Some American critics took issue with Arnold's ugly - beautiful portrait as a kind of inauthentic burlesque of their country, skewed by foreign preconceptions and blind spots — though not as many as those who took
against Martin McDonagh's Oscar - winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which weathered a firestorm of political and moral debate, backlashes and counter-backlashes, between its rapturous first
reception in Venice and the Academy
Awards.