173.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
8.5/10
Another major contender in the Oscar's and one that walked away with a Best Female and best Supporting Male Oscars, in the shape of Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. This was an Odeon Screen Unseen, which I had missed through work, so the wait was on to see it at its main release date. After some good feedback from the lads who had seen it, I was looking forward to seeing what this was about, after being impressed by the trailers. Woody Harrelson is also within the cast, along with Peter Dinklage and Caleb Landry Jones, who seems to be popping his uncomforting face up in many places recently. Let's see if this one was worth all of the hype, or one that should have stayed in Missouri.
McDormand plays a grieving mother, whose daughter had been murdered and raped, just over half a year earlier. Her main anger comes from the local authority's lack of progress within the case. She rents three billboards, hence the title and set three questions on them. These ask the ultimate question as to why nothing has been done. They upset the town's people and especially Chief Bill Willoughby, played by Harrelson, who is personally named on the third billboard. Officer Jason Dixon, played by Rockwell, is also offended on behalf of his friend Bill, but is also a racist and violent alcoholic, so is pretty much offended by everyone and everything. The open secret that Bill suffers with terminal cancer also adds to the fire. Mildred Hayes and her son Robbie are set upon with abuse, but to her principals, she keeps the boards up. Although the Chief is sympathetic towards Mildred, he finds the billboards an attack on his character and very unfair. In an attack at her, Dixon threatens Jones' character, who rented her the boards and also arrests her friend from work on a trivial marijuana charge. Mildred is also visited by her ex-husband who is an abusive fella too. He blames her for the death of their daughter, just as his new, young girlfriend strolls in. Mildred's money is coming to an end for the billboards, but some secret person has decided to pay the rental for another month, on her behalf.
A few days later, Mildred is dragged downtown after injuring her dentist, who decided to confront her during her operation, so she drilled a hole into his hand, before walking out after spitting mouth wash into his face. During the interview, Bill coughs up blood, clearly showing his cancer getting worse, before going to the hospital and spending a day with his wife and kids down at the riverside. That night, he writes a letter and takes himself up to the barn, shooting himself in the head. One letter apologises to his wife for being such a coward and another letter is for Mildred. He explains that she is no way connected to a reason for him to end his life and he was the actual person who paid for the extra month of billboards, thinking it to be funny. Thinking that she will get more trouble, but mainly because it will keep everyone's eyes on the case. When Dixon finds out about the death, he reacts by chucked the rental guy out of his upstairs window, crashing into the concrete below. This is witnessed by Bill's replacement, and African-American named Abercrombie, who fires Dixon on the spot.
The billboards are destroyed one night but arson and Mildred decides that it's her turn, throwing Molotov cocktails into the police station, which she thinks is empty at night. It isn't though and Dixon is in there reading a letter than Bill left him. He is told to let go of hate if he is to become the Detective that he wants. He escapes the station with Mildred's daughter's file and suffers severe burns, ending up in a hospital room with the guy he launched out of the window, who he ends up apologising to. Mildred is given an alibi by one of her admires, played by Dinklage. In exchange for his help, she accepts an offer of a date from him. In the meal, she bumps into her ex-husband again, who makes fun of the pair, obviously sighting Dinklage's height. He admits to burning the billboards, to which she doesn't know how to react, except to tell him to treat his 19-year-old girlfriend right. Back to Dixon and after his release from hospital, he sits in a bar, overhear some guys chatting about an incident that seemed the same as Mildred's daughter's murder, almost bragging about it all. He starts a fight with the main guy and scratches his face, before being completely battered. He crawls home and take the DNA from underneath his fingernails, placing it into a bag for testing.
Abercrombie tells Dixon that the DNA did not match the scene for Angela's death and the guy was away on military duty at the time. He is confused by this, not realising that the guy couldn't have committed the crime anyway. Still, his instincts tell him that this guy is guilty of something and heads to tell Mildred the bad news. The two, in a turn out for the books, create a tag-team and head to this guy's home in Idaho to kill him anyway. On the way, she confesses that she burnt down the station, but he knew all along and never held it against her. The both express doubt about their new mission, but continue driving anyway, deciding which action they will take, until the film fades to black.
This is such an entertaining movie, that, at times, leaves you confused on who you're actually supporting. With a run time of just under two hours, it has the ability to keep you gripped throughout, as the loyalties and friendships chop and change throughout, constantly keeping the dialogue fresh, along with each scene. There is a lot of swearing, mostly coming from Mildred, which adds humour to a very tense and serious storyline, which only helps the movie. The acting, needs no more discussion, as everyone performs on the top of their game, showing, finally, with the winners at the Oscars. The story contains plenty of twists and turns, which gives each character an opportunity to reveal surprising parts of their personality, different from the first time we would have been introduced to them. It's hard for me to find a negative about this film, maybe the fact that it's a little far-fetched or that a way to grief is to commit more felonies, but that would be just nit-picking. After watching the Oscars and seeing The Shape of Water win the best film, it simply adds to more disappointment that the winner wasn't this film, or at least not The Shape of Water, this was a lot better.
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