three billboards outside ebbing missouri parents guide

In his off hours, Officer Dixon seems miserable when he’s shown getting drunk and bullying the citizens of Ebbing–including Peter Dinklage’s character James–before staggering home to his emotionally smothering mother. Angela’s murder happened within the geographic patrol of Officer Jason Dixon (Rockwell), but when on the clock, Officer Dixon is far too busy to work on the investigation he’s nursing hangovers and reading comic books when not hiding behind his badge to commit acts of brutality and to make sketchy arrests. The billboards Mildred has leased openly challenge the head of the town’s police force, Chief Bill Willoughby, portrayed by Woody Harrelson. By the time she leaves the agency we know Mildred’s name but we don’t know who she is.Īs it turns out, Mildred’s daughter Angela was raped and murdered within walking distance of her home, and the case is unsolved and has gone cold seven months later. “Are you Angela Hayes’s mother?” Red asks, conclusively. Red is clearly roused from his usual routine, but recovers quickly and volleys with wordplay of his own to her. She is not gentle as she clarifies words that might be off-limits and then pays for the first month of a one-year lease on the billboards with a folded stack of cash to Red Welby, who runs the agency. As Mildred makes her way into the ad agency in the middle of her town, it is not immediately clear what year it is. All three structures are in disrepair and peeling.

That the film, McDormand, Rockwell and McDonagh won Golden Globe awards for Best Drama, Best Actress in a Drama, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay respectively is the positive sort of coverage that really matters.Īs the film opens, the big engine in Mildred Hayes’s decades-old station wagon is loud as she slows the vehicle on quiet road, stops and takes in the three titular billboards. Is she married? What does he do to stay fit? I could not tell you anything about the personal lives of Frances McDormand or Sam Rockwell, and that is perfectly fine by me. And since delighting in Sam Rockwell’s performance in 1996’s kooky and unpredictable Box of Moonlight, it is safe for me to declare that his presence in a film is a signal that the viewer is not going to see a formulaic movie.

Because I’d scanned a Fall 2017 article about McDormand’s career in Entertainment Weekly that mentioned its title, that the cast included Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell was all I knew about this movie beforehand.

Martin McDonagh wrote and directed this film.

Three billboards outside ebbing missouri parents guide