Part funny, part bleak, all quite well done.

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2018)

'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' is the third film from writer/director McDonagh (of 'In Bruges' & 'Seven Psychopaths' fame), and continues his themes of taking something quite bleak/violent (in this case the murder of a woman's daughter) and building situations with characters around it that can still be funny. Mildred (McDormand) is the focus here, and she rents three billboards from Red (Landry Jones) to call out the police for not finding her daughter's murderer, so Chief Willoughby (Harrelson) is put in a tight spot.
Dixon (Rockwell) is one of his cops and has a great part as the dimwitted, slightly-bigoted younger cop. McDormand is exceptional as the ultra-focused and hard-nosed grieving mother, with a few layers. Harrelson is also good, but Cornish as his wife has the weirdest Australian/Southern accent mash-up I've ever heard! And the age-gap there is hard to comprehend... The only shame is Dinklage doesn't get more screen time, but still good seeing him.
It's odd that it was all filmed in North Carolina, not Missouri, as there's some beautiful scenery shots that definitely don't look like St Louis! Also worth noting that Ebbing's not a real place. The mystery and investigation is handled quite well and realistically, but the attention here is on anger - misplaced or otherwise - and how it can consume people and create a destructive cycle. Not the best use of music and not quite a perfect ending, but a very solid film.