Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

#119 at the time of writing.

This is the story of one woman's fight for justice and redemption in small-town Missouri, where cops still beat people up just because they're black, and where townsfolk are trapped in cycles of poverty and abuse. In other words, a place where there is no justice, and no redemption.

With the exception of whiter-than-white Chief Willoughby, sensitively played by Woody Harrelson, no-one and nothing in this town is morally black and white, least of all Frances McDormand's bolshy protagonist - the characters exist in a grey zone, often outside of the law, and with their own peculiar definitions (or tolerances) of right and wrong.

It's a bleak story, but compelling, and with occasional touches of dark humour. By the end I feared it was dragging on too long - which I think is because once the story has played it course the ending still had to be set up, but it was probably worth it because the ending is just as it should be.

I was surprised to learn that the theatrical pitch-black comedy In Bruges was written and directed by the same person, Martin McDonagh, not least because this feels like such a deeply American film and he's not remotely American. I overheard someone say they thought this was a Coen Brothers film. Nope. A British-Irish dude made this. (Although it does star Joel Coen's wife, of course...)

Look out for this one at the Oscars...