THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN: a contest of absurd stubbornness

Photo caption: Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

The Banshees of Inisherin is set in 1923 on a fictional Irish island literally detached from the mainland and its Irish Civil War. Pádraic (Colin Farrell), who raises some livestock, and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), a fiddler, are lifelong buddies. There’s not much to do on the island, other than look forward to meeting up at the local pub. So, Pádraic is shocked when Colm announces that he no longer wishes to chat with Pádraic at the pub. Colm is facing his own mortality and reckons that shooting the breeze with Pádraic is taking away valuable focus from composing Irish music, Colm’s only chance at an immortal legacy. Unlike Colm, Pádraic is not a man of ideas, and Pádraic is hurt and baffled.

Colm is polite but very firm and clear about his request to be left alone. But Pádraic desperately needs human connection, and he cannot leave Colm alone. Colm throws down an ultimatum, and Pádraic, to the dismay of the other islanders, blunders right through the stop sign. Actions escalate, and the two men become mired in a contest of absurd stubbornness.

One thing is for sure, I will always remember this movie when I hear a thunk on my window or door (not a knock, but a THUNK).

As serious as are the consequences of the men’s squabble, Irish wit abounds, and The Banshees of Inisherin is a funny movie. It may contain the funniest confession booth scene in the history of cinema.

The Banshees of Inisherin is written and directed by Martin McDonagh, whose Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Minnesota won two Oscars. Banshees reunites McDonagh, Gleeson and Farrell fourteen years after their In Bruges, a masterpiece of comic neo-noir that I just rewatched last week (to my renewed delight).

This is an acting showcase for the considerable acting talents of Gleeson and Farrell. Gleeson, whose Colm is ever polite but even more resolute, has an amazing body of work: Into the West, Braveheart, The General, Gangs of New York, The Guard, Albert Nobbs, The Grand Seduction, Calvary, The Tragedy of Macbeth and a few Harry Potter movies.

Farrell has demonstrated that seeks out auteur directors; he’s worked with Steven Spielberg (Minority Report), Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth, Valerie Guerin), Yorgos Lanthimos (Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Terrence Malick (The New World), Sofia Coppola (The Beguiled) and Kogonada (After Yang). Farrell’s Pádraic takes dim affability to an unmatched level of self-destructive obnoxiousness.

Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan in THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

But the best two performances in this exceptionally well-acted film are those by Kerry Condon as Pádraic’s sister Siobhan and by Barry Keoghan as the intellectually challenged young islander Dominic. Condon’s longsuffering Siobhan is bright and spirited – and the only islander with a lick of common sense. The longer the two men’s struggle progresses, the more the movie becomes Siobhan’s as she tries to mitigate their madness and at least protect herself from it. Condon is the youngest actor to play Ophelia for the Royal Shakespeare Company and has amassed a considerable body of work in episodic television: Rome, Ray Donovan, Better Call Saul.

Keoghan is always a splashy actor and he has a lot of fun with the unpredictable and irritating Dominic. His lakeside scene with Condon is heartbreaking.

There’s been plenty of Oscar buzz for Gleeson, Farrell and Keoghan – and there should be for should be for Condon.

Now how good a movie is this? The humor and gripping story kept me wanting to see the pages turned, the acting is magnificent and the cinematography is beautiful. But what is McDonagh trying to say, if anything? Is this some kind of a parable, or just a portrait of two individuals’ stubbornness? I’m really not sure, but it’s a good thing that The Banshees of Inisherin made me care about the answer.

TRUE DETECTIVE: second season sooooo disappointingly lame

Rachel McAdams in the second season of TRUE DETECTIVE
Rachel McAdams in the second season of TRUE DETECTIVE

So my friend Steve emailed me: “If you include the second season of True Detective in your top ten films of the year you should be required to walk around with a paper bag over your head for at least six months.” He was right – True Detective’s second season was disappointingly lame.

I had high hopes because I loved the first season, and creator Nic Pizolatto returned to write this year’s version. The cast seemed promising, too: the story revolved around three cops (Rachel McAdams, Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch) from different agencies investigating a corrupt Southern California city. Vince Vaughn played a shady – and once criminal – businessman, with Kelly Reilly as his wife.

But I never really cared about Kitch’s or Vaughn’s characters. The plot was disjointed and, at time, risible. Pizzolato tried to echo Chinatown’s water scandal with a wholly improbable High Speed Rail scheme. The Wife and I were constantly asking each other “Where are they now?” and “Who is that guy?”. There are many ridiculously impossible coincidence and the like, but I just don’t care enough about True Detective to list them.

Rachel McAdams, forced to wear perhaps this year’s worst hairdo, is very good. So is Farrell, who, as he ages, is more and more compelling in dissolute roles. I always appreciate the chance to see Kelly Reilly – she elevates (almost) everything she’s in.

But the 2015 True Detective is a stinker. Don’t waste your time.

Seven Psychopaths: just not the sum of its parts

Upon leaving the theater, The Wife asked the revelatory question: “How come it wasn’t as good as its parts?”.  True, Seven Psychopaths is well-acted by a very deep team of my favorite actors and is embedded with belly laughs, but, as a whole, it’s just not that satisfying.

Colin Farrell plays an alcoholic writer struggling to get past the title of his new screenplay. He expertly plays the straight man against an assortment of raging oddballs.  Sam Rockwell is brilliant as the writer’s not-a-good-influence friend who, underneath a shiftless exterior, is profoundly psychopathic. Christopher Walken hits another home run as a dignified eccentric. And Woody Harrelson plays a pedal-to-the-metal raging psycho crime boss as only he can.

The supporting cast includes the immortal Harry Dean Stanton, Abbie Cornish, Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Michael Pitt (The Dreamers, Boardwalk Empire), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Olga Kuylenko and the always reliable Zeljko Ivanek.   The best performances are by Tom Waits (as a bunny-petting retired serial killer) and Linda Bright Clay (as Walken’s tough-as-nails wife).

But the story isn’t tight enough.  Writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) (who doesn’t admire Quentin Tarantino) here only delivers Tarantino Lite.  Instead, I recommend McDonagh’s brilliant In Bruges (and The Guard which McDonagh produced).  For those who like dark, dark comedy with lots of violence, Seven Psychopaths is entertaining.  For everyone else, nothing special.

The Way Back

The Way Back is inspired by the story of a 1940 escape from a Siberian prison; three men slipped out of the gulag and walked out of Siberia, across Mongolia, across China’s Gobi Desert, through Tibet and over the Himalayas to freedom in India – a trek of 4000 miles.  This is not a spoiler, because, at the very beginning of the movie, we are told that three men make it from the gulags to India.  The remaining dramatic tension is in finding out which three of the seven who start the journey will finish it.

Of course, director Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Master and Commander) knows how to make a movie, and it is beautifully shot on locations chosen to illustrate the magnitude of the distances and the challenges.  It is well acted, especially by Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan and Colin Farrell.

It’s a tremendous survival tale that results in a good, but not great movie.  It comes down to this:  eleven months of trudging through dangerous, unfamiliar territory while suffering from starvation and exposure is really impressive, but not that engaging.

This week's DVD pick: Crazy Heart

Crazy Heart: This is a very good movie with a great, Oscar-winning performance by Jeff Bridges and a great score.  It’s also a realistic depiction of alcoholism and its consequences.  Maggie Gyllenhaal shines as always.  Colin Farrell is shockingly believable as a contemporary country music star.