Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh, 2017)

Bigotry and simmering violence abound once more in small-town heartland America, with a mother still seeking justice for the rape and murder of her daughter seven months earlier, believing the local police to be less than committed to the search for the culprit. She then incenses the townsfolk when she takes out three roadside billboards attacking the police: this is firmly conservative country where sleeping dogs should be left to lie.
The setting may not be new terrain then, but the film reaped just plaudits for what it actually makes of its fairly stock ingredients. There is a complexity at work throughout, with standard plot waypoints constantly avoided and a refusal to succumb to pat moralising. Then the cast really does loom large: Frances McDormand as the mother is immense; a sardonic, hard dogged shell over a damaged inside, and decent Woody Harrelson and a toxically prejudiced Sam Rockwell as the police are excellent foils to her on her quest. The film is even sure enough of its tone that it can accommodate black humour at the start, though this has to fade away out of necessity as the story moves on.

7/10