Mark Twain once wrote that “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured”, which is true and a lesson the residents of the titular town of Ebbing, Missouri will come to realize. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri isn’t like the typical murder mystery where once a case is forced back into the eyes of the public and law enforcement, overlooked clues from previous investigations began to surface as everyone begins muttering to each other “how did we miss this” or such nonsense. Then again, anyone expecting routine procedure in a Martin McDonagh film (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) isn’t familiar with his madcap tonal structures that often flip-flops between gruesomely violent shenanigans and outrageous black comedy, sometimes masterfully utilizing both in the same scene.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is Martin McDonagh’s most scorching work to date; it’s both immensely entertaining, engaging, savagely brutal, stingingly written with ludicrous dialogue and biting social relevancy, and layered gracefully with musings on anger
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri screened at the Chicago International Film Festival
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comedic drama from Academy Award® winner Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award® winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award® nominee Woody Harrelson), the town’s revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is only exacerbated.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is set for release on November 10th.
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
Originally published October 22, 2017. Updated April 11, 2018.
