It was one of the better movies I've seen in that it plays on nostalgia and not nostalgia to a bygone decade, but more nostalgia for the old story driven indie and quasi-indie films that ruled the 1990s.
Back in the day "Pulp Fiction" could win Academy Awards and tiny no budget movies like "Clerks" and "Reservoir Dogs" could gain cult followings and make long and successful careers out of their writer-directors.
"Three Billboards" has all of that, the story based on characters and situations not based on political rhetoric and special effects. You get the sense, when you watch it, that they wanted to tell a story and that was all that mattered to them.
There was a story to tell and everyone came together to tell it in the best way that they could...so it was moving, and it was funny, and it was dramatic, and it was oddly dark and oddly heartwarming.
You walk away feeling that you've seen a movie, and you have. That's exactly what this is, an actual movie. It's not special effects strung together on the backs of weak characters playing out a plot that has been rebooted several times...it's an actual movie that tells an actual story.
It's original. It's worth watching. It deserved everything that came its way at the rewards and more. It's the kind of movie that we need to see more of and its the kind of movie that I dearly miss seeing.
Give it a watch, you won't see a movie like it again, and that, I feel, is time well spent.
