A rich, at times, funny tale of tragedy and humanity.

Rating: 7/10 (28 March 2020)

This is quite a thought-provoking film; made all the more remarkable because the principal character "Mildred" (Frances McDormand) is really quite a pain in the arse. She comes across as an authoritarian societal "control freak" who simultaneously acts as a vigilante when it suits her. Quite quickly, you get to the point where you wonder if she ought not to be in some sort of secure accommodation. All of that said, it is exactly these flaws that make this interesting. Her daughter has been brutally raped and killed and she is constantly berating local sheriff Woody Harrelson for not finding the culprits - to the extent that she hires a billboard and says some not very complimentary things about the local PD. Sam Rockwell is his naively provocative deputy who weighs in to help but merely makes matters worse. The characterisations are maybe a bit too two-dimensional and it certainly plays up to stereotypes of "hick" rural America, but it is a powerful performance-driven drama with plenty of conflicting sub-plots (some more plausible than others) and McDormand is super.