Three Billboards

Even though it was the middle of the week, we gathered the usual suspects to see "Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri," mainly because this was the only night one of the crowd had time. And then he got sick and thus missed a glorious film!

You have to see it in the original, German dubbing just will not work here. The subtitles are nicely translated according the the slang meaning, not just a word-for-word translation. The southern drawl is absolutely necessary to be very clear about where this is supposed to be taking place.

The first thing I noticed was that, although I have never been in Missouri, it really looked like my birthplace near the rolling hills of the Appalachian Mountains. Turns out it was actually filmed in Western North Carolina (because they gave the film company tax credit) - along the Appalachian Mountains. Okay, and they made up the name "Ebbing" so that there would be no town that gets too many tourists showing up.

Mildred - like pretty much everyone else in town - is angry. It's been 7 months since her daughter was raped and murdered, and the perp has not been identified. She rents 3 billboards to ask

"Raped While Dying",
"And Still No Arrests?", and
"How Come, Chief Willoughby?"

Chief Willoughby is the police chief of Ebbing and is dying of cancer. There are a number of intertwining stories about hate and love and more hate and lots of misunderstandings. The humor is black-black-black, and especially well done. Frances McDormand (as Mildred) just radiates hate and revenge and softens at the end. Sandy Martin (as Jason Dixon's red-neck Mama) is soooooo in-character, I really enjoyed her brief performances.

This is a must-see film (Wikipedia has more details, apparently many protest groups have adopted the "Three billboards" form of protest). It's been nominated for a number of Oscars, I really hope they get at least one. The film deserves it.