The Banshees of Inisherin ***

The movie was written and directed by Martin McDonagh, a filmmaker who  is undeniably a strong talent at this point. Inisherin is his fourth movie, and definitely his quietest and most calm. Some would probably call it his most mature movie, in the same way that they would call Jackie Brown Quentin Tarantino’s most mature movie. But that really just means most low-key. McDonagh’s first movie is the exciting black comedy In Bruges, about assassins hiding out. After that, he made the wildly thrilling and hilarious Seven Psychopaths. He became an academy award darling with his third movie,Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. With that movie, he sort of switched gears from more comedic with a hint of drama to more dramatic with a hint of comedy. And now, with Banshees, he toes the line to find the perfect strange balance.

Now that “perfect balance,” comment doesn’t mean this is his best film. Far from it. The movie is very good, but truthfully that’s something that can be said about all of McDonagh’s movies. And his first two are probably his best, with both In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths hitting comedic gold. But The Banshees of Inisherin is something different. This movie is about a small, quiet town on a fictional island set during historical times in Ireland. It is set during the Irish Civil War, in 1923. The historical context and fictional setting alone, already set it apart from McDonagh’s other films. But there’s more… the story is about people who are mostly farmers (although we never see any of them actually farm,) that spend their days walking around town conversing, and spend their nights going to the local pub. Talk about simplicity.

The movie begins with Padraic (McDonagh’s go-to-actor Colin Farrell, who has appeared in three of the directors four movies,) walking over to his friend Colm’s house one afternoon, to see if Colm (Brendan Gleason, reteaming with Farrell and McDonagh for the first time since In Bruges,) is ready to go to out to the local pub. Only Colm ignores the knocks. Padraic can see his friend through the window, sitting in a chair, looking down. But when he gets no answer, Padraic decides to go to the pub by himself.

Once there, the bartender asks him why he’s not there with Colm. Padraic’s response is that he doesn’t know. The question comes up of whether or not he and Colm are “rowing,” which apparently means fighting or arguing. And Padraic’s response is that they aren’t. At that point the bartender suggests Padraic go back to Colm’s house to try again. And he does. Only this time, Colm isn’t there. When Padraic returns to the pub, Colm is there at the bar drinking. At this point, Padraic has made two different trips to Colm’s house, and two different trips to the pub, all in a matter of minutes. There’s definitely humor in the back and forth simplicity of it all. And now at the pub, we finally get these two characters sitting down together, face to face.

Colm asks Padraic not to sit with him, and when   Padraic does, Colm gets up to go sit outside. Only Padraic comes and sits out there with him too. And that’s when Colm finally explains. “I don’t like you anymore,” he tells Padraic. “You’re dull. I just don’t have the time for mindless chatting when I could be composing. The other day you spent two hours talking about the things you found in your donkeys shit. I timed it.” When you think about it, this realization that Colm has come to is kind of hilarious. Especially since it seems like it is out of nowhere. There was no dream, or life changing situation that brought this to Colm’s attention.

The rest of the first half is about Padraic‘s interactions with other characters, as he tries to make sense out of losing his best friend. Padraic questions his sister, Siobhan, who he lives with, and who does all of the cooking for the both of them. “Am I dim?” He asks her. Then they continue to rank the most dim people on the island. Another character who Padraic speaks to about all of this is Dominic (Barry Keoghan,) a young man obsessed with women and sex. Dominic has been banned from the pub for bothering women, and conversation with him is composed of things like asking if Padraic has ever seen his sister naked. Dominic has a very juvenile and childish mentality, and yet he is the one who is able to make the most sense of Colm’s “I just don’t like you anymore,” realization, when Dominic says “what is he, twelve?”

There are other interesting characters whose paths we come across during the movie too, including a woman who works at the local post office, and opens other people’s mail. There’s also an older woman who walks the island telling of prophecies, and who some people consider a witch. And there’s Dominic’s father, the bully of the movie, who is a cop that beats his son, threatens Padraic, and goes to the mainland to participate in executions, no matter who is being executed from either side of the civil war, because it pays well. We spend most of the first half getting to know these characters.

The second half of the movie is where things get taken up a notch. Colm threatens to do something to himself if Padraic doesn’t leave him alone, and when Padraic still tries talking to his old friend, Colm goes into action, following up on his threats. It gets pretty gruesome. And it leads to Padraic having to change his ways. He guys from a nice, simple man to someone who is forced to become angry and resentful, and even vengeance-driven. There’s a lot to like about this movie. The humor, the story, the simplicity, and the escalation of events are all great. It might have been nice to know a little bit more about what these characters did for jobs, specifically Padraic and Colm. Padraic Is most likely a farmer, with his animals, but we never really see him dark or do anything that would bring in money. Other than that, however, this movie is pretty great.