Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

This is a film packed with good characters and good actors plus an interesting plot with many twists and turns that even I didn't see coming, which is no small feat these days.
Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) hasn't had an easy life. Her ex-husband, Charlie (John Hawkes) was abusive and then her daughter was burned alive and raped and the guy who did it still hasn't been caught. So she's pissed. So pissed that she uses all the money she's saved up and buys three deprecated billboards on a road that many don't even use anymore taunting the police department, including the benevolent chief, Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), who is dying of pancreatic cancer and the racist Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) who isn't fond of black people though he later on throws the white salesman, Red (Caleb Landry Jones) out of the window. Red is one of my favorite characters in the film; the other being Mildred's son Robbie (Lucas Hedges, great again) as both are kind and understanding of all the crazies surrounding them.
The story doesn't end happily; Angela's murderer isn't found, which is a shame but some do get their just rewards, including Dixon being suspended. But the film isn't necessary about that; it is about how the people react to the actions of one woman and forcing the story to remain the spotlight which is also what Mildred.
The film is also an excellent character study with multi-layered characters and brilliant actors portraying them, with good supporting turns from Peter Dinklage and Abbie Cornish.
Despite the subject matter, it is done masterfully, though you also have to wonder why Mildred isn't in jail as she does assault the dentist and then set fire to the police station, a fact which doesn't surprise Dixon, who has an odd change of heart after he nearly die.
The film brings up a lot of issues ever present in the media, police brutality and how ironic and unacceptable it is that it isn't until a white guy is nearly killed that action is finally taken and how unacceptable it is that a murderer and rapist roams free because his DNA isn't in the system and how it would violate human rights to have everyone's DNA on record (that debate would make an excellent film in itself) and it forces you to think and reflect on everyday choices made and not many films manage to do that. And to do so well and with such a dark sense of humor, that is even rarer. Grade: A-