This is a very lucid dark movie, where the initial plot becomes a kind of painful pretext to plumb the deepest contradictions and phobias , the fanaticism and sectarianism, the fundamentalism as well as the vulnerability of part of American society.
The subject matter and the overall tone of the picture are very strong: anger, hate, violence and grief dominate, and I honestly did not grasp that comic touch noticed by some criticism.
No doubt everything works inside the picture: screenplay and shooting reinforce each other, but they could not work at full, hadn't they been supported by the top-notch acting. Frances Macdormand offers an Oscar deserving performance, once again proving her unique talent in such difficult and unpleasant roles, and all the cast does a great job.
