Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage, Abbie Cornish, Caleb Landry Jones, Kathryn Newton, Lucas Hedges
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Dark comedy drama directed by Martin McDonagh. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri centers on grieving mother, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), who’s fed up with the lack of momentum on her daughter’s murder case. She decides to makes a bold move and rents three billboards outside the town, with a controversial message directed at Sheriff Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the town’s revered chief of police. When his second-in-command, Officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is only exacerbated and the small town is turned upside down once she starts her campaign.
Our Favorite Quote:
'All this anger, it just begets greater anger.' - Charlie (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Mildred: Are you Red Welby?
Red Welby: Yes, ma’am. How may I help you?
Mildred: I hear there’s three billboards out on Drinkwater Road. Here’s five thousand for the first month, and here’s what the billboard’s ought to say.
[she gives him the money and a piece of paper]
Red Welby: I guess you’re Angela Hayes’s mother.
Mildred: That’s right. I’m Angela Hayes’s mother.
Mildred: What’s the law on what you can and cannot say on a billboard? I assume you can’t say nothing defamatory and you can’t say f***, pi**, or c***, is that right?
Red Welby: Or anus.
Mildred: I think I’ll be alright then.
Red Welby: You’re Angela Hayes’s mother.
Mildred: That’s right, I’m Angela Hayes’s mother.
Gabriella Forrester: So, Mildred Hayes, why did you put up these billboards?
Mildred: My daughter, Angela, was murdered seven months ago. It seems to me the police department is too busy torturing black folks to solve actual crime.
Dixon: [upon seeing Mildred’s billboards] Hey, you. What the hell is this?
Jerome: Advertising I guess.
Dixon: Advertising what?
Jerome: Something obscure.
Dixon: I’ll say.
Willoughby: I’d do anything to catch your daughter’s killer. I don’t think those billboards is very fair.
Mildred: The time it took you to get out here whining like a b**ch, Willoughby, some other poor girl’s probably out there being butchered right now.
Dixon: We’ve had two official complaints about those billboards.
Willoughby: From who?
Dixon: There’s your lady with a funny eye.
Willoughby: A lady with the funny f***ing eye?
Dixon: And a fat dentist.
Willoughby: Jesus Christ!
Fat Dentist: There’s a lot of good friends of Willoughby in this town, Ms. Hayes!
[as he goes to drill her teeth, Mildred takes the drill and attacks him]
Willoughby: You didn’t happen to drill a little hole into the dentist today, did you?
[Mildred mumbles due to having had her teeth just done]
Mildred: Of course not.
Willoughby: Huh?
Mildred: I said, of course not.
Father Montgomery: I’m sorry about Angie, but the town is dead set against these billboards.
Mildred: Took a poll, did you, Father?
Father Montgomery: [to Mildred] You know, if you hadn’t stopped coming to church you’d have a little bit more understanding of people’s feelings.
Mildred: [referring to someone throwing a can at her car] You know who threw that?
Boy: What can?
[Mildred suddenly punches him in the stomach]
Mildred: How about you, sweetheart?
Girl: No, I didn’t really…
[Mildred kicks her in the leg]
Mildred: Hey, f***head!
Dixon: What?
Police Officer: Don’t say “what”, Dixon, when she comes in calling you f***head!
Mildred: The more you keep a case in the public eye, the better your chances are at getting it solved.
Charlie: [to Mildred] All this anger, man, it just begets greater anger.
Dixon: It looks like we got a war on our hands.
Gabriella Forrester: In three, two, one. And as sad as the spectacle of these billboards might be, this reporter for one hopes this finally puts an end to the strange sage of the three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Mildred: [drives by and shouts] It’s going to put an end to s**t, you f***ing re**rd. This is just the f***ing start. Why don’t you put that on your Good Morning Missouri f***ing wakeup broadcast, b**ch.
Mildred: [as she sees a deer] You aren’t trying to make me believe in reincarnation, are you? Because you’re pretty, but you ain’t her. She got killed. Still no arrest, how come I wonder, because there ain’t no God and the whole world’s empty and it doesn’t matter what we do to each other? I hope not. I don’t know what the police are doing. I haven’t heard a word from them in seven goddamn months. I’ll tell you this, I’ve heard an awful lot from them since I put them billboards up. Where do you keep a case in the public eye, the better the chances are of getting it solved?
Mildred: [to the deer] If I had some food I’d give it to you, all I’ve got is some Doritos and they might kill you, they’re kind of pointy. Then where would we be?
Mildred: [referring to the billboards] You can take them down and arrest me.
Abercrombie: I’ve got nothing to arrest you for.
Mildred: I hate you, Wade.
Mildred: This time the chick ain’t loosing.
Trailer:
Funniest film I’ve seen in a long time. But the best quote? “Penelope said begets?!?”
Three billboard’s, basically a woman who’s lost her daughter after being raped. No conviction had been made after 8 months, she decides to advertise this fact, while also mentioning the name of the main investigator who failed in getting a conviction. This sets of a change reaction of events with 5 or6 of the main characters in the film. It’s a movie mixed with comedy, sadness and drama. For me the show stealer is deputy Dickson, the idiot deputy.
The movie is solid.moves along well. could’ve been structured bit better…maybe bit too long by 15 minutes. Has some flat spots towards the end.
I like the film. Would i recommend it? Yes. Would I see it again soon? No.
3.5 stars
If you can’t avenge a murder in the family, then do the next best thing. Without concrete evidence a mother and her sidekick will figure it out on the way. I trust this movie isn’t the second coming of “Death Wish”.
An unsolved murder remains fresh with the power of the billboard. The status quo policing continues to turn up nothing. The mother’s plea for answers transforms her into a judge and jury mentality.