The Banshees of Inisherin

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⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

It's only been a few days since I went out to see this one, but in that time I feel like I've given it more thought than almost any movie I've seen this year. There is clearly a lot going on here that I am not smart enough to understand, but I think the ability to get audiences thinking is a pretty special quality.

Still, I think this movie succeeds on every level, including the lowest level where dummies like me dwell. Stripping away everything else, this is a funny, beautiful movie about two guys who were friends that are no longer friends, and we don't really know why, and even when we learn why we aren't satisfied. It had all the low-brow, small town humor that I've fallen in love with (see: Anne of Green Gables), some great acting performances by animals (especially the donkey!) and jokes that almost fully depend on Irish accents sounding funny. It reminded me a lot of Derry Girls which is a big plus.

I also thought it posed some really interesting existential questions about life and legacy (see what I did there?) and what aspects of greatness are worth pursuing. I think that for such an otherwise mystifying movie, this question had a pretty direct answer as we really only ever take one side, and Kerry Condon's character kinda puts the last nail in the "greatness" coffin with her speech to Brendan Gleeson.

If the movie would have stopped there and given us a simple, satisfying conclusion, this movie might have been a 10 for me. But again, this movie was not made for me, but was made for the Acadamy. It takes some pretty dark turns which I thought were effective, but also pretty confusing. I'm happy to continue to think about this movie however, even when I don't understand it.

So, all in all, I think this movie was great and pretty easy to recommend even if you are not a movie person. In the words of IGN, it has a little something for everybody. Shout out to literally the whole cast, because everyone here was awesome, and there are talks about several Oscar nominations.

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