Kerry Condon

Categorized as a “musical or comedy,” Banshees is indeed laugh-out-loud funny at some of its more absurd moments. But it’s a dark humor that can almost make you feel bad about laughing once you realize just how tragic the characters and events director Martin McDonagh has scripted are. Their horizons are as limited as the view from their island, where an endlessly overcast sky vanishes into a grey sea.

Golden Globes nominees Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson deliver memorable performances in The Banshees of Inisherin but whether you want to spend two hours in their company on an isolated island off the coast of Ireland is purely a matter of choice. Set in 1923, this tragicomedy follows the fractured friendship of amiable Padraic Suilleabhain (Colin Farrell) and stolid Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson). Accustomed to meeting every afternoon for a pint of stout at the local pub, Padraic cannot understand why Colm now refuses to join him there – or even engage in conversation.

Writer/director Martin McDonagh engages head on and provocatively with confrontational characters battling anger management issues He again grabs the tiger by the tail, isolating his characters on a fictional island off Ireland’s northern coast in 1923. Best of friends, Colm Doherty and Padraic Súilleabháin head to the local, and only, pub for their pints and extended conversation every day. But this isn’t an ordinary afternoon, and friction ensues immediately.

Martin McDonagh delivers a perfect take on male friendship in his latest tragi-comic tale, The Banshees of Inisherin. Following his Oscar-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2018), the writer-director reunites with his In Bruges (2008) powerhouse duo Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell for a story that will have all three men vying for Academy Awards. Their chemistry and sheer dynamism on screen make Farrell and Gleeson’s performances not just the best of the year, but perhaps, the best of their lengthy careers.