THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
★★★★
R, 114 minutes. Westbrook.
Martin McDonagh’s wickedly clever and unexpectedly touching “The Banshees of Inisherin” begins with a sudden death — of a friendship. Padraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), longtime neighbors on a small island off the coast of Ireland, have been friends for many years, until one day suddenly they aren’t. “I just don’t like you no more,” says a stony Colm, by way of explaining why he’s abruptly begun to avoid Padraic on trips to the island’s only pub. Padraic’s face crumples upon hearing it, like a slip of paper about to be thrown away. “You liked me yesterday,” he says, mystified. It’s been 20 years since McDonagh, Farrell and Gleeson teamed up for “In Bruges,” a movie that somehow managed to endearingly blend gory violence and quirky character comedy (and left me permanently unable to think of the city in its title without appending a profane adjective) — and what a treat it is to see them together again. “The Banshees of Inisherin” is a touch less gory (just a touch, mind you; don’t bring the kids), but it likewise blends unlikely ingredients into a perfect stew — an Irish one, in this case. Set on the fictional island of Inisherin in 1923, against a backdrop of Irish civil war on the mainland that the island inhabitants don’t seem too concerned about, McDonagh’s tale is both a tiny story of two men, and a larger allegory of what happens when a small disagreement spins out of control.
— Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times
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— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service