Thinking about what she brings out from here feels like a nice departure from type, but in Ebbing, we have no moral compass present. She’s vulgar and will do anything to have things go her own way, and at the same time completely amoral. Looking at Frances McDormand here, she’s the complete opposite of what her own role as Marge Gunderson from Fargo. I figured I could only have expected such cleverness from Martin McDonagh but the fact he abides to a template only to break it down further invites the unexpected along the way. It’s funny, but also feels very meditative on the course on which anger takes one’s own morals and it only shows a more satirical side to itself. If it were enough reason for Mcdonagh to remain as profane and violent as he always had been, he also found a way to justify such within the setting. Martin McDonagh builds this whole film on that anger and this film becomes a testament as to where anger brings oneself if they are inevitably dragged along. It soon turns into a showcase of anger battling anger.
McDormand’s Mildred Hayes is mad at how law enforcement has still left the case of her daughter’s abduction unsolved for seven months, the cops are mad that she is doing everything in her own power to bring attention to this through the use of the billboards she had rented out. Its premise is one that directly jabs at law enforcement, primarily because of where police officers are said to have set their own priorities. Right there, we already have the perfect template for Martin McDonagh to make another darkly violent comedy which revels in the profanity, but the simplicity of the premise sets up why this film only builds itself to feel relevant within a present day sociopolitical context – as if McDonagh couldn’t top himself again. Not pleased with the sight of the billboards, he and Mildred confront one another, and it only goes another level when a redneck cop finds himself involved with the case thus setting up more commotion between Hayes and the law enforcement of Ebbing.
She rents out three billboards outside of her town in order to get the attention of the police chief, Bill Willoughby. But many contradictions come along the way and soon reveal something all the more insightful and even if it may be drenched in what we’ve come to recognize from McDonagh’s trademarks it still feels so beautifully refreshing.įrances McDormand stars as Mildred Hayes, the mother of the late Angela Hayes – who was brutally raped and murdered seven years ago and no arrest had been reported tying to the case. This is a film that builds itself on anger, but it all seems so controlled to the point it even finds the perfect time for us to laugh. What I didn’t expect was for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to also have much more of an emotional arc on its own behalf – all in order to back up what might also be one of the year’s most sociopolitically relevant films. From In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths I would already have expected yet another dark comedy reveling in bloody violence and clever dialogue. At first I thought I knew what I was expecting because of the fact that Martin McDonagh was writing and directing.