Review of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) by Matt G — 30 Jan 2018

The good points? The billboards, themselves, are effective (within the story, and as a plot device). The acting - most notably from McDormand, Harrelson and Rockwell, and other support is solid - is a strength.

"Okay" points: I didn't mind the ending itself, and really didn't want to see additional 'resolution' to this story...was happy it ended. I don't mind that they attempted humor, and was mostly okay with coarse language. At least, I'm not automatically turned off (or on) to it.

The bad points? Where to start. The humor just did not work. Very little of it provided relief and most of it was not too clever (even though fairly acidic in most cases) or appropriate to the situation. I think that this writer/director was MUCH too impressed with himself and did not care too much about the intelligence and conscience of his viewers, or about weighty issues that he "explored" in a half-assed way. This was NO "Fargo" - an inventive masterpiece of dark humor. This movie - a quip or two aside - was not funny, and not humorous.

Lessons learned? In this town, you can hurl Molotov cocktails at a police station and almost kill the (racist scumbag admittedly, till his miraculous epiphany) former cop inside and suffer no consequences. In this town, you can (if a racist scumbag cop) beat an innocent man almost to death in broad daylight across from the police station and suffer no consequences other than losing your job - and turning in your badge when you get around to it. You can also (though kinda justified...kinda) kick high school students in their privates with no recriminations. And on and on...

This film mostly worked for me as I watched it, but as I reflect on it...just one day later...the script was bad, and it was written from a very dark place - without any real depth to it.