The Banshees of Inisherin: A Movie Review
Martin McDonagh’s last movie was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, released more than five years ago. It did great at the box office, won a sweep of awards, and was critically well received, so the gap between it and The Banshees of Inisherin seems surprising.
McDonagh is a director who hasn’t aimed for prolific output, though. He writes movies (as well as plays), and when it comes to making them he has previously taken a “we’ll see” approach. He has valued traveling and having fun as well as his career.
Word on the street (leaked through interviews in well-known publications) is he has started to feel “a tremendous sense of time slipping away” — in the words of Colm, one of the main characters of his new film. He intends to focus more on movies than stage plays, in part due to their lasting qualities — also a sentiment Colm identifies with.
Which is a way of saying, the script of Banshees has McDonagh’s soul written into parts of it. At least, in the two main characters at conflict with each another.
As for the gap between movies? He had a lot of success in his last outing, and took time to make the follow-up he wanted. Good for him.
This blows Three Billboards out the water. It was good, though flawed. This is spellbinding — dark, funny, and thought-provoking…
