It always makes me uneasy when I go to see a critics darling.

Lady Bird was worth the love-in.

So was “Three Billboards”.

Dark, funny, sad, nasty. Just when you think he is going to stick with stereotypes, he

twists the knife and makes it work.

Frances McDormand will likely contend with Sairse Ronan for best actress, and I suspect Francis will win because her role is so cutting and attention getting.

But Woody Harrelson is really good, as is the rest of the cast.

Hell, I even liked the ending.

This is not for people who like neat packages, but if he say “what the hell”, this movie

answers all the questions but it isn’t tidy, much less happy.

(I can’t resist one brief nit. At one point a dumb racist cop points out race attitudes are “changing in the south”. Missouri, where the movie takes place, does not consider itself “the south”. It comes close in the far southern reaches, but I wouldn’t have used that line, particularly since the scenery does not look Bootheel south.)