Review of Banshees of Inisherin, directed by Martin McDonagh

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Recently, it has become a source of income for me, and a crux as I faced unexpected unemployment after an opportunity I was told I had fell through. Feel free to click around if you liked this post; I truly appreciate any support.

Today’s blog post comes from an ongoing series of mine where I rediscover old notes from movies I watched in the past. Even before I worked professionally as a film critic, and then started this blog, I would kind of always jot down these notes about the movies I was watching. I think I was destined to be reviewing them on the blog, that’s for sure.

So what I’ve been doing for the past month or so is revisiting all of these notes, as I rediscovered them in November 2024. I became unemployed around that time, so working on these blog posts gave me a certain kind of peace as I continued building up the blog and applied for new positions.

I watched Banshees back when it first came out in 2022, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Maybe it’s because Barry Keoghan has blown up ever since, or because I want to watch more Irish cinema in general. I’m not sure, but this movie stuck with me.

Let’s get into the review—I know introductions can get be rambling and it’s not always what you came for, so I don’t want to go on for too long.

A lifelong friendship suddenly comes to an end, leading to animosity and ramifications throughout one small town.

This is technically a historical movie, as it takes place in Ireland in the early 1920s, right after the Irish Civil War ended. Set on an island called Inisherin, a fiddler named Colm suddenly begins ignoring his best friend Pádraic, much to his confusion. When he starts asking for an explanation for Colm’s behavior, Colm says he is dull and would like to do things in his free time that will make him be remembered.

Pádraic can’t accept this and tries to continue reaching out to Colm, which makes him even more stubborn and refusing to reconcile even more. Colm is pushed to the point where he tells Pádraic this: every time he talks to him, Colm is going to cut off one of his own fingers until there is nothing left.

One night, a local man beats his son Dominic for swiping some of his booze, and Pádraic and his sister take the boy in for the night. The father insults Pádraic when he goes to deliver milk, so Pádraic decides to make it public knowledge that the guy beats his son to everyone around. The father punches him, and Colm, who was in the area, silently drives Pádraic home.

The sister, Siobhán, and Dominic try to get Colm and Pádraic back together as friends, but that doesn’t work out. Pádraic gets drunk and goes up to Colm, telling him he threw away their friendship and drinks with the father. Colm says that this is the most interesting Pádraic has ever been, but when Pádraic goes to apologize when sober, then Colm cuts off one of his fingers and chucks it at Pádraic’s front door.

When Pádraic spots Colm with Declan, a fiddler, he tricks the guy into leaving the island. An elder tells Pádraic that death is coming to the island, and a bit more drama between the characters is stirred up as they talk to each other and realize Colm talked about Pádraic at the bar, and Pádraic confesses what he did to Declan.

Pádraic gets drunk yet again and goes to Colm’s house, and Colm seems to have finished one of his songs and wants a friendship. But then Pádraic reveals what he did to Declan and pisses Colm off, who cuts off all of his fingers on his left hand and throws them at the front door. Siobhán decides she’s had enough and moves to the mainland.

Pádraic comes home and finds out his beloved donkey choked to death on one of the severed fingers, which sets him off. He goes to the pub to confront Colm, Colm offers a truce, but Pádraic says he’s going to burn down the house. He goes to the house the next day, takes his dog, and then burns down the house.

When he does that, the father watches all of this goes down. He runs into the elderly woman, who tells him to go to the river. They go there, and there is Dominic’s corpse floating in the water. Pádraic goes home after this and writes to his sister about how unhappy he is with his life.

He goes to return the dog the next morning and finds Colm standing next to his burned down house. Colm apologizes and says the donkey’s death and the fire is the end of the feud, but Pádraic says that it only would have ended if Colm died. Colm wonders if the Civil War has really ended, while Pádraic mentions it’s only a temporary peace and it’ll be a good thing.

As all of this goes down, the old woman watches from the ruins of Colm’s house, and the movie ends.

Overall Thoughts

This is a fascinating movie for me because of that last scene eventually. It shows how Civil Wars between neighbors and lifelong friends can create immeasurable rifts, even when it seems like peace is coming on the horizon. That’s some deep commentary about the nature of humanity and how we see other people in the long run.

This is technically a tragicomedy, but the comedy elements didn’t hit right with me. The acting is obviously incredible, and I love black comedies and tragicomedies in general, but perhaps this is a more Irish and European sense of humor that I didn’t care for at the end of the day.

I do think this is an excellent movie though. It’s definitely right up my alley in terms of theme and content. If you haven’t watched it already and are just trying to get a summary, you should definitely go and see it.

Movies are meant to be experienced, not just read about at the end of the day.

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