After seeing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri take home two awards at the Oscars earlier this month, I was intrigued to see this movie for myself. This darkly comedic drama managed to make me feel anger, sorrow and hope all in the span of under two hours.

In the movie, mother Mildred Hayes buys three billboards with a controversial message directed at the police, and more specifically, the chief. Hayes’ daughter was murdered and her case had gone months without a culprit being found.

Throughout the movie, the audience feels hope for justice and retribution after seeing how upset Hayes is about her daughter’s death. But the audience also feels a sense of sorrow when Hayes loses hope, and guilt for the police because they were unable to find the culprit for so long.

This movie is based off of a real story of a family in Vidor, Texas. Since 1991, the Fulton family has been putting up billboards demanding that the cops make an arrest for the cold case murder of Kathy Page. Page had been married to a man for 13 years but was planning to divorce him when she was murdered, so some of the billboards point fingers at her husband.

Hayes is played by Frances McDormand, who won the Oscar for “Best Actress.” Sam Rockwell, who plays a corrupt police officer, won the Oscar for “Best Supporting Actor.” Rockwell’s character, Dixon, tries to bully the billboard company into taking down the signs because his fellow officers are not doing anything. Throughout the movie, Hayes and Dixon have a rivalry with each other and are both very stubborn.

There has been controversy stirring around Rockwell’s character because he is not shy with racial slurs and and talks about how he has harmed African American subjects in his custody. His racism falls into the background, and has a redemption arc when he helps Hayes seek justice for her daughter. Another topic of controversy is how Peter Dinklage’s character is frequently mocked for his dwarfism. This was also a bizarre role for Dinklage at this point in his career.

“Hollywood’s ability to squander Dinklage’s talents isn’t the worst or only tragedy of the industry’s narrow-mindedness,” Alyssa Rosenberg said in The Washington Post. “Seeing Dinklage in one of these roles again, despite everything he has accomplished over the past seven years, is one of the most lacerating things about ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.'”

Since the movie came out on November 10, it has made over $153 million worldwide. I recommend watching Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri when it comes out on TV if you want to see a haunting yet hopeful story.