For casual fans of film, the name Martin McDonagh only became familiar after the movie he wrote, directed and produced, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," became the talk of this year's awards season.
Actors Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell both won Oscars for their performances in it, while McDonagh (a previous Oscar winner for the 2004 short film "Six Shooter") collected Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
Although some filmgoers were likely surprised by the awful underbelly to a deceiving portrait of normality exposed in both "Ebbing" and "Six Shooter," anyone familiar with the British playwright's theater work would have recognized McDonagh's signature hallmarks of dark humor, characters' pent-up rage about life, and eruptions of feral violence.