Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is Martin McDonagh's third full-length feature film. It is also his first feature-length film to win an Academy Award (his 2004 short film, Six Shooter, won the Best Live Action Short Film Academy Award). At that awards ceremony, Frances McDormand won the Academy Award for Best Actress and Sam Rockwell won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It was also nominated for the following Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Woody Harrelson, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.
Terri White of Empire absolutely loved the film, writing that the film is "Funny, brutal and breathtakingly beautiful. Two exceptionally raw lead performances, supercharged by a bold script from Martin McDonagh, could make Three Billboards this year’s Awards-upsetter." However, a few reviewers didn't particularly care for the film. Writes Angelo Muredda of Cinema Scope: "Whatever the rationale behind it, the flippancy of McDonagh's compulsive jokes frequently halts the momentum of a film that is about how flippancy is an inadequate response to the horrors of the world."
Nevertheless, Three Billboards tells the compelling story of a woman named Milred Hayes who challenges the Ebbing City Police Department because she feels that they have botched the investigation into the rape and murder of her daughter, Angela. To that end, she buys space on three billboards that question the police. Each says: "Raped While Dying", "Still No Arrests?", and "How Come, Chief Willoughby?" It is a story of grief, love, revenge, and much, much more.
