Do NOT mess with a mother mad as f*cking hell. That’s essentially the premise of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” director Martin McDonagh‘s latest. He’s the filmmaker behind the pitch-black comedies, “Seven Psychopaths” and “In Bruges,” a terrifically underrated and dark dramedy starring an amazing turn by Colin Farrell. Dark comedy is McDonagh‘s bread and butter and he approaches his latest with the same cutting wit and sardonicism. The film stars Frances McDormand as a mother whose daughter has died. Fed up with the ineffectual cops, she puts up billboard space in her hometown of Ebbing, Missouri asking if someone can catch the killer, much to the police’s perturbed chagrin.
Here’s the official synopsis:
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comedic drama from Academy Award® winner Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award® winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award® nominee Woody Harrelson), the town’s revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer 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.
READ MORE: ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ Clip: Frances McDormand Kicks Crotch
The film also stars Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage. Fox Searchlight successfully screened the movie at the Telluride Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival and the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. Our review from the Telluride Film Festival described the film “an acting masterclass from Frances McDormand,” adding, “while McDonagh’s screenplay is ingenious, Rockwell has a major transformation to pull off and he does so brilliantly.”
Fox Searchlight Pictures will release the picture on November 10. Watch the new trailer and let us know what you think.
I don’t think the trailer below is loading so click on the button above on top of the image. That works.