for a movie centred around the rape and murder of a teenage girl, police brutality and racism, and socio-economic failures in a small-town thats been left behind, I found this movie utterly enjoyable. I loved how over-the-top and exaggerated the characters were. I thought Woody's VO in the stable was almost comical and touching and not something I saw coming (early on, that is). I thought the way McDonagh writes his protagonists as awful people was almost a nod to the "im not a bad person, but i did a bad thing" trend in prestige television the last 10 years. Watching McDormand sink deeper into a progressively villainous role, while Rockwell (a disgusting, racist cartoon character for the first half of the film) rises from the muck to almost protagonist level is a massive success from a performance and storytelling perspective . These are unlikeable, reprehensible people, and we're stuck with them. Woody is the most likeable person in this thing, and his story is really just a device to remind us that bad things happen to good people and bad people are still here.

I loved the casting and performances. I was thrilled when "Mac's mom" from it's always sunny in philly showed up as rockwell's mom. She is so good at playing that character which, as someone who has spent time in very small towns, not really a caricature at all.

Yes it's over the top. No, not everything works. But this is NOT crash.