{"id":9707,"date":"2022-12-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=9707"},"modified":"2023-03-11T20:31:44","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T01:31:44","slug":"the-banshees-of-inisherin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/28\/the-banshees-of-inisherin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Banshees of Inisherin."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Banshees of Inisherin<\/em> is writer\/director Martin McDonagh\u2019s first film since 2017\u2019s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri<\/a><\/em>, which was his most acclaimed movie to that point and took home the BAFTA for Best Film and the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture \u2013 Drama. His latest led all films this year with eight Golden Globe nominations, and reunites the two leads from his debut film In Bruges<\/a><\/em>, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, in a dark comedy with two distinct, serious themes lying beneath the film\u2019s absurdist surface. (It\u2019s streaming now on HBO Max.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padraig (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson) both live on the small island of Inisherin off the west coast of Ireland, where not much of anything happens, and as far as I can tell almost nobody ever has to go to work. Padraig and Colm are drinking buddies who walk to the pub every afternoon, with Padraig stopping by Colm\u2019s house on the way, until one day Colm completely ignores Padraig\u2019s knock, and ignores him at the pub as well, eventually telling him he doesn\u2019t want to be friends any more. This unprovoked severing of ties, which Padraig can\u2019t understand and won\u2019t accept, even in the face of Colm\u2019s threats and rather disturbing actions, leads to an escalation of hostilities that wrecks the peace of the island and leaves nobody better off than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDonagh has a gift for language and crafting witty lines, starting off early on in Banshees<\/em> when everyone asks Padraig if he and Colm are \u201crowin\u2019\u201d often enough that it becomes funny just by repetition. The comic elements here are a necessary reprieve from the film\u2019s increasingly dark elements, including the deterioration between the two main characters, the insidious gossip that poisons the island\u2019s culture, young Dominic (Barry Keoghan) and his abusive father, and more. It’s the sort of story where its pervasive awfulness becomes even more apparent after it\u2019s over, because the humor and absurdity mask the bleak story while you\u2019re still watching it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film works on one level as an exploration of male friendship, and how fragile those bonds can be in the wrong sort of environment. It\u2019s not so much a question of toxic masculinity, as neither character exhibits much in that vein; Padraig is probably too sensitive, at least when he\u2019s not in his cups, and Colm\u2019s reasons for shunning Padraig and subsequent reactions are more those of someone dealing with mental illness. One of them eventually takes their quarrel too far, pushing them past the point of no return, and a once-solid friendship, one that everyone on the island took as a given, is reduced to ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also a thinly-veiled metaphor for the Irish Civil War, which is often mentioned in the script, including in the final scene, and is nearing its conclusion as the movie takes place. This civil war began after the Irish War of Independence, which led to the establishment of the Irish Free State as a \u201cdominion\u201d within the Commonwealth, giving the island \u2013 sans Northern Island, which exercised its opt-out clause and became a free agent<\/s> remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Island \u2013 greater autonomy, leading to full independence in 1933. After the Free State was established, however, pro-independence forces who opposed this partial solution fought an armed rebellion against the new, provisional government, with former IRA members from the war of independence now split between the two forces. The Irish fought a war to kick out the English, won it, and then ended up fighting themselves, leading to nearly 2000 deaths and substantial economic losses. The conflict may have begun over a principle, but escalated into violence when a democratic solution was likely achievable. It led to decades of mistrust between the spiritual descendants of the two sides, one of which later split into the political parties Fianna F\u00e1il and Sinn F\u00e9in. The metaphor here doesn\u2019t map perfectly one-to-one \u2013 I don\u2019t think Colm is one side and Padraig the other, although a scholar of Irish history may see it quite differently \u2013 but it does speak to the pointlessness of war, especially when the two sides escalate hostilities in turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the best thing I\u2019ve ever seen Colin Farrell do, requiring more range from him than In Bruges<\/em> or The Lobster<\/em>, as he makes Padraig feel completely three-dimensional \u2013 you know someone like him, someone well-intentioned but unable to get out of his own way, someone who\u2019s probably not the most interesting guy to have a beer with, let alone a beer every day, but who would likely be the first person to show up if you needed help. Gleeson is also strong, as always, but his character is just not as well-written, and his complexity is, shall we say, a little harder to understand. Keoghan is fine as Dominic, who is probably developmentally disabled, although his story feels tangential and his main function seems to be to serve as a plot point for Padraig and Padraig\u2019s sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon), on whom Dominic has a crush. Siobhan\u2019s life is even more stifled than Padraig\u2019s, and an opportunity eventually arises for her to leave Inisherin, a move that completely unmoors her brother, already shaken from having Colm cast him off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve largely just begun our run through Oscar-worthy movies, so I can\u2019t compare it to much, but I wouldn\u2019t put this over Everything Everywhere All at Once<\/em>, which is still the best movie I\u2019ve seen from 2022, although I could take an argument for McDonagh\u2019s script over the Daniels\u2019 script for EEAAO<\/em>. Both are outstanding, but McDonagh\u2019s dialogue is better. The Academy has already nominated McDonagh twice before for his screenplays, which makes me strongly suspect he\u2019ll get a nod for this one as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Banshees of Inisherin is writer\/director Martin McDonagh\u2019s first film since 2017\u2019s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which was his most acclaimed movie to that point and took home the BAFTA for Best Film and the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture \u2013 Drama. His latest led all films this year with eight Golden Globe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1318,1339,1330,1329,1324,1331,1340,161,215],"class_list":["post-9707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2022-in-movies","tag-2023-best-actor-nominees","tag-2023-best-director-nominees","tag-2023-best-original-screenplay-nominees","tag-2023-best-picture-nominees","tag-2023-best-supporting-actor-nominees","tag-2023-best-supporting-actress-nominees","tag-highly-recommended","tag-movies","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9710,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions\/9710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}