Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Writer/Director Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is an exciting excursion into Trump Country where tragedy is either self-created or a roll of the dice.

 

McDonagh’s excellent directing is aptly aided by an outstanding cast headed by Frances McDormand and including Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, Sandy Martin, Caleb Landry Jones, Clarke Peters, Kathryn Newton and other fine performers.  

However, it is Cinematographer Ben Davis’s images and Carter Burwell’s music track that brings this simple story of anger up to the level of being one of the finer movies of the year.

None of the characters are without blemishes.  There is no real hero.  They are what in Shakespearean terms are called lower status individuals.  Yet, they are worthy of attention.

The feel of Ebbing reminded me of a visit down South where I overheard two locals deciding what to do for the evening and opting for the local funeral party so they could look at the bodies of recent accident victims.  

I give Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri a 4.6 out of 5.