Grinds my Gears a Smidgen

The Intercept's Zaid Jilani reviews a new film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Looks interesting. It's set in "the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri" -- a "rural Midwestern town."

Being from a rural Midwestern town in Missouri, I naturally wondered what real rural Missouri town the filmmaker (Martin McDonagh) chose to film in.

It's a rural Missouri town I've never heard of: Sylva, North Carolina.

I can understand why Hollywood producers would want films made on studio lots or nearby locations (e.g. Spahn Movie Ranch before Manson took over the place). 

But if you're going to film a movie set in rural Missouri, and you're not going to go cheap and do it on studio lots and California locations, why not film it in, um, rural Missouri? There are loads of small rural Missouri towns located within easy driving distance of St. Louis and Kansas City, both of which have major airports (the major airports nearest Sylva are Charlotte and Atlanta, both more than 150 miles away) and along major highway corridors like I-70 and I-44.

I'm guessing corporate welfare was involved.

I'm not much for legislation, let alone federal legislation. But it does seem to me that the US Constitution's "interstate commerce clause" empowers Congress to shut down habit of State A using taxpayer funds to bribe a company from State B to do business in State A. Maybe they ought to do that.