The boys are back together
HOLY SHIT
I liked the original thread title better. It might have been less technically accurate, but it told me (without watching the preview) that this was a sequel to “In Bruges”. I just loved that movie, so this is very exciting.
It’s not a sequel or prequel to In Bruges, but it is the first reteaming of Martin McDonagh, Colin Ferrell, and Brendon Gleeson since In Bruges.
It is, as McDonagh puts it, about the end of a lifelong friendship.
First reaction: Wait, what?! I don’t even care that Martin McDonagh, when asked about a sequel, said “No, never.”
Second reaction: Ah, that makes way more sense, especially given that bell tower. They’re getting the band back together!
Euro festival crowd had a hilariously overwrought reaction to a movie they just saw with the stars in attendance? That’s almost hard to believe.
Absolutely the correct answer.
Watched this yesterday and enjoyed it. Probably I suspect more than most who I watched it with. ;)
Perhaps the trailer led some to believe they were going in to watch a comedy, albeit perhaps a black comedy and it turned out that was a bit of a head fake as the back half gets pretty bleak. I thought it made for a much better movie.
My wife thought the triggering event near the end was predictable but ultimately redeemed by the ending.
This is the Blue Valentine of friendship movies. I mean that as a great compliment.
I also felt the conclusion elevated the middle stretch. It’s less of an ambiguous ending than it is a double entendre, if you will, and it hits hard with both its positive and negative meaning.
I thought this was really great. It sure takes a dark turn about half way through, but ultimately I really enjoyed it. Reading up about it, it seems it may very well be an allegory for the Irish Civil War, but I honestly felt it worked really well even without that reading. Although it did help to explain the sort of non-conclusion of the ending.
This is now on HBO Max, by the way.
I thought this was quite good, though it definitely wasn’t I was expecting when I first heard it was McDonagh/Farrell/Gleeson. Much darker than In Bruges, which is saying something.
The analogies to Irish history are obvious, but I think the story is meant to apply to today as well. In particular it’s notable that the Farrell character, a self-described nice average guy who is more accurately described as aimless and unformed, is rejected by his friend the artist and then later abandoned by his sister, the intellectual. With the events that follow tracing what happens when people are just left to go through life aimless and unformed.
He did this with In Bruges and purgatory as well, although that one is, almost by definition, left ambiguous. Here it’s essential that the ending resolves nothing and holds on to both the good and the bad will between them.
Why’s that? From what I can tell, it sort of seems to imply that their relationship is defined by the good and bad will, but all the bad will we’ve seen was only a very recent thing(from the start of the movie)? That I guess would point back to the inciting incident, but this movie doesn’t have one. Colm just decided not to be friends at the start of the film, and that’s that. I’ve been running the movie through my head a lot, and while I really loved it, I still can’t get a very concrete read on what it was saying.
I mostly mean it’s essential for the allegory, not the personal relationship. There’s no sticking a cork back in either their shared history or the recent bad blood between them. I do think that makes plenty of sense on both levels, but it couldn’t be any other way allegorically.
Ah, ok I think I get what you’re saying. I suppose my thinking is that showing that things will never be the same would be kind of an indictment of whatever(or whoever) started the conflict, and I don’t get the read that Colm is the villain of film or anything. I guess it’s more a commentary on grudges or conflict in general. I thought maybe I was missing something.
I think I can easily say this was the saddest funny movie I’ve ever seen.
I don’t think it was about grudges, or villainy, or even really conflict. The allegory to the Irish civil war is, to me, very much take it or leave it. And I definitely left it. :)
Spoilers, but also trigger warnings. ALL the trigger warnings.
I think the central theme was more just about the desire to commit suicide, especially in an environment where that is so taboo* people would rather believe a widely known victim of constant familial sexual abuse fell into the lake ‘by accident’.
In such extreme circumstances we push those we love most as firmly away as possible. After all, if we make them ambivalent toward us - or better yet, hate us - they won’t be as devastated by our final action. The tragedy is, however, that we still love them - no matter how much hurt we try and inflict. So we’ll still help them on their cart and see them safely home after they suffer injustice at the fists of others.
Everything Colm does, here, is in service to his end. Trying to get his affairs in order and leave behind some sort of legacy, free from distraction and emotion (though part of his despair is knowing he really has nothing to offer). Pádraic spends much of the film in denial about it, but he knows. He knows the despair of the man he loves no matter how much he refuses to admit it to himself. However, once the self mutilation moves past the point of eccentricity to the utterly grotesque, he can’t not see it. He finally sees the hopelessness and despair for what it is, but there is one final act of love he can offer, and it is thus:
Sit in your cottage at this exact time and allow me to murder you. I will do this for you, and in so doing I will save your reputation, your right to a proper burial, even your eternal soul. My love for you is such that I will throw my life away, so that your suffering can end in the most amicable manner I can offer.
* Catholicism, innit.
A beautiful and truly, tragically, sad film. One of the saddest I’ve seen, despite how much I laughed. Yeah, it made me ugly cry. (´༎ຶ Д ༎ຶ`)
I don’t know whether I can forgive it for that. Still, in many ways one of the better films I’ve seen this year… so far (I do love me some blue aliens**! And that’s still a couple of days away. I live in hope!)
** Well, any colour of alien, really.
Thanks for that interpretation, Fox. Lots to mull over.
For my own part, I couldn’t get past the cruelty. But it’s some amazing writing and performances, and it’s clearly the kind of movie to create thoughtful responses like yours. For that reason, I appreciate listening to people talk about Banshees of Inisherin more than actually seeing Banshees of Inisherin.
That said, I haven’t been clicking on all the blurred spoilers dotting people’s posts. I’m happy to read opinions, but I’m not inclined to read them like they’re advent calendars. :(