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Created Dec 24, 2017 01:50AM PST • Edited Dec 24, 2021 05:58PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   This oddly titled gem is a crazy crime movie from MidAmerica, set in fictional Ebbing, Missouri, not in Fargo, North Dakota, or Hibbing, Minnesota, or a real hicksville you may know in the Central Time Zone.

   Forbidding title aside, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing is readily accessible and seductively gripping.

   It builds on its own crazy, inexorable logic, one awful turn leading to another, with anger begetting anger, as one character observes. And yet, regular touches of grace punctuate its sad parade of deplorables, most from Frances McDormand, in yet another consummate performance by the best actor of her generation.

   Wait, Frances McDormand the best actor of her generation? What about Sam Rockwell? He’s also in the movie, and has qualified for Best Actor himself on more than one occasion. Woody Harrelson has come close to Best Actor territory and is a bigger star to boot, and he’s in the movie. They lead a perfect cast.

   Three Bills is the second Martin McDonagh movie in a row to star Sam Rockwell, Seven Psychopaths being the first. That surrealist classic pushed its R-factor well higher than this one’s 1.9x glibness, perhaps explaining why Three Bills is the superior movie, really great compared to Seven Psychos mere greatness.

   Bottom Line

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   Like darkly funny crime dramas? They don’t come any darker or funnier than Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. No one’s going to see this gem of a picture, but those who do will love it. I sure did.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell & Woody Harrelson lead a superlative acting troupe.

   McDormand revisits Fargo territory, but so what. She is the plain-Jane queen of MidAmerica, perfect here as the forgotten mother of a raped and murdered daughter. Hell hath no fury understates the seriousness with which she views her mission, a motivation that the magnificent McDormand positively nails. Lucas Hedges is quietly affecting as her son, with Kathryn Newton saucy as her unfortunate daughter.

   Rockwell sometimes plays deceptively smart, as in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and MOON; other times dim and dangerous, as in The Way, Way Back and here in Three Bills. He’s brilliant either way, deftly conveying the internal workings of whatever mind his character has. Sandy Martin is scary good as his toxic old Momma.

   Harrelson wields that great blockhead of his like a classic moviestar of yore. He’s become a fixture of American manhood at this stage of his career, mercurially affable or scary as needed. Abbie Cornish is super sexy as his much younger wife.

   Tremendous Supporting Actors

   • Caleb Landry Jones has become perhaps the best young character actor working today, with his weaselly office manager here coming on the heels of his scary smart psycho in Get Out, and his doofus in Contraband.
   • Darrell Britt-Gibson displays presence as a blasé billboard worker.
   • Zeljko Ivanek is resonant as always as a Desk Sergeant. Ivanek is a Martin McDonagh favorite, also appearing in Seven Psychopaths and In Bruges.
   • Amanda Warren also demonstrates significant screen presence as McDormand’s friend.
   • Peter Dinklage is terrific as usual, here the only “dwarf” in a small town.
   • John Hawkes is also terrific as McDormand’s ex-husband, with a very cute Samara Weaving as his near jailbait girfreind.
   • Clarke Peters has real gravitas as a senior law enforcement commander.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Martin McDonagh’s masterpiece is easy to confuse with a couple other movies: Fargo & A Simple Plan. That’s mighty fine company, and well deserved for this instant classic.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Really Great 4.5

    The final line sums up the outstanding story: “We’ll figure it out along the way.”

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.1

    How sordid? The ascending Sex, Violence, Rudeness scale says it’s titillating, brutal and downright nasty. That sordid.

17. Sex Titillating 1.8

18. Violence Brutal 3.5

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.9

21. Reality

    Glib 1.9

    Nevermind the modest surrealism, Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards is admirably straight-laced from a reality POV. That said, Ebbing, Missouri is a fictional town. No such burgh exists in the Show Me State.

    As to the movie’s underlying worldview, it’s a perfect specimen of left-wing attitudes towards our fellow man. Everyone’s fallen, therefore no one retains moral authority. Thus, all bets are off when it comes to actions and behaviors.

    Sure, bad habits and worse actions are de rigueur in a crime movie, but an underlying disdain for people and their foibles isn’t. But, the Left doesn’t much like members of the great unwashed, the “deplorables” as Hillary Clinton branded them. BTW, identity groups don’t count. Groups aren’t people; individuals are.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.2

23. Biological Surreal 2.5

24. Physical Natural 1.0