Year: 2017
Rated R
Rating: * * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell
Filmed in North Carolina but taking place in Missouri (Missouri has mountains too), The Show Me State still "shows off" in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (my latest review).
"Billboards" stings like a mother and is probably the most violent, in-your-face black comedy since 2000's Nurse Betty. In "Betty", Chris Rock rips the scalp off some schlepped car salesman. In "Billboards", Frances McDormand mutilates the finger of her dentist with his own drill. Restraint? Uh, I don't think so.
What "Billboards" has is shock value direction by Martin McDonagh, sharp, coarse writing, characters with nasty dispositions, and strong acting by everyone involved. What this film doesn't have is a true resolve, or a sense of relevance, or I guess, an actual ending. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a flick that sort of sits there. It's cinematically drunk on style, timed savagery, and derisive dialogue deliveries. I wanted to recommended it but alas, I just couldn't.

Anyway, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has scenes of arson and clips of subtle, racial insinuations. It also features a tracking shot in which a cop beats an ad agency worker and then throws him out of a window. Personas in "Billboards" threaten each other, blood flows freely, and every Mayberry- like transplant seems to collide through a set of almost implausible coincidences (Ebbing is a small place I guess).
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Written by Jesse Burleson
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