing bad to say about it. It's funny, it's clever, it's dark, it's dramatic, it's even kinda silly at times. What more can I say? This is well worth the viewing!

5/5

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