Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

January is THE month for the UK film connoisseur. Dark mornings and cold, rainy days be damned as we’re treated to an influx of films that the US got to enjoy last year.

2017 saw big hitters like La La Land, Moonlight and Manchester By The Sea come our way and we’re set in 2018 to enjoy The Shape Of Water, Coco, Ladybird and Downsizing amongst others which have received rave reviews, awards and ‘best of year’ listings across the pond.

Those aforementioned 2017 examples settled nicely into the Top 10 of the year and another certainly due to figure in this year’s round up is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Not, as you could misconstrue from the trailer, a true-life drama but instead a Coen-esque black comedy dispatch about family, the police, the media and life itself set in Southern America.

We start with the titular billboards themselves; put up by Mildred Hayes (a typically fantastic Frances McDormand) in order to critique the police force of Ebbing for failing to make an arrest following the murder of her teenage daughter. This leads to a war of attrition between her and the police, led by Woody Harrelson in a more dynamic role than he’s been given in recent times.

Doesn’t sound ripe for laughs but the script by Martin McDonagh (who also directs) is as sharp as a razorblade. It’s a mighty screenplay; injecting a belly laugh with one line before immediately inducing tears the line after. Pathos, humour and extreme swearing; it’s all here.

It’s more sincere than the average Coen Brothers film, and certainly lets in more light than the aforementioned Manchester By The Sea, but sits in the middle ground between both; highly original, impeccably paced and nuanced, there’s a real journey here with every character injected with a degree of sympathy and realism.

The cast are all exceptional (particular nods to Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones and Lucas Hedges) but Peter Dinklage is shamefully underused.

There’s some great twists as well and it’s put together beautifully with dynamic, but unobtrusive, shot use.

One of the best scripts in recent times accelerates this to award success. A great start to the year.

5 stars *****