The Best Picture nominee, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, serves the audience a known plot with a crop of cliché characters, making for a movie even more pretentious than its name.  When a film is nominated for 7 best picture awards, one cannot help but wonder what all the fuss is about. However, after getting through almost two hours of a repetitive one-dimensional story, it is almost impossible not to question the true motives behind the movie’s success.

Three Billboards narrates the story of a desperate mother and how she decides to place three billboards on the outskirts of town as a way to bring attention towards her daughter’s unsolved rape and murder. Directed by newcomer Martin McDonagh, and lead by Hollywood superstars such as Frances McDormand from Fargo, Sam Rockwell from The Green Mile, and Woody Harrelson from the Hunger Games, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri won two of the seven Academy Award nominations it received for Best Actress, and Best Actor in a Supporting role.  Nonetheless, when taking into account the scandal the entire film industry faced concerning various rape allegations, the true artistic success of Three Billboards is highly questionable.

For instance, the characters who lead the actors to glory, are, ironically, the least complex. The story is narrated  through the eyes of Mildred Hayes (McDormand), who the plot tries to continuously make the audience believe she is a complicated and strong woman. Yet, all of the motivation that drives her personality stems from a single place; murder of her daughter. With only one place from where to grow, the protagonist translates as simply angry rather than troubled and deep. This case of ingenuity spreads through the story like wildfire, as the main antagonist, lead by Rockwell, suffers from a deadly lack of character as well. He is portrayed as a true villain, with no redeeming characteristics, as he is a  racist, homophobic, misogynistic white cop, which, automatically spells out evil. Therefore, since the start of the movie both the protagonist and antagonist are boxed into their roles. As a matter of fact, the division of the characters is so stark to the point it feels like a battle in The Lord of the Rings, where the villains are dressed in pitch black, and the heroes sport glimmering white capes. This simplistic, outdated, and immature tactic constricts the story in a way that no progress nor gray area can be reached, leaving the story constricted into a place of good and evil.  

Accompanying the slew of one dimensional characters, the plot is heavily clouded by the various political messages the story tries to push forward.  It tries to aimlessly brew together a slew of problematics that appeal to a modern audience, as it places together themes such as suicide, rape, racism, sexism, and discrimination in one dish. The movie clearly bites off more than it can chew as it stretches itself thin in order to even touch upon these issues. Discussing social issues has become a key point when creating an well-recieved movie. However, when compared to its contemporaries, such as Call Me By Your Name and The Shape of Water, who deal successfully with one problem, the political agenda of Three Billboards seem messy, forced, and fake.

Finally, the plot points through which the 2D characters and forced ideals are dragged through are overly exaggerated, till the point where it feels more like the love child of Adult Swim cartoon and a Lifetime movie instead of a serious drama. In order to spice up their  boring, predictable ideals, they decide to give them structure by creating an overly dramatic plot that does not fit with the combination of sensible issues the story aims to deal with. For instance, the movie starts with a hurt mother that, out of the blue, choses to bring national attention to her dead daughter by placing 3 gigantic billboards. Decisions so over the top like this, are spread throughout the movie causing it to enter a realm of fiction, as true human characters would never even consider taking such odd, heartless approaches.

Thus, with such a sub-par story, where everything seems so undeniably biased, forced, and artificial it is hard to see where all the praise came from. Even though the movie is undeniably well-shot and lit, its nothing out of the ordinary. Compared to its contemporaries, it is not the worst, but it is most definitely not the best. It is key to realize that the movie got released in a rather suitable time, that clearly influenced its outcome. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri clearly does not deserve the fame, recognition, and prizes that was handed to it. If you are in a mood watch a message followed by a story and not a story with a message, be welcome to waste your time suffering through Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.