by Kevin Muller

Sit back and buckle up for the wildest ride of the year. Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri is a masterpiece and the writer/director’s best film to date. This is a film with balls that isn’t afraid to offend, while providing us with a story that is as hilarious as it is profound, this one is a true winner.

It has been too much damn time for Mildred, an amazing Frances MacDormand, since the gruesome death of her young teenage daughter, who was raped and burned to death a few months before the film begins. It doesn’t help that the last time they saw each other they had a typical mother/daughter fight that concluded with things said that both did not mean. The police haven’t made any progression on the case that seems to be the afterthought. In an act with desperation and rebellion, Mildred purchases three vacant billboards that sit outside of town. On them, she asks the police, specifically Willoughby, who is perfectly played by Woody Harrelson, why it is taking so damn long to solve the case? While Willoughby is bothered by it, it is a younger, and troubled, officer at his department, Dixon, who really takes it to heart.  Dixon is played with such ferocity by Sam Rockwell. He is a simple minded man, who is the last person who should be an officer of the law. Mildred’s bold move acts as a catalyst, for not only the movie’s plot, but the spirit of the town. Everyone tries to fight her, but she refuses to give up.

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