Having traversed L.A., Bruges and Ebbing, Missouri, in his first three films, Martin McDonagh’s fourth finds him on greener soil and can’t help but wear the intimate feel of a homecoming. The Banshees of Inisherin sees the London-born, Galloway-bred director return to at long lost Ireland. Or, rather, to lush island metaphor just off the coastal mainland. Inisherin’s literal meaning is ‘the Ireland island’. This is a desperately sad film, blackly comical and surprisingly tough. With so much to say, McDonaugh’s refusal to rush is a marvel. That his cast excel within the woe is but a bonus.
The 95th Academy Awards are here at last and beckon the end of yet another staggeringly long awards season. After three turbulent years at the multiplex, dare we say it, this year feels like business as usual may well be back in action.
With a hearty eleven nods to its name, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a hot (dog) favourite to win everything, everywhere all at once – or, rather, over three hours – but has major competition from BAFTA favourites All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin.
Only time can tell as to who will actually come out on top but there’s always fun to be had in the pre-match guessing game…
One can only imagine the gallows humour that was banded around the set of Allelujah. The film adapts Alan Bennett’s eponymous play and comes directed by Notes on a Scandal’s Richard Eyre. It creams the upper crop of Britain’s most beloved veteran thespians and devotes just shy of a hundred minutes to reminding each that they’re nearer death than birth. Charming. A good job all involved boast a well honed sense of humour. Certainly, a cast so glittering can’t help but warm the cockles. And yet, an excess of worthy point-making can’t help but weigh down the film’s featherlight flurries.
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