Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Theaters:  4 September 2017

Streaming:  13 February 2018

Runtime:  115 minutes

Genre:  Comedy–Crime–Drama

els:  8.5/10

IMDB:  8.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics:  90/100

Rotten Tomatoes Audience:  87/100

Metacritic Metascore:  88/100

Metacritic User Score:  7.8/10

Awards: Best Actress–Best Supporting Actor, Academy Awards; Best Actress–Best Picture–Best Screenplay–Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Awards; and many others.

Directed by: Martin McDonagh

Written by:  Martin McDonagh

Music by:  Carter Burwell

Cast: Frances McDormand–Woody Harrelson–Sam Rockwell–Peter Dinklage

Film Locations:  USA–England

Budget:  $12-15 million

Worldwide Box Office:  $162.9 million

How I missed this movie for 7 years is mystery but I’m glad I found it. The movie won multiple major Academy and Golden Globe Awards and it didn’t even register within my sphere of consciousness. Of course, if I paid any attention, which I don’t, to Hollywood award shows I may have caught it. But any who, I saw a mention about the movie online while browsing and decided to give it view. I’m probably the only person on the planet that hasn’t watched this movie but on the off chance you haven’t, you should.

After Coen Brother’s 1996 black comedy crime film: ‘Fargo‘, ‘Three Billboards‘ brings another black comedy crime film without the Coens but thankfully with Joel Coen’s spouse, the fantastically wonderful actress, Frances McDormand to the screen. McDormand takes the lead role in ‘Three Billboards‘, as she did in ‘Fargo‘, and turns in a engrousing performance as a grieving and scheming mother earning her the Academy and Golden Globes Best Actress awards in the process.

‘Three Billboards‘ was written and directed by Martin McDonagh in which he garnered the 2017 Golden Globe Best Screenplay for the movie. He followed up this film with the 2022 movie ‘The Banshees of Inisherin‘ which won the 2022 Golden Globe for Best Movie. In both movies McDonagh brings his trademark dark humor cloaked in a drama to the big screen. Tragedy is a better genre fit for McDonagh’s work but that term seems to belong to a time long passed.

Frances McDormand, as Mildred, is a mother looking for closure over her daughter’s rape and murder in the small town of Ebbing, Missouri. After many months of waiting for the local authorities to solve the crimes she grows despondent and desperate over the lack of progress in apprehending, or at a minimum, identifying a suspect and begins to take matters into her own hands.

This movie hits on all cylinders, the screenplay, direction, cinematography which is beautiful, and acting all come together to produce a mostly coherent story with multiple sub-plots that are a feast for your senses and emotions. The only ding I have is that towards the end of the movie McDonagh introduces a twist in the plot that makes very little sense unless they were planning for a sequel, or it is a deus ex machina solution to an intractable plot problem. It is a minor irritation but in its defense, without the twist the final scene would have been very different and likely not as fullfilling.

On an extraneous side note, as with ‘Fargo‘ which was filmed mainly in multiple locations in Minnesota, ‘Three Billboards’ was filmed in multiple locations in North Carolina. Movies are for believers.

References and Readings:

• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. NathanielTheBold. Wikipedia. 2016 (Updated 2023)
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Uncredited. IMDb. 2017
• The Real Story Behind ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’. Uncredited. Inside Edition. 2018
• Behind the Scenes of ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’. Uncredited. Visit North Carolina. 2021
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Uncredited. Rotten Tomatoes. 2017
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Review – Darkly Hilarious Portrait of Disenfranchised USA. Betsy Reed. Guardian US. No Date

Footnotes:

• FootnoteA: Photo of Frances McDormand. Wikipedia. 2015