Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

This review may contain spoilers!

I can't believe this disappointment came from the same director behind Seven Psychopaths; such a disappointment. I would give Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri a 3/10.

This film tries it's best to be a 'funny' film and one of the only ways it manages to be amusing at all is through its portrayal of irony; the number of reveals you can't help but chuckle at often are laced with a sense of irony which show a surprising degree of foresight.

Samara Weaving, who played Penelope, is a very nice comedic touch from this film; Weaving knows how to deliver and she brings brevity to a film that certainly does not deserve it. Clarke Peters, who played Abercrombie, is a real solid leader figure who brings a stern sense of justice to the film; Peters knows how to portray conflict and brings one of the few realistic characters into the film.

However, the best performance came from Woody Harrelson, who played Willoughby. Harrelson is a charismatic figure throughout the film and you very much appreciate and like him as an audience member. The great aspect of this role is that he feels like a reasonable man, holding all ends of his police force together by a thread and growing ever disgruntled by the events that unfold. Harrelson makes you laugh because his humour is so simple and easy-going in contrast to other roles within this film. His role departs as the heart of the film and the narrative never quite recovers without him.

This film is a real slap in the face considering recent history surrounding police brutality and racism in the United States. There is a very heavy sense that the writer is tone deaf about the issue, or if nothing else has a strong ignorance of the subject. The narrative revolves around the mother of a murder victim waging war against her local police department; a department that is openly intolerant or abusive towards African-Americans and homosexuals. It is only once the police within this film has been humiliated, tortured, burnt alive or flat out killed that we're told they find redemption for not serving responsibly at first. It's a tough pill to swallow and comes off as a big apologist statement for blue-collar Americans; a strange approach to the story and a very narrow degree of insight. As to the 'comedy' used throughout, we're often meant to laugh at a bunch of dislikeable characters cussing one another out, or using a collection of slurs on minorities; there is little to laugh at and it feels like a teenage high school student could write a similar plot. The cinematography for the film is a stark reminder that there isn't much of a story to be told here, often you get very dried out imagery of a rather mundane and boring setting. The editing used throughout has an exceptionally poor sense of pacing as well, the film is slow and you feel every minute of it. The score for the film truly falls into the background, with the soundtrack being suitable for the setting but not leaving a mark on the film.

Frances McDormand, who played Mildred, is a very forgettable and dislikeable protagonist to watch; there wasn't a moment within this entire film where I felt an iota of sympathy or connection with this vile role. Caleb Landry Jones, who played Red Welby, is a very tokenistic role within the film; there's a particular scene leading into the third act where his role acts very out of character in a manner that just feels plain forced. Sam Rockwell, who played Dixon, is given the biggest scumbag of a role and made to take him through a redemption arc; not only does this fail to succeed in any way shape or form but it's greatly lowered my opinion of Rockwell's acting ability. Darrell Britt-Gibson, who played Jerome, gets given a lot more screen time than his role really deserves; Britt-Gibson is quite mellow and doesn't lend much range to his performance. Abbie Cornish, who played Anne, is about as deadpan as ever in this film which is a big step down from her performance in Geostorm; Cornish feels like a weird choice for Harrelson's love interest and the pair have no chemistry whatsoever. Lucas Hedges, who played Robbie, is just plain awkward to watch; Hedges doesn't seem to know how to act alongside McDormand so you just wind up with this mother/son pair who don't mesh at all. Zeljko Ivanek, who played Desk Sergeant, falls into the background incredibly well this time around; Ivanek seems content to throw the occasional one-liner in these films and does little else to seem like a character at all. Amanda Warren, who played Denise, is a 'friend' character to McDormand yet the pair never interact in a way that indicates this very well; Warren isn't here to deliver a role but more accurately feels like a part of the set. Sandy Martin, who played Momma Dixon, is pretty twisted for the type of role she fulfils; Martin has a habit of swinging between two contrasting roles: sadistic mastermind and doting, oblivious mother. Peter Dinklage, who played James, feels like an awkward role tacked onto this film as an afterthought or a late night writer's room idea; Dinklage crashes and burns hard as a character caught in a romantic subplot with McDormand. Kathryn Newton, who played Angela, is actually a really mean, hard to like role in her scene; you don't really feel a great deal of empathy for her and the heavy sexual assault foreshadowing is a bit on the nose. John Hawkes, who played Charlie, is a source of conflict that just dialogues with McDormand in a very deadpan manner; so basically you get a lot of flat toneless scenes with people stating that they intend to hit one another and frowning. Brendan Sexton III, who played Crop-Haired Guy, is not a very engaging antagonist; the film tries to generalise him and state that anyway could be a criminal like him but all this does is make the entire premise of the film lose its intrigue.