93% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Low-energy entertainment
Watch it if you: Are a fan of Frances McDormand;
Are a fan of Sam Rockwell;
Want to enjoy a foul-mouthed comedy that has surprising heart in it
Months ago, Mildred Hayes' teenage daughter was raped and murdered, and police have hardly progressed on the case. Taking matters into her own hands, Mildred paints over three billboards outside the town, pointing the finger at Chief Police Officer Willoughy.
I was fortunate to see an advanced screening of this some weeks ago, with an interview with David and Margaret (the duo from At The Movies), and Margaret had put this movie as her favourite of 2017, so I was pretty excited for it. Since it's been a few weeks, my memory isn't the greatest, but I do remember really enjoying this film.
The great thing about this film is that it's really funny, but then it can go from 0 to 100 real quick and suddenly turn a bit dark and depressing. It's a great dark comedy, but it's also a really interesting drama as well.
The writing in this case was done really well, since it was able to realistically be really funny and yet really heartbreaking all at the same time. And it was able to subvert a lot of your expectations in many scenes, making heartbreaking scenes turn out to be funny, funny scenes turn out to be emotional, et cetera, et cetera.
And Frances McDormand is great in this because she was able to work with those crazy tonal shifts, and she did such a great job at being a psycho bitch one second, and then a loving and caring motherly figure the next second. It was great to see her portray this damaged woman who we first feel sorry for, then we start getting a little freaked out because of how psychopathic she is, and then we go back to feeling sorry for her because we realise that despite her craziness, she is still a sad and broken creature.
A lot of awards buzz for her, and she even nabbed the Golden Globe the other night. She definitely deserves it and she's a strong contender for the Oscar (but I haven't seen many of the other awards films this year, so I can't say who my pick would be yet).
But the rest of the cast was great too. Firstly, it was nice to see Lucas Hedges (the kid from Manchester by the Sea (2016)) here, even if he didn't have much to do. But I really liked seeing Caleb Landry Jones here. He did a good job in Get Out (2017) and American Made (2017), and he was really good in this so he's having a great year this year.
The stand out for me, though, was Sam Rockwell as Officer Dixon. He did an amazing job, I was so blown away by him and I'm so happy he got the Golden Globe because he completely deserved it! He does such a great job at being this imbecile of a policeman, and to see how his character ends up was really satisfactory. In fact all of the character arcs that happen in this movie feel very natural and real for each individual character, which is again a nod at how great the writing was.
Woody Harrelson also did a great job, which is good because I didn't really like him in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). But here, his character's storyline is a bit tragic, and you get that he's a really great and fun guy despite being pestered by these billboards that Mildred's put up. There is one scene in particular that he does with Frances McDormand and that is when it goes from witty banter to serious shock real quick, and that was such a memorable scene. The actors in this movie honestly did such a great job, all round.
Overall, this was a really fun movie to watch with surprising heart and emotion in it. You go in wanting to munch on popcorn while seeing these insane characters do crazy things, but you end up really caring for them, and each character has a unique character arc. It's a fun time, with some witty banter that will make you chuckle, and it's got some great writing and fantastic acting in it.
A few side notes:
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