Irish

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN: a contest of absurd stubbornness

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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.

St. Paddy’s Day – THE COMMITMENTS

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THE COMMITMENTS

There’s a rich assortment of movies about Ireland that you can watch on St. Patrick’s Day: Waking Ned Devine, Brooklyn, Finian’s Rainbow, Once, Ryan’s Daughter, Widow’s Peak and The Guard. (Or you can go dark and pick from my Best Films About the Troubles.)

But my choice is the warmly funny The Commitments (1991), the affectionate tale of an unlikely aspiration and an unnecessary fiasco. Not content to wallow in generational poverty, a young lad, Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) decides to gather a motley crew of his fellow North Dublin young folks and to form them into a soul band.

Now, North Dublin may be the most melanin-deprived place on the planet. So, why soul music? Jimmy, a natural leader, says:

“Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud. ”

With the guidance of an older musician who has worked in the US, they improve, and even start to catch on. Unfortunately, these folks have never experienced success and are totally ill-equipped to handle it. Soon, the band is hanging together by a thread. If only Wilson Pickett, touring across town, can show up and help them with publicity…

The Commitments is adapted from a Roddy Doyle novel steeped in working class Irish verisimilitude. Director Alan Parker looked to local Dublin musicians and came up with a cast of first-time actors. Ironically, the one experienced actor and non-musician in the cast was Johnny Murphy as Joey “The Lips” Fagan.

The cast performed a 20-year reunion show. What have they been doing since they made this movie?

  • Andrew Strong, who played the immensely gifted but thuggish lead singer Deco Cuffe, has spent decades as a rock singer within Europe, mostly with his band the Bone Yard Boys.
  • Angeline Ball, who played the big-haired tart, Imelda Quirke, swept the Irish equivalent of Oscar/Emmy for best actress in a film and best actress in a TV drama in the same year, 2003.
  • Maria Doyle Kennedy, another backup singer, went on to a significant musical career in Ireland where she is a renowned singer-songwriter. She also played Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors and Vera Bates in Downton Abbey.
  • Glen Hansard, who played the busking guitarist, had some recording success as a solo artist and with his band The Frames. He also starred in an even better movie than The Commitments – the singer-songwriter romance Once.
  • Colm Meany, who played the Elvis-worshiping dad, went on to a career in major films ranging from The Last of the Mohicans to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Meany also starred in two more movies stories based on Roddy Doyle stories The Snapper and The Van; neither film was bad, but neither was as magical as The Commitments.

Alan Parker also directed the musicals Fame and Pink Floyd: The Wall. He was nominated for the best directing Oscar for Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning. (The Academy overlooked his lurid and trashy Angel Heart.)

The Commitments can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, YouTube and Google Play, usually for less than the cost of a pint of Guinness.

THE JOURNEY: distrust and risk on a path to peace

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Timothy Spall and Colm Meany in THE JOURNEY photo courtesy of SFFILM
Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney in THE JOURNEY
photo courtesy of SFFILM

The Journey imagines the pivotal personal interactions between the long-warring leaders of Northern Ireland’s The Troubles resulting in the 2006 St. Andrews Accords, which set up the current power-sharing government of Northern Ireland.   Ian Paisley had lit the original fuse of the Troubles in the mid-1960s by igniting Protestant backlash to Catholic pleas for civil rights.  Paisley then obstructed every attempted peace settlement for over thirty years.  Martin McGuinness had transitioned to political leadership from chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army, resisting the violent repression of the british Army with a campaign of terror.  Paisley and McGuinness led the two sides in what was essentially a decades-long civil war, although Paisley would dispute that term.  You could fairly say that both had blood on their hands, McGuinness literally and Paisley morally.  Yet they did agree to share power in 2006.

The Journey uses an entirely fictional plot device to isolate the two of them on a road trip.  (The set-up is unlikely,  but you have to go with it.)  Then The Journey relies on the delightful work of two great actors, Timothy Spall, who plays Paisley, and Colm Meaney, who plays McGuinness.

Beyond the political differences and the blood grudge, the two make a classic Odd Couple.  Spall’s Paisley seems completely impregnable to charm.  The Journey is very funny as McGuinesss’ considerable charm and wit keeps falling flat.  In fact, there are plenty of LOL moments from the awkward situations, McGuinness’ quips and their seemingly clueless driver (Freddy Highmore).  Paisley seems utterly devoid of humor until an unexpected moment.

While The Journey is completely fictionalized, it is certainly true that the two had hated each other for decades, did reach agreement in 2006 and thereafter held posts in the same government and personally got along well, evolving an even affectionate personal relationship.  We also see Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, Gerry Adams and an imagined MI5 character played by John Hurt.

Spall and Meaney took on a considerable challenge:  Paisley and McGuinness dominated the political news in Ireland for decades and are well-known to audiences in the UK and Ireland. Paisley died in 2014, and McGuinness died just last month.  The Journey’s screenwriter Colin Bateman, was born in Northern Ireland, and The Journey was financed by Northern Ireland Screen.

Achieving a sustainable agreement with a longtime blood enemy requires deciding which of your positions are sacrosanct principles and which have more flexibility. It requires risking the loyalty of your political base, which will revolt against leaders perceived as selling them out. It requires gauging the likelihood that your opponent will stick to his side of the deal. And, you have to focus on your outcome – the long-term goal, not just on defeating your enemy in the moment.  “Young men fight for the helluvit. Old men care about their legacy”, says Hurt’s character in The Journey.

I watched The Journey in April at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILMFestival).  To further explore this topic, here is my list of Best Movies About The Troubles.

SFFILM: A DATE FOR MAD MARY

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Seána Kerslake (right) in A DATE FOR MAD MARY photo courtesy of SFFILM
Charleigh Bailey and Seána Kerslake in A DATE FOR MAD MARY
photo courtesy of SFFILM

The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILMFestival) features the Irish dramedy A Date for Mad Mary.  Mary (Seána Kerslake) has just been released from incarceration and faces this challenge: she’s going to be the Maid of Honor at her childhood BFF’s wedding, and she needs a date for the nuptials. This apparently isn’t the first time that Mary’s been locked up for brawling because she quickly resorts to pounding other humans. This is a character flaw which is getting in the way of her, among other normal pursuits, finding a feller.

With this set-up, the audience is expecting a broad Dating-Gone-Wrong comedy, and there is a bit of that, but A Date for Mad Mary drills down to explore the character of Mary, somehow still frozen in her teenage pose. Mary has a major chip on her shoulder and escalates every human contact into an outburst of hostility. She just hasn’t matured into a woman who can navigate any social situation. The annoyingly controlling bride-to-be Char (Charleigh Bailey) has grown out of the teen Tough Girl pose, and has moved on the having a life with a job and a fiance. Mary, on the other hand, can’t keep a job or a guy or anything that will make her satisfied, self-proud or happy. Eventually, Mary meets a new friend Jess (Tara Lee) and wall-bangs her way down the corridor of self-discovery.

xxx and Seána Kerslake in A DATE FOR MAD MARY photo courtesy of SFFILM
Tara Lee and Seána Kerslake in A DATE FOR MAD MARY
photo courtesy of SFFILM

Seána Kerslake’s excellent performance is central to the success of the film, playing a character who is confused by her own lack of happiness. Unforgettably, Kerslake’s Mary kisses another character and is overwhelmed by an unexpected, giddy thrill – it’s a special moment. A Date for Mad Mary is the fifth feature since 2012 for up-and-comer Kerslake, who is also starring in an Irish television series.

A Date for Mad Mary is the first feature for director and co-writer Darren Thornton. A Date for Mad Mary will be screened again this weekend at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

BROOKLYN: Saoirse Ronan brings alive satisfying romantic drama

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Saoirse Ronan in BROOKLYN
Saoirse Ronan in BROOKLYN

Saoirse Ronan brings alive the satisfying mid-century romantic drama Brooklyn.  Ronan plays a very young woman who leaves her Irish small town in 1952 and, after a difficult start, builds a life in Brooklyn.  When she must return to Ireland for a visit, things gets complicated.  It’s a coming of age story and a romance and a study of the loneliness that comes with immigration.

Ronan’s performance is exquisite.  Her character is neither talky nor expressive, yet Ronan conveys her wit and profound feelings in every situation.  An uncommon acting talent, Ronan burst on the scene in the pivotal role as the little sister in Atonement, filmed when she was just 12.  Since then, she’s made the girl power action flick Hannah and the wry The Grand Budapest Hotel (she was the relentlessly loyal girlfriend with the birthmark of Mexico on her cheek), along with a variety of other films that illustrate her versatility. She will be nominated for Best Actress for this performance in Ronan, which at times rises to the profound.

Saoirse Ronan in BROOKLYN
Saoirse Ronan in BROOKLYN

The director John Crowley has done an excellent job here. Brooklyn looks great – watch for the differing color palettes in the Irish and Brooklyn scenes, and it’s remarkably well-paced. Crowley is an excellent story-teller – I loved his early Irish indies Intermission and Boy A (one of my Best Movies of 2008). The Irish scenes in Brooklyn were shot in the real town of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, where the story is set. There’s an especially moving scene with an Irish song – brilliant.

The supporting cast is excellent, especially the always reliable Jim Broadbent. Brid Kelly nails the role of Miss Kelly, a shopkeeper who is remarkably enthusiastic about her own malevolent small-mindedness. If Ronan’s performance weren’t so brilliant, Julie Walters would steal this movie as our heroine’s Brooklyn landlady. Jessica Paré (Mad Men) is also very good (and has Brooklyn’s biggest laugh line).  And child actor James DiGiacomo is unforgettable.

With its focus on the protagonist’s relationships with her family members and girlfriends and the question of which suitor she’ll pick, Brooklyn is a “woman’s picture” (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  Well-crafted and satisfying, Brooklyn is a safe bet to have wide audience appeal and to earn Ronan an Oscar nod.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Run & Jump

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Maxine Peake in RUN & JUMP
Maxine Peake in RUN & JUMP

In the indie Run & Jump, a rare type of stroke has changed the personality of an Irish furniture maker; he has survived, but now prone to rages and catatonia, he is never going to be the same as before. He is returned to his family, led by his firecracker wife (Maxine Peake). Along comes an American medical researcher (Will Forte from Saturday Night Live and Nebraska), who moves with the family so he can continually film his patient’s symptoms.

The family initially resents the constant filming, although they desperately need the income from the research stipend. The researcher is so socially awkward that he’s almost catatonic himself, but he is able to provide the adult male presence that the family now misses, and they are eventually drawn to his kindness. Although he tries to maintain clinical distance, he is inevitably attracted to the vitality of the wife – a real live wire. But this isn’t going where you might expect…

Run & Jump succeeds both as a romance and as a family drama. The primary credit goes to co-writer and director Steph Green. A Bay Area filmmaker who now works in Ireland, Green was Oscar nominated for a live action short. Run & Jump is her first feature.

Maxine Peake’s affecting performance as the wife drives the film; Run & Jump is really the story of the wife’s struggles as she fights to keep her family afloat while making a near impossible adjustment.

Run & Jump is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Netflix Instant, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, YouTube and Xbox Video.

An alternative movie fest for St. Paddy’s Day

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James Nesbitt in BLOODY SUNDAY

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Now, tonight you CAN go out and drink green beer with all the amateur drinkers. Nothing wrong with that, if that’s your thing.

OR you could settle in for some top shelf cinema set in recent Irish history – The Troubles of Northern Ireland. For eight fine films about The Troubles, see my Best Films About the Troubles (Northern Ireland).

Best Movies About The Troubles (Northern Ireland)

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James Nesbitt in BLOODY SUNDAY

Sparked by my pick of Shadow Dancer as this week’s DVD/Stream of the Week, I’ve posted a new movie list: Best Movies About The Troubles (Northern Ireland).  The Troubles was the conflict in Northern Ireland between nationalists and unionists that lasted from the late 1960s until the 1998 Good Friday Accord.

2002’s Bloody Sunday tells the story of one of the most significant moments of The Troubles, the 1972 shootings in Derry, from the perspective of a key participant – Ivan Cooper, the leader of a movement to achieve a united Ireland through non-violent means. Northern Irish actor James Nesbitt is brilliant as Cooper, a man who is trying to do the impossible – lead a mass demonstration into a tinderbox and keep it peaceful.  It’s possible that either or both the unionist paramilitaries and the IRA may provoke violence to further their own aims.  The British are supposed to protect the marchers from the unionists, but they’re on edge and trigger-happy.  Cooper is forced to play a desperate game of Whack-a-Mole to prevent violence.

Besides Shadow Dancer and Bloody Sunday, I discuss a number of other outstanding movies about The Troubles. One film contains one of the greatest surprise plot twists in movie history. You can see the list at Best Movies About The Troubles (Northern Ireland), find out how to watch them on DVD or stream them.

Grabbers: coulda been a contender

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GRABBERS

In the Irish horror comedy Grabbers, an isolated Irish island is attacked by tentacled, bloodsucking alien space monsters.  Here’s the inventive device that could have resulted in a cult classic – it turns out that alcohol is toxic to the monsters, so the residents can survive as long as they keep a high enough level of alcohol in their bloodstreams.  Pretty funny, right?  I could imagine the colorful villagers in Waking Ned Devine helping each other to stay drunk, but not too drunk.

Unfortunately, the bit about the effects of alcohol doesn’t appear until halfway through, and the real focus in on the romantic conflict between the pretty and highly professional cop from Dublin and the drunken local Garda – an obvious story that we’ve seen in every bad romantic comedy.  What we’re left with is a low-budget horror flick with a trite “Will they get together?” thread.  Too bad.

Grabbers is available streaming from Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, GooglePlay and other VOD sources.

DVD of the Week: The Guard

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This Irish dark comedy is a showpiece for Brendan Gleeson as a lowbrow cop happening upon an international drug conspiracy.  Gleeson is always very good and was especially memorable in director Martin McDonagh’s  2008 In Bruges, which was either the funniest hit man movie ever or the darkest and most violent buddy comedy ever.  This time, McDonagh’s brother John Michael McDonagh directs Gleeson as a very canny man who convincingly strives to appear much dumber than he is.   The perfect foil for Gleeson’s sloppy local cop is the refined FBI agent played by Don Cheadle.  Those familiar with Ireland will recognize the Connemara Coast.  Don’t miss The Guard.