The Banshees of Inisherin
★ ★★★★
You don't often see films that touch on the complexity of friendship. It's rather puzzling if you think about it. So much focus is always brought to the romance that comes out of our lives, because that is the really exciting stuff in life, right? Director Martin McDonagh is here to prove that theory wrong with The Banshees of Inisherin.
I think anyone will be able to oddly relate to this film in one way or another, but it really touched on a struggle that I have been dealing with as of late. It was actually hard for me to finish the film, not so much because I was dreadful about what was going to happen, but by how much strife it riled up inside of me. I say all of this in a flattering light. It has been some time since I was so moved and challenged by a screenplay of a film.
This is a film that you will enjoy from the onset, especially because of the gorgeous Irish landscapes and the immaculate charm of the main character, Pádraic (Colin Farrell). There was a part of me that wondered what all the fuss was about during the first act, despite being pulled in and chuckling quite a bit. But there is a moment in this movie where the stakes are raised quite a bit and everything changes. And man, I was there for it.
McDonagh uses this small Irish village to showcase the fraught nature of relationships, both close and casual, and how as a society, we must balance these often mundane acquaintances with our own personal desires. As Colm (Brendan Gleeson) says, "Niceness doesn't last," and that seems inevitable in this world, especially as a civil war plays out in the background of this movie. These two main characters play out a civil war amongst themselves and to what end? McDonagh argues that when we forget the simplicities in life is when things turn to chaos.
I personally hated McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The whole cadence of the dialogue felt like it was written by a stranger trying to explain a world they had never visited. The Banshees of Inisherin is the world that McDonagh is meant to explore. I was blown away by the mixture of humor, drama and remorse and how McDonagh uses the strength of all his actors to elevate his voice. But if you have trouble understanding thick, Irish dialect, I suggest watching this with the captions on.
