Horribly Written and Unfocused

Rating: 1/10 (30 November 2019)

TLDR, because I know you want it:
Everything is great but the writing. It's written like you're an idiot and you need to hear things 3 times. The character arcs are terrible and the rules of the world change when it's convenient. There are obvious ex-machinas and most characters are entirely flat like the son, the random black guy, and all the cops except for one, who is the antagonist. Bad movie.
"One star? Isn't that a little much?" No.
I've been making my way down the top 250, nearly all of the movies on the list are amazing, it's wonderful. Hit after hit after hit, maybe an occasional decent film, but never anything less than a 7. This movie is my first 1/10, and I'm not one to exaggerate.
First, what's great about this movie? It's actually a pretty decent list:
Camera Work:
Well composed and well lit, but the colors on the outdoors shots lack a decent color palette, but I assume that was due to the drone they used.
Editing:
Not ground breaking, some little weird early cuts or long holds, but not bad.
Score:
A strange range from hillbilly to classical, but it fits the mood well.
Acting:
Good acting and good actors.
THE BAD:
Jesus christ, this is terrible. This writing is the only thing that brings this movie to the ground, it's so bad that the actors lose confidence in their lines and say them like a question. It blows my mind.
OK, why?
The script treats the audience like an idiot, it shows you something, then 3 other characters tell you what you just saw again. Example:
"ROBBIE
Oh, did you hear the news?
MILDRED
What news?
ROBBIE
That Dixon guy threw that Welby guy out
his window this morning."
WE JUST WATCHED THAT SCENE! This writing is so bad. "did you hear the news" are you serous? Come up with a better way to inform another character.
Focus:
This movie takes a serous moment, then, at the very peak of tension, drops in a joke. Then, it tries to make another serous moment right after the joke, but turns it into another joke. Then, after that, it tries to take itself seriously with whatever the main character is doing and it acts all artistic with classical music, WHILE THEY ARE STILL TELLING A STUPID JOKE! See the station fire scene.
One second serous, the next a joke, the next serous, the next a joke.
Furthermore, it tries to take itself seriously in an unrealistic world. Sometimes people are punished, but if it's important to the story, or if they are the main character, reality suddenly doesn't apply. Stick to the rules of the world you create, don't just do it when it's convenient.
This movie has terrible character arcs. Our main character starts as a violent vengeful and angry god who is above the law and knows what everybody is about to say. Then, towards the end of the movie, she doesn't smash a wine bottle on her ex-husbands head, but she does get in the car with a plan to murder an unrelated rapist, but then says she doesn't want to. "Wow, what a great character, she went from being outright violent to being morally ambiguous, great job." The problem is is that we're supposed to be on her side.
Then, our much larger arc happens to a side character. This character starts as the comic relief and the antagonist. He's an idiot cop who does illegal stuff and gets away with it, his character arc happens when he gets a letter from his dead captain saying "I know you're a idiot, but you could be a good guy if you wanted to, also I know you wanted to be a detective." Then our main character sets the building on fire with him in it, but of course he doesn't know it because he's busy trying to have a moment. "Oh, but our antagonist is then rectified by saving the case file and running out of the window! Wow, I totally forgive him for throwing a billboard manager out of a two story window after beating him and his coworker nearly to death!" Then, he goes on to get in a bar fight with a guy talking about how he raped a girl (which was a setup from earlier with a verbatim pay-off) and he scratches him to get his DNA. Well, it's not the right guy, but hey, now our protagonist and antagonist are friends, maybe they should plan to go kill the unrelated rapist in Idaho. Genius. "So sharply written that it cuts", ok, thanks Jeffrey M. Anderson.
WOW! LOOK! an ex-machina appeared, how convenient! These are summations of real situations in the film.
Mildred: Oh no! I now need $5,000 because of a plot twist!
Random character: Hey, this guy just dropped of the exact amount you need, he was Mexican, haha.
Mildew: oh wow, I'm going to go be a terrible person now that I know a god is watching over me!
Mildip: Oh no! my billboards are on fire, good thing I have this full-sized fire extinguisher in my car! But wait! It ran out! Oh, my son who has no definable characteristics or personality has brought me a second fire extinguisher!
Mildrain: Oh man, my billboards are unreadable due to a fire that I wont investigate, how am I going to solve this problem?
Random character who was introduced at the very beginning, and then was forgotten entirely: Hey I have these spare prints of all the billboards, do you want them?
Mildunce: Oh boy, what a convenient solution to this problem! Now disappear again for the remainder of the film.
Bad film. 1/10.