though "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri" pursues a number of narrative strains, it's really about lost characters doing whatever they can to scheme their way out of a rut
McDormand's and Rockwell's performances give Three Billboards most of its emotional weight - and two instant Oscar contenders, especially McDormand, who should follow up her Fargo win two decades later with this showpiece
it's full of sharp dialogue and entertaining characters and fuelled by a wryly enlightened view of our world and how it can be at once cruel and caring