Abstract

Black comedy is a subgenre of comedy that focuses on the use of black humor in stories full of drama, satire and irony to point out the critical aspects of society, through social critique and the subversive acts of its characters. Martin McDonagh is a playwriter, screenwriter and film director of Irish origin, who elaborates his stories from this subgenre. The present research aims to analyze the film work Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2017) by Martin McDonagh, through the approach of the categories social criticism and subversive acts. In order to fulfill the proposed objective, the present research has a non-experimental nature and an analytical-synthetic methodology. The content analysis technique is used, with qualitative orientation. The variables of analysis are Social Criticism and Subversive Acts, present in researches of recognized authors. The conclusion of this paper is that the film aims essentially at social critique, especially regarding institutions such as family, police and church, while the protagonist uses subversive acts to seek justice.

Keywords: Black comedy | cinema | social criticism | subversive acts | antiheroes