Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THE BANSHEES OF INISHIRIN [Fantastic Fest 2022 - Austin,Texas]
Martin McDonagh, especially as a writer, has the ability to make his characters both right and just while at the same time being their own unique individuals to the whim of human nature and its failings. "The Banshees Of Inishirin" is no different though like his earlier "Missouri" and "Bruges", it uses location and both its confines and freedoms in order to show the progression or de-evolution of social integration. Padriac (Colin Farrell) is a simple man who takes care of his livestock and lives with his sister in a small house on a small island off the coast of Ireland. The film is set in 1923, there is only one pub on the island and pretty much everyone knows everybody else's business. Colm (Brendan Gleeson) is the supposedly best friend of Padriac until he is not and no longer wants to spend time with him anymore. To give away any more would give away the lyrical and poetic nature of what Martin McDonagh as a writer builds. His scripts are very tight almost stage plays and this one almost feels more close to home than "Three Billboards". It has of course very Irish humor but the quips and barbs played very well in the theater.
Kerry Condon as Pollick's sister Siobhan is the voice of reason but is also dealing with her own ambition as well. What is interesting is since this writer/reviewer did a piece on the Islands Of Ireland on a press trip about 15 years ago, the isolation and limited amount of work is still an ongoing thing but there is also something cool and primal about the area, not because of the wildlife but because it still has a frontier feeling. Some of these islands are where the red headed pirate queen who clashed with Elizabeth 1 used to roam and stockpile her loot. Barry Keoghan who had the hidden but memorable possible Koker cameo in Matt Reeves' "The Batman" plays an idiot savant of sorts who is simple, funny, empathetic, rude and also the product of abuse. Some of his scenes are the most heartbreaking and offers an interesting balance because it shows both comedy and tragedy like most of the film. Farrell pulls himself back almost as a shadow when the light of his friend is taken away. Gleeson as always is stalwart but his reasoning makes a weird sort of sense even when it doesn't. Myth and the notion of a stalled existence also plays in here almost as a chorus but still it is buoyed with humor. "The Banshees Of Inishirin" are about the ghosts that inhabit unless even when we don't see them, floating in the wind. A-
By Tim Wassberg
