The Banshees of Inisherin :McDonagh's dark comedic view on the importance of life.

After "Three Billboards of Ebbing Missouri", Martin McDonagh comes back with the In Bruges' Duo Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson who are playing two best friends who stop hanging out and the aftermath of their breakup of this friendship. Having not watched too much of Irish movies, the strong Irish accent set in the town of Inisherin during 1923 did take a toll on me and was quite an adventure to watch it.

The story revolves around a specific group of people in the village of Inisherin and starts with a dispute when Colm (Brendan Gleeson) stops talking to his best friend Padraic (Colin Farrell). As of the small town and people mostly knowing everybody, many members of village seem to be concerned on this which includes Padraic's sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) , Dominic (Barry Keoghan) and some other people.  Even the story starts with a spat with a friendship, it subtly hints at perspectives and goals in life to different people. The scenes do make you laugh at somebody's vulnerabilities of them being dumb but then makes you think later of your behaviour.  In the last half an hour, McDonagh really amps up the gravity of the spat between friendship and gives you a shocking and confused ending to the story and the aftermath of Inisherin.  The addition of character of Mrs McCormick (Sheila Flitton) as the old lady who just knows the aftermath of everyone in the village is a subtle addition of God for seeing the future of people's lives. 

The film's key idea revolves around how people treat their goals in their lives. Colm, being a thinker comes to the realization that one should compose music or do art in general so that he can be remembered by his works after he passes way. He realizes that talking to his "dull" best friend Padraic was a waste of time.  Padraic, on the other hand does not sees life in this way. To me his life has very small aperture, his sister, his pony, herding his cattle and talking to people in the bar. To him, he likes to be remembered by being "nice" to the people around. McDonagh clearly lays out this two sides of spending lives among the people around us and shows how dark and gritty it can be if people do not compromise to one another. Colm, wanting to stay alone and proving his point, goes to the length of chopping his fingers of with sheep shears. Accidentally the fingers causing the death of the pony makes Padraic go bollocks and wanting to burn his best friend alive. Ofcourse, these emotion are shown in exaggerated ways, but that is how people in life do behave. In order to achieve goals, people often forget to see the perspective of other side and this leads to harsh feuds. 

On the other hand, Siobhan being shown the most intellectual of all reading books and getting a job at the end, leaves her family and her town for sake of pursuing her own career. Her leaving lead to many drastic consequences in Inisherin : the death of Dominic after he being heartbroken and lonely, the caring of the cattle, not making Padraic calm after the death of his pony. Was her leaving the town for her benefit worthy? McDonagh puts the question " career over family" in front of the audience. The movie with the amazing dark comedy and the subtle ideas, makes you ponder a lot after you come out of the theater.

From the acting perspective, both Colin and Brendan just did their perfect roles. Colin especially managed perfectly to portray how a person of less intellect but with more kindness and soul acts. He really pulled it off with the dialogues, the expression.  Keoghan did also a fantastic job in that regard, a son being badly treated by his father and just roams around in the village happily meeting with people. The cinematic score is mostly used as transitions between the scenes which is perfect for this tense dark comedy.  The location is chosen fantastically which somehow shows that even the city from a broader perspective looks calm and peaceful, it is not how it is when one zooms in (much like human beings). 

Overall, "Banshees of the Inisherin" is a quite good addition to McDonagh's career considering the movie being recognized in many film festivals and so on . It is a deep thinker according to me. If you manage to get hold of it and prepared for some self analysis of yourself in one day, the movie will really be worthy for you.