three billboards outside ebbing missouri controversy

Three Billboards has been marketed as a black comedy, but never finds an even tone, oscillating drastically between wallowing in melodrama and poking fun at bumpkins. But maybe a bit of interest in the former would have helped. He's interested in how communities function, how defensive they can be to social upset, how putting their members into boxes begets violence.

Director Martin McDonagh isn't interested in great tragedies nor is he particularly interested in police abuse. But the driving background behind each character, from Hayes' tragedy to Willoughby's illness to Dixon's racism, are all established quickly, sometimes awkwardly, through dialogue to cut to the chase. The billboards scandal ripples throughout the town, perhaps nowhere more than in the police station, where the short-tempered, racist, and punnily-named deputy Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) gets angry seemingly on Willoughby's behalf. Feeling the world is moving on from her still-burning rage, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) rents the titular billboards, personally shaming police chief William Willoughby* (Woody Harrelson), who is dying of cancer and has perhaps the most screenwriterly name ever devised. Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri takes this to heart, beginning well after the murder that incites the action takes place and after the failed investigation has all but folded.

In a three-act structure, the second act tends to be the one where the good stuff is.

Three billboards outside ebbing missouri controversy