Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a tragic movie about sad lives of people in a small American town. You can feel the pain of Mildred (Frances McDormand) and misery of every single person in Ebbing. All of the locals, including the chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), are fighting their own battles against life and Martin McDonagh does an amazing job putting it all on the screen. And even though the theme of the movie is extremely sad and depressing, I laughed a lot watching how the story unfolds. I cannot help but love those satirical and ironic movies which make fun of the most bizarre and sad moments in life. I love moves that are not afraid of showing the stupidity and despair in everyday life of casual people.
Plot
Mildred's daughter was raped and killed 10 months ago, and local authorities failed to catch the criminal who did it. Of course, that did not make Mildred happy and she decided to show her anger on three huge billboards right outside of Ebbing. Mildred targeted the local police office and chief Willoughby, who was running the office at that time. Sadly, Willoughby was a loved man in the community and also had cancer, so the whole town turned the back on Mildred and her outrageous attack. And with every passing day, the war between Mildred and police got more and more intense, leading to bigger consequences and unfortunate victims.
My thoughts
1. Bad things happen to all of us, but some of us know how to cope with it, and others don't.
2. Even the most bizarre things in life can be hilarious if you look at them from the right direction... and do not get involved.
3. Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand, and Sam Rockwell all deserve their Oscar nominations as they did a brilliant job. Good actors add so much to the movies, especially dramas, and all three of them were amazing.
4. The soundtrack of the movie is brilliant. Just brilliant. We so often don't realize what creates that beautiful atmosphere in movies and most of the time the answer is the soundtrack.
5. The movie is currently #115 in IMDB top 250, which is probably a little too high. It will probably fall out of the top 200 soon, but I can see no problem with it being among top 250. That's how great it is.
6. The cover of the book is often more important than what's inside. Yes, it is wrong, but people judge everything before they get to know it and that is why it is important to have a nice cover.
7. Hatred can be defeated with goodness, but only when that hatred has some good in itself. If it is pure hatred, you have to destroy and burn it.
8. Everything in life happens for a reason and there is no need to fixate yourself on the past. It just doesn't do good for anyone.