i'll concede to this fact, sometimes Hollywood does a decent film, i'm starting to see a tract of: as far as black comedies go... no one does black comedies as good as the H'americans... maybe i was born too late to laugh at the British stuff from... whenever it was in the past century... and whatever the new quirk is about... i don't get it... but H'american black comedy? pitched genius... sure... about schmidt was labelled a black comedy... but in comparison to what i've just watched? i.e. three billboards outside ebbing, missouri? out-stand-ing... i'm not saying i'm much of a film critic... but given the story resembles the "archetype" of retribution... revenge, or there-lack-of, akin to the movie secret in their eyes... retribution isn't concentrated on the focus of the murderer, ******... it spreads... everyone is somehow affected by each others' blame-game-shaming-fest... everyone can have their soppy story, their two cents thrown into the lucky fountain... and that's the brilliance of the movie: the victim-hood tactics diffuse - because everyone has a sad story, the sad story isn't the story at all: it's how people still manage to congregate around a shining bright light and pull along... but that's still not the ultimate genius of three billboards outside ebbing, missouri... a well deserved supporting actor Oscar for sam rockwell playing jason dixon... why? he's the subtle sub-story of the antihero archetype... the sub-story just sits there, subtle... but eventually more gripping... it's not you want justice to be served... or you're guessing who did it... unlike in the instance of secret in their eyes... where the grief overburdens the lead role... there's a variant of being enraged in a tragicomic way of the lead in three billboards outside ebbing, missouri... perhaps because the lead role has interactions with her remaining offspring, and there's an abusive husband hanging around... but for me... transfiguration... like that Jesus bit... the film is really all about the antihero... and thank god... another superhero movie and i'm going to puke... what with deadpool being the other antihero... but unlike that sort of antihero story... this is so genius in how subtle it is... a well deserved supporting actor Oscar... well done.