Cinematic Releases: The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) - Reviewed

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Do you ever wake up one morning and decide the person you’ve known your whole life is dead to you?  Moreover, have you found that your best friend of years and years one day decides to abruptly and/or arbitrarily end the friendship?  Such is the crux of Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh’s searing jet-black Ireland-set historical period dramedy The Banshees of Inisherin, a film that at first seems to be about the isolated post-Irish Civil War life in 1923 before boiling down to a battle between two lifelong peers who find themselves at an impasse.  Early on in the film, one of the characters can’t help but notice on an island across the pond small skirmishes are still occurring on the battlefield, a harbinger of things to come.

 
Local folk musician Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) and barfly best friend Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) have spent years together at the local pub overlooking the moors of the fictional Irish Isle of Inisherin (translated to the island of Ireland) when one day Colm decides to cut ties with his dullard but otherwise kind-hearted friend in favor of pursuing his own career interests in music.  Pádraic is devastated by the about-face rejection and turnaround Colm has left him and his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) in while trying to comfort to troubled local youth Dominic (Barry Keoghan) who is repeatedly beaten by his father.  Eager to try and get an answer for the rejection and break the ice, Pádraic pursues Colm against his wishes who then turns around with an ultimatum: either Pádraic stops bothering him or each time he does will result in Colm cutting a finger off with a pair of sheep shears.  Needless to say it escalates significantly from there.
 
Beginning as a snapshot of period Irish life at the end of the Irish Civil War before boiling down to two characters whose personal differences and outlooks on life intensifies to levels startling, occasionally funny but largely destructive, The Banshees of Inisherin is a moody, insidiously dark slice of Irish historical fiction.  While drenched in heavy Irish accents which takes some adjusting of the ears to and largely adorned with the tropes germane to dramas set on the green rocky moors, the story of these two men and the rift that arises between them could take place anywhere at any time.  At one point or another in life, everyone has had an instance of a friendship either being ended by themselves or the other person for some reason or another, yet Inisherin takes the feud to untold depths however irrational or neurotically motivated the actions of these men are.

 
From top to bottom, sound and vision, The Banshees of Inisherin is moody.  With recurring McDonagh collaborator Ben Davis, the look of Banshees is stunningly beautiful if not a little somber to behold over time with frequent greens and the distant cloudy overcast.  In between jaw dropping wide angled vistas, Davis’ camera gets up, close and personal with the two main actors Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell who both garnered much-deserved Academy Award nominations.  Then there’s the musical tonality rendered by legendary Coen Brothers composer Carter Burwell who cloaks the film in gloom and a sense of impending doom, implying something catastrophic looms on the horizon.  While Farrell and Gleeson are indeed excellent, special attention also goes to The Killing of a Sacred Deer actor Barry Keoghan as the juvenile delinquent on the Isle and actress Kerry Condon as the beleaguered sister trying to maintain friendly relations while an increasingly irrational war encroaches upon her doorstep.

 
Released in October of last year before hitting streaming platforms two months later in time for the Academy Awards, The Banshees of Inisherin was an instant critical and commercial success, raking in $46 million against a $20 million budget, very strong for a downbeat arthouse Irish drama.  While violent and kind of gory at times, the performances and emotions are heartfelt, honest and true and help sell the more outlandish elements of this sick and angry saga.  Yes some of the metaphors for the then-ongoing Irish Civil War are heavy handed symbols, but the acting and directing is so strong you can forgive some of the film’s contrivances.  However you go into The Banshees of Inisherin, its cast and crew are sure you won’t come back out of it the same way again. 

--Andrew Kotwicki