One bias I must express, is my weakness for Woody Harrelson since Natural Born Killers. It doesn't matter the film, I always love his presence, so much it almost trumps all other performances with the exception of No Country For Old Men (Javier Bardem). Of course, Woody did not disappoint for me in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
I'm also very into American history and literature, especially the south and the frontier, a movie such as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri will always be of interest to me.
Like most movies set in the Southern America, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has a archaic 'simple' homely Southern veneer , but like all small towns the underbelly runs black, commenting on racial relations, crooked cops, and inner violence.
An intriguing take on a small-town crime, revenge mystery-thriller, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri's vision revolves around a small town woman (Frances McDormand) and her campaign against the Ebbing Police Department in a desperate attempt for something to be done about her daughters death that has gone unsolved for some time. She decides to fight back by issuing a damning statement to the police, spread over three billboards.
Small town relations run old and deep, and the personal relationship between Mildred (Frances McDormand) and the chief of police, Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and their personal battles make for great tension. Each person in the town has their own opinion about "the billboards", ripples turn into waves and high emotional tension releases the worst in everyone.
Sam Rockwell as Dixon pushes a stand-out performance as the side-villain turned anti-hero. Mildred's allies wriggle out of the woodwork despite the majority of Ebbing regarding her with complete contempt. Not that this bothers her, we quickly learn Mildred is a hard-boiled force of a woman who refuses to filter her actions and is quick to retaliate.
On top of outstanding performances, pans and shots, especially angles encompassing the billboards, captured the beauty of the landscape against the brutality of the message.
Possible Spoilers
I've noted there are opinions the film is one-dimensional in it's representations and that Dixon's moral epiphany felt rushed. I feel the characters were what really drove this story. I don't feel Dixon's epiphany was overnight, his retaliation was indeed a ridiculous over-reaction and display of cop brutality, but afterward, in a position where he had lost almost everything, the letter was an impact that he needed. It's clear that Dixon has no male role model in his home, that man is Willoughby. In contrast to Dixon we see Mildred's apathy, her heart and dying hope's evolving darkness.
End Spoilers
Pushes come to shoves, an eye for an eye leaves the whole town blind. If you're not a fan of dark humour or the grittier sides of what is human, if you can't laugh in the face of the empty abyss that is life is, don't watch Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It is ruthless presenting it's lessons of revolving violence, depictions of deep seeded personal issues and change, and the fact that life is unforgiving and that in the end life owes you nothing.
Definitely my style of film.