Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Is Certified Fresh

This weekend at the movies, we have a grieving mother searching for the truth (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, starring Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson) and a new crop of limited releases. What are the critics saying?

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) 91%

How far would you go to obtain justice for a loved one? It’s a question most of us spend our lives hoping we never have to answer — but Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), the central character in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, confronts it every day. The latest from writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), this stark black comedy traces Mildred’s quest to find the people responsible for her daughter’s rape and murder — particularly the local sheriff (Woody Harrelson), whose failure to solve the case is angrily called out in the titular billboards she’s paid to have covered with her furious demands for an answer, no matter how many of her neighbors she alienates along the way. It’s the type of story that demands a lot of its actors, and critics say McDonagh’s ensemble is more than up to the task — particularly McDormand, who’s credited in more than one review with delivering the performance of an already estimable career. Three Billboards obviously isn’t particularly light viewing, but it’s one of the year’s more widely acclaimed movies, and after collecting heaps of praise during its limited run, it’s earned its rollout to a wider release this weekend. We’re all looking forward to escaping to a galaxy far, far away in a couple of weeks; in the meantime, here’s a more down-to-earth effort that promises to exert its own type of force on audiences.

What’s New on TV

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 1 (2017) 95%

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is an upbeat addition to Amazon’s original offerings, propelled by a playful yet poignant performance by Rachel Brosnahan.

Also Opening This Week In Limited Release

• Shadowman (2017) , a documentary about the life and work of influential street artist Richard Hambleton, is at 100 percent.
• A Bad Idea Gone Wrong (2017) , a comedy about a pair of bumbling thieves who accidentally trap themselves in the house they’ve broken into, is at 100 percent.
• The Disaster Artist (2017) , in which director and star James Franco dramatizes the making of legendary outsider cinema classic The Room, is Certified Fresh at 95 percent.
• The Shape of Water (2017) , starring Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones in the latest dark fantasy outing from director Guillermo del Toro, is Certified Fresh at 95 percent.
• The Other Side of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen) (2017) , the latest acclaimed work from Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismäki, is at 90 percent.
• The New Radical (2017) , a documentary about a new breed of technologically fueled anarchists, is at 78 percent.
• The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017) , starring Maika Monroe as a teenager whose parents’ breakup threatens to derail her family’s lives, is at 67 percent.
• Love Beats Rhymes (2017) , a hip-hop romance starring Azealia Banks and directed by RZA, is at 60 percent.
• Wonder Wheel (2017) , a 1950s-set Woody Allen period piece starring Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake, is at 41 percent.
• 24 Hours to Live (2017) , starring Ethan Hawke as an assassin brought back to life after being killed on the job (and presumably given 24 hours to live), is at 40 percent.
• Psychopaths (2017) , in which an executed serial killer’s soul returns to possess his followers, is at 17 percent.