'All this anger, man, it just begets greater anger.'

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2018)

Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) wrote and directed this very tough but brilliant story about anger, revenge, agony, prejudice - and redemption. Every character in this dramatic tour de force is drawn with equal parts hate and anger - with a dollop of hope and forgiveness and reconciliation in the end. It is a phenomenal achievement.
The language is saturated with foul/vulgar/trash type language but it fits the area and the particular character in this darkly comic drama. After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated. Mildred's son (Lucas Hedges) is seemingly the only stable character despite his absentee father (John Hawkes) and 19-year-old girlfriend (Samara Weaving) antics and his mother's foul pained mood. The pinnacle of angry young men is policeman Dixon (Sam Rockwell in a brilliant performance) whose movements include severely harming the sign maker (Caleb Landry Jones) as well as violating all manner of laws. Peter Dinklage portrays James, the 'town midget' whose role is also key to the denouement of the action.
Rape, murder, arson and many other forms of violence fill the screen but McDonagh makes it all make sense. McDormand, Rockwell, and Harelson are astonishingly but then there isn't a weak member in this extraordinary cast. This is one of the best films of the year, despite the subject matter at the core of it.