A Filmmaker's Review: 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' (2017)

Let's have a look at my own personal history with this great film and then, we'll have a look at why I rated it in this particular way. That seems totally fair. I found out about this movie when it came out and well, I was very interested in it right from the beginning and I watched it all the way through close to after it was released on DVD. For some reason, I had heard about the marketing campaign etc. that happened in America, but as I live in England, there wasn't really a big deal made about it here. I didn't hear much buzz about it but, after the Oscars happened, I was even more so interested in it - being because the film itself got a number of Oscars that I thought were incredibly well deserved.

After watching the film a few times, I felt like I really did know the film in terms of its techniques for dark comedy and its filmmaking techniques for stylising an atmosphere of this Southern Gothic naturalism it gave off. But, when I came back to it very recently - I had to re-learn the film all over again because, I was still learning these new things about themes, symbols, styles, techniques and dialogue. Some stuff I had never picked up on before was being revealed to me now that I was actually looking with a critical eye and not just watching the film purely for its entertainment value. It was like watching the film for the very first time and that really sums up the beauty of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), every single time you watch it is like watching it for the first time.

I love this movie for a number of reasons and the first one is the acting of every single person in the film is absolutely perfect. Each character plays such an incredible role in the film and you can definitely see that this is a town in which people not only know each other, but know about each other's lives. This isn't told to us directly, but it is the relations between the characters that lets us know about the conditions of the place in which they inhabit.

The next thing I love about this film is the way in which it is filmed. It's filmed in an incredibly Southern Gothic style and if you watch a film called Mississippi Burning - there is a big connection between the filmmaking styles even though the stories are completely different. The style of filmmaking includes various long and wide shots that have a copious amount of landscape in them and there are various shots of the rural nature of the town in which the characters inhabit.

After this, there is obviously the various themes and symbols that appear throughout the movie - for one there is the deer and there is also the symbol of fire. The symbol of fire is incredibly important because it can represent so much to each character. There is the theme of sorrow and grief, the symbol of guns and the theme of violence against innocents that are all prominent within the film and add some meaning the the overall story.

The film is a masterpiece of Southern Gothic dark comic cinema and it has obvious tinges of post-modern storytelling in it due to the different character storylines it incorporates. From the very beginning of the film you're drawn into the various things we've spoken about:

• The acting and characterisation
• The filmmaking style and cinematography
• The themes and symbols that add so much to the storytelling technique

When it comes to cinema history, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) will be remembered as one of those films that changed the way we looked at film. It changes the way you gather meaning, the way you see dark comedy and the way you decide whether a film has aesthetic and cultural value. I sincerely hope that this film is added to the National Registry for film for its cultural importance because it is so very important for everyone who loves or studies film to watch. It is one of the most important films of the 21st Century.