The Banshees of Inisherin

Set on the small Irish island of Inisherin in 1923, Martin McDonagh’s latest film asks a simple question: what happens when your best friend decides he wants to break up with you? That’s the dilemma facing Pádraic (Colin Farrell), who is left confused and heartbroken when Colm (Bredan Gleeson) suddenly announces that he no longer likes his ex-friend and doesn’t want to see or talk to him anymore. What follows is by turn darkly funny and deeply empathetic, as their friendship erodes in increasingly absurd and brutal ways. Winner of Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, Farrell is especially good as the earnest Pádraic, and Kerry Condon is the stealth MVP of the piece as his wiser older sister Siobhán. Add a tender score by Carter Burwell and some stunning cinematography by Ben Davis, and you have a McDonagh film you’ll want to befriend at the earliest opportunity.

“This is an often shoulder-shudderingly funny film, whose comic dialogue is dazzlingly designed and performed”. ROBBIE COLLIN, THE TELEGRAPH