Stars: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry-Jones, Abbie Cornish | Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh

A series of sombre, foggy opening shots seems to denote a different Martin McDonagh, formerly best-known for the foul-mouthed black comedy In Bruges and the Tarantino-like Seven Psychopaths. But once the characters open their mouths – once bereaved Mildred (Frances McDormand) lists the curse words not permitted on the three billboards she intends to rent out – it’s clear that this isn’t going to be a quiet, contemplative study on the nature of grief.

Mildred lives on the outskirts of the titular town: a small outpost with none of the rural romanticism we associate with the American South (it looks more like a Welsh mining town). Mildred’s daughter, we learn, was raped and murdered, and the culprits were never caught. So she sets up the billboards – which ask why justice was never...