The Banshees Of Inisherin

Hyzepher · 19-12-2022 12:57am

I interpreted Colm's extreme actions as a deep realisation that he wasn't a great musician and that although there might have been potential there at some point his talent was no more than a session musician. The struggle to create a memory ultimately fails as it is only those on the island that will ever hear it. The removal of the fingers was just a way to excuse the loss of his dream. Dominic's suicide was his answer to the loss of his own dream.

Island life is banal. Day after day all rolling into each other where you don't even know what month it is or you get angry when shoppers have no news. Regular suicides and abuse are symptoms of such life and only the few get to tear themselves away to something less final.

It's as if true happiness in such an environment requires just a smidge of feeble-mindedness, a simple heart and no dreams. Someone like Padraic. Someone who the rest of the islanders secretly envy.

delboy85 · 20-12-2022 11:07pm

I watched this at the weekend. I don't think I've ever changed my mind so much about a film whilst actually watching it.

I absolutely hated the first 30/40 minutes. I just kept having flashbacks to studying "Peig" in secondary school.

But I eventually started warming to it and by the time it ended I think I actually quite enjoyed it.

Still find it strange that it's getting such critical acclaim though.

saabsaab · 20-12-2022 11:35pm

Takes giving 'someone the finger' to a whole new level.

JKerova1 · 20-12-2022 11:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120008101#Comment_120008101

Oh god...another laughably overrated Irish film.

horse7 · 21-12-2022 2:05pm

I wouldn't say overrated, I'd say underrated.

splashthecash · 21-12-2022 2:10pm

Watched this the other night and I liked the humour - very similar to In Bruges but found it very bleak. Entertaining most times but bleak

Agent Coulson · 21-12-2022 2:58pm

Up on Disney+ here now.

buried · 21-12-2022 10:02pm

It's not funny at all. I expected it was going to be but I loved the insular horror of it all. I think a lot of people expected it was going to be some sort of Father Ted/Killinaskully/Dunbelievables shtick caper from the get go and that was going to be the entire narrative.

JP Liz V1 · 21-12-2022 11:08pm

The 43rd London Critics Circle Awards will take place at The May Fair Hotel on 5th February 2023 and this leads the way with 9 nominations

The Princess Bride · 22-12-2022 9:06pm

I watched it again this week at home, and enjoyed it even more. The first time, I had somehow felt Colin Farrell was slightly miscast, but I couldn't say why. Any doubts I'd had went with this latest viewing. Every character has their right to be there, everyone deserves all the praise they're getting.

Going to see McDonagh's Hangmen in theatre in spring, very little of his work I've not seen, be it on screen or stage. And I feel TBOI could work very well in a stage production, down the line.

Mad_maxx · 23-12-2022 12:24am

caught this on Disney just now , excellent, I had low expectations as I as a rule don’t care for McDonagh , it’s like a Coen brothers movie

its the blackest of dark comedies , all the actors were terrific but Colin Farrell the standout performance for me , his character Pauric was so sympathetic, Brendan Gleesons dreadfully egocentric character had a breakdown and scapegoated his friend ( in the cruelest way ) who had done nothing in the words of Kerry Condon when confronting Gleeson

“ but why now , he was always dull and you talked to him “

Barry Keoghan also excellent in a Bird o Donnell style performance

oh and it looks absolutely gorgeous, cinematography has to be showered with awards next year

The Princess Bride · 23-12-2022 1:23am

The detail in this^

Tony EH · 23-12-2022 8:42am

That's a very well designed poster.

Fandymo · 23-12-2022 9:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119995595#Comment_119995595

I didn’t dislike it per se, but I found it very boring. The characters are very one dimensional, the cutting off of his fingers drifts into surrealism rather than a realistic portrayal of someone. The ending was absolutely rubbish. I will say the cinematography and soundtrack were excellent.

Mav11 · 24-12-2022 9:21am

Watched it last night. I'm not sure if I liked it or not, but it is a brilliant film. It well deserves any award it gets.

squidgainz · 24-12-2022 9:35am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120007340#Comment_120007340

Yep this is very true for me. Loved in Bruges and seven psychopaths though.

corcaigh07 · 24-12-2022 9:45am

Weirdly, I hated Calvary as well but loved TBOI.

pixelburp · 24-12-2022 9:51am

Again I feel it needs clarifying lol.

Calvary was written and directed by John Michael McDonagh; this film is the work of his brother Martin McDonagh.

Probably doesn't help confusion both brothers' work centre around Brendan Gleason while the stories are often Ireland centric.

corcaigh07 · 24-12-2022 9:54am

Fair enough. I think comparisons can still be made though, very similar tone in both and obv Brendan Glesson.

squidgainz · 24-12-2022 9:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120030793#Comment_120030793

I don't get this haha but fair enough!

kippy · 24-12-2022 10:19am

Watched this recently.

Thought it was bang average to be honest. A very overdone, familiar stereotypical look at island life in Ireland gone by.

The main storyline was plain daft and overcooked.

Some good lines here and there but didn't do it for me.

As for the scenery and cinematography, the two islands this was set on (particularly Achill) are stunning locations and I would expect any big budget movie would capture them in that manner.

I am familiar with both islands and think that it is great they are getting the praise they deserve for their scenery etc, and I would love to see more films shot here, this film does nothing to portray island life back then and the portrayal it does attempt is not great.

sydthebeat · 24-12-2022 10:23am

Great movie, I enjoyed it immensely. Dark, funny, horrific, silly.... Mcdonagh brings the stage to the movie screen so well. Those intermission shots of goats, waves, cliffs etc while the setting moved were so theatrical.

I normally can't stand keoghan on screen doing his twitchy thing, but here its perfect for the character he plays. He's both innocent and pervy, annoying and stupid but gets bullied / tortured by his perv father.

All the characters are larger than life to the point of caricature except Siobhan. She's the rock that keeps the story grounded, and the voice of reason among the madness. When she leaves, then the madness takes over.

I think this movie is at that perfect point between stage and screen. It's does things that can't be done on stage, yet it keeps the tone and aesthetic of the stage magnificently, even better than Calvary did.

8/10 for me

Tony EH · 24-12-2022 11:42am

How can anyone "hate" a film like 'Calvary'? It's a fairly innocuous movie in the grand scheme of things. I can understand perhaps being perhaps bored by it (I certainly wasn't), or feeling that it was just a bit twee, as are most Irish movies.

But "hate"?

fkn 'ell :/

~Rebel~ · 24-12-2022 12:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120031022#Comment_120031022

I don’t hate it, but I find it fierce annoying that it’s almost brilliant, if John Michael could’ve just held back from the stupid side bits of ‘wacky begorrah Irish characters’. The central story is so great, it just doesn’t need it. Found the same with The Guard, but even moreso with Calvary.

i definitely prefer Martin’s work to his brothers anyway, it’s always more tonally focused.

Mad_maxx · 24-12-2022 12:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120030780#Comment_120030780

I hated Seven Psychopaths

pixelburp · 24-12-2022 12:49pm

I wonder does it happen in real life; where someone comes up to Martin and says " I loved Calvary, it's your best work. That and The Guard", lol.

It's odd both brothers both cut so closely from the same cloth. You'd never mix up the two Scotts, even if both are very visual directors they had their own styles.

johnny_ultimate · 24-12-2022 1:20pm

Meanwhile, in the soccer forum…

“I always hated Phil Neville. He couldn’t manage this England team to save his life”

”… but Gary Neville is the coach”

“Eh, still counts”

squidgainz · 24-12-2022 10:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120031022#Comment_120031022

I think when you say hate describing a film you just mean you thought it was shite.

amacca · 24-12-2022 11:09pm

I thought it was allright, wasn't blown away with it initially

It is a very thought provoking film however....rarely if ever have I thought about meaning in a film as much subsequent to viewing...

I think it represents two sides of a personality at war that are in most people to varying degrees.

I'd still rather watch Die Hard or The Dark Knight or Tropic Thunder or Top Gun etc etc in the cinema for the first time 😅

It definitely wasn't shite and the performances were excellent from Farrell, to the sister to keoghan.....

Table Top Joe · 25-12-2022 3:46pm

Mystified by the love for this movie, average at best imo......McDonagh at his worst really, just throwing half baked nonsense out there and people falling over themselves to find something clever in it...

On the fingers thing...

Swift: Watching “Banshees” — first of all, it’s such a special film. I’ve been talking about it with my friends. I talked to a friend of mine who’s a therapist, and she was saying, “If someone brought in this dream to me and said that ‘I’m wanting to cut my finger off,’” she would say, “You feel like your aliveness is being cut off by a part of your life and this art represents the fingers.” What do you think the fingers are a symbolism for?

McDonagh: I don’t know. I just thought it was funny. I never plan out a script beforehand. So I was kind of shocked when he came into the pub and made that threat. But after it happened, it throws everything in the air and anything can happen.

Swift: I love how you say you were shocked by it, as if it was an involuntary thing that just came out of your brain without you having anything to do with it.

McDonagh: It totally was. I love it when that happens. Plot twists like that, if you don’t know they’re going to happen, hopefully the audience won’t see it coming too.

The Banshees Of Inisherin

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