I should have read the imdb.com entry first. They classified it as a "Comedy, Crime, Drama". I would never have taken it as a comedy.
A woman whose daughter was raped and murdered finds three unused billboards on the edge of town. She pays a surprisingly large amount to have three signs posted asking why there had been no arrests.
The characters all talked the same, all using the same obscenities over and over and over. Even when it made no sense. A man working in an office swears as he talks to a woman who walks in asking to lease the billboards. The parents swear at their children, the children at their parents. There was too much talk in general. Very little was non-verbal.
Written by an Irish guy whose major influences were David Mamet and Quentin Tarantino, which explains a lot. They should have gotten a Norwegian or a Slovak.
There was a lot of editing. There were no long takes. The story is mostly coincidence.
Filmed on high definition video on an Arri Alexa XT Plus.
It reminded me a little of In the Heat of the Night with what might be a well-meaning police chief saddled with officers who aren't very good. It also might make a good double feature with the 2014 Dutch movie Violet, another movie about a murder the characters are in no position to solve.
Even the "good" cops in this aren't that good. They let their "brother officers" get away with torture and assault. Getting fired is the worst penalty they face for their crimes.
Surprisingly violent. People are always getting beaten up, pistol whipped, kicked in the face, thrown out windows.
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