Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ on Hulu, in Which Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson Headline a Gloomy, Hilarious Breakup Comedy

Writer/director Martin McDonagh reunites a classic pair for The Banshees of Inisherin (now streaming on Hulu): Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who bickered and bantered so memorably in McDonagh’s feature debut, 2008’s exemplary In Bruges. Banshees, which netted seven Golden Globe nominations, finds them playing best buddies living on a quiet island in 1920s Ireland – best buddies whose best-buddydom is doomed. As expected from McDonagh’s pen, it’s a dialogue-driven character study that finds the filmmaker hoeing a less-performative row than he did for 2017’s Oscar-baiter Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and making a film to rival the inspired storytelling of In Bruges.

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s 2 p.m. – time to go down to the pub for a pint. Padraic (Farrell) knocks on his old pal Colm’s (Gleeson) door, but Colm flat-out ignores him. Padraic shrugs. That’s not usual. They’re close friends. They always go down to the pub and get to chatting. The bartender fills Padraic’s glass and speculates, “Maybe he just doesn’t like you no more.” Colm eventually shows, and confirms it: “I just don’t like you no more.” Padraic blink-blink-blinks, screws up his face, scratches his head. What’d he do? Sometimes he gets drunk and says dumb stuff but it’s never anything that can’t be forgiven. It’s like someone flipped a switch in Colm. Padraic walks down the dirt road back home. This is Inisherin, an island off the bigger Emerald Isle, where a civil war rages. Does a statue of the Virgin Mary overlook the main road on Inisherin? Does a Guinness pour a dense, frothy head? An explosion stops Padraic in his tracks. He eyes a plume of smoke on the other side of the water. “Good luck to you – whatever it is you’re fightin’ about,” he says.

Whatever it is you’re fightin’ about. On the way back home Padraic runs into one of his fellow island denizens, Dominic (Barry Keoghan), who gives off some real town-imbecile vibes: “I pay no attention to wars. I’m against ’em. Wars and soap,” Dominic says. He’s the son of the local cop (Gary Lydon), who beats on poor Dominic, possibly to hone his skills for beating on the locals, and possibly the reason the kid is against soap. Other locals are also hopelessly local – the busybody woman a the general store who reads others’ mail, the priest who spews foul language while arguing with Colm, and ancient Mrs. McCormick (Sheila Flitton), who lurks the island wearing a headscarf and a stern expression, looking like she should be boiling Hansel and Gretel’s bones. Less psychologically local is Padraic’s sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon), who has a head about her. She’s not afflicted with the local-islander crazies, perhaps. She’s sharp, logical, pragmatic, observant. She and Padraic live together. She prefers to read over going to the pub. She does the washing and cooking. She gets after Padraic for letting his beloved pet donkey, Jenny, in the house. He really gets on with Jenny. They understand each other, man and donkey. She seems very sweet. But she also shits on the floor.

Siobhan, seeking reason, as reasonable people do, confronts Colm. What’s his feckin’ problem? Padraic is a nice man. Colm doesn’t mince words: Padraic is boring. Dull. He goes on for hours about what he found in his donkey’s shite. (“It was my pony,” Padraic corrects him.) And he has no more time in his life for that drivel. Colm plays the fiddle. He wants to write music, do something creative and satisfying in the last years of his life. He’s getting on in years. Mortality is heavy. He wants peace. Padraic still doesn’t understand. He’s hurt. Of course he’s hurt. He sits on the floor at home and Jenny lowers her head and he strokes her snout. Padraic won’t accept Colm’s explanation. They sit on opposite ends of the pub, Colm playing music with others, Padraic alone. Padraic keeps bugging Colm. Like picking at a scab. Finally, Colm threatens him: If Padraic doesn’t let him be, Colm will cut one of his own fingers off. Padraic doesn’t stop. One day, Padraic and Siobhan are eating supper when WHUMP, a sound at the door. Padraic peers outside. There in the grass. Colm’s finger. Well I’ll be.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Dammit it reminds me of In Bruges, and that’s an amazing thing, although Inisherin is also very much its own thing.

Performance Worth Watching: Farrell gives perhaps the performance of his career, aided by Gleeson, whose charisma never wanes. Condon is extraordinary as the voice of exasperated reason. But Keoghan, concocting a simple syrup of idiocy, despair and puckish mischief, gregariously reflects the most profound tragicomic notes Inisherin plays.

Memorable Dialogue: Padraic: “I used to think that’s a nice thing to be – one of life’s good guys. Now I think it’s the worst.”

Sex and Skin: An ugly pale beer-gutted policeman passed out naked, save for his cap, in a shot that lingers a few beats longer than we’d like.

Our Take: Again: Whatever it is you’re fightin’ about. There’s a boat to and from Inisherin but you don’t get a sense that anyone really comes and goes very much. It’s an isolated place, which is good when war is raging. But note the things we don’t see on the island – electricity, motorized vehicles, radios, not much in the way of children. There’s cows, a witchy woman, people drinkin’, a shopkeep thirsty for “news,” gorgeously rugged postcard scenery. The influence of modern civilization is nil. So what’s corrupting the cop with the sociopathic streak, or someone like Colm, who confesses his “despair” to the priest? It’s human nature. Gotta be. What else could it be? We’re a hopeless species.

Another idea here: What’s wrong with “nice”? Padraic is “nice.” There’s a whole lot of going-on about how “nice” he is, as if “nice” is no good. Is it? Good? Or not? Colm dreams of leaving behind a song for others to sing. Siobhan dreams of doing more than the washing and reading her books. Even simple Dominic dreams of someone loving him someday. What’s Padraic’s dream? Has he considered anything beyond the cows, his donkey, chattin’ at the pub, sleeping in the same little room as his sister? Is it wrong to not dream of more? Not necessarily. Is it wrong to have modest ambitions? Of course not. But what happens when one ideology butts against the other? Strife. Resentment. Divorce. War? War.

McDonough roots the drama in the peaty soil of Irish melancholy and black comedy. Its heartbreak is as potent as its comedy, both intertwined with the rhythms of the dialogue. Consider the setting – lovely scenery, dim lighting, silence, nothing to distract one from the flawed workings of one’s mind, as the sun, an orange coin on the horizon, sets majestically. Inisherin is an occasionally absurdist microcosmic fable that foregoes the broad politics of Three Billboards and the scattered meta-comedy of Seven Psychopaths for the succulent stuff of In Bruges, which mused playfully and profoundly on the complexities and ironies of an oddball friendship. One commonality emerges from all of McDonagh’s films – nothing he’s ever done has been “nice,” so we sure as hell know where he stands on this.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Richly funny, provocative and moving, and exquisitely written, The Banshees of Inisherin is one of the best films of 2022.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.