Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

McDonagh has made a film where a seemingly open ending brilliantly closes the intertwining mosaic of human actions and leaves the viewer wondering what they have just experienced and what to look for behind it all. Don't hesitate to go and see it in the cinema, there may not be something of this quality for another year. (12/01/2018)

Martin McDonagh was able to write and film something great again. And that could actually end my commentary, because the less you know about the film, the more you will enjoy it. I like these beautifully unreadable stories in which something totally unexpected can happen at any moment, and I was amazed when I could watch the great Frances McDormand and, as always, the excellent and again completely different Sam Rockwell. And that’s it, I’m done. (18/01/2018)

I consider it an art to write and shoot a drama in which there is a hardly a scene where someone doesn’t say “bitch”, “fucker” or “cunt” (and most of characters don’t deserve a kinder form of address), in which we see a finger nail penetrated with a dental drill and which is still funny, true and touching (I think the theme of insurmountable grief is more nuanced here than in Wind River). Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a remarkably variable film and Martin McDonagh’s best so far (and I really like In Bruges). ___ At moments, I found it irritating due to its theatricality (precisely timed arrivals of characters on the scene, pauses for laughter, operatic arias) and a somewhat infantile attempt at incorrectness, but the film also offers so many surprises and so many refreshing changes of tone and has such an inventive narrative structure (there are not just three billboards, but also three characters whose stories McDonagh develops and intertwines in various ways) that these shortcomings are acceptable. With the chosen composition and multiple twists, McDonagh pursues a higher goal; he doesn’t play by the rules only for the sake of not playing by the rules, and though the film is by no means a gem stylistically (only a one-shot scene with an angry Rockwell will remain in the viewer’s memory), the structure of the story abundantly compensates for that, at least in my eyes. ___ In the context of his work so far, I find it notable how McDonagh again plays with standard narrative conventions and audience expectations (you definitely should not expect a straightforward story about a flawless protagonist who overcomes a few obstacles, uncovers the cause of her suffering and finds inner peace), just less explicitly than in Seven Psychopaths, thanks to which the characters are more believable despite the absurd exaggeration of the whole world and the film also conveys something thought-provoking about our own presence and not just about fictional worlds. 90% (16/01/2018)

The Three Billboards is a good watch. In terms of direction, it is a great success, with a lot of original ideas (the nail, throwing out of the window). McDonagh moreover came up with a hard-to-categorize story about a mother who uses an unorthodox method of rousing the police to find her daughter’s murderer. Cruel humor alternates with serious topics and, despite a certain theatricality, the picture retains an incredible level of plausibility. Top-notch acting performances, a great soundtrack by Burwell. The less I tell you about it, the better. (19/01/2018)

The raw story of a woman who wanted to achieve justice despite the many sticks that people threw under her feet is a showcase of breathtaking performances (the Oscars are well deserved in this case) and a strong theme that won't leave any viewer cold. The film succeeds in convincingly evoking the atmosphere of a gritty small town where it is perfectly normal to be racist and throw people out of the window without blinking, and where justice is a scarce commodity. I may have imagined the ending a little differently, but I still give it the better of four stars. (20/03/2020)