SUBLIME CINEMA #635 – THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Watching this movie feels like watching a master writer and director in command, and an artist really come of age. This is easily Martin McDonagh’s best film. I was astonished by the quality of writing here, so rare for an original screenplay, and it already feels classic.
The imagery is the best promotional material the Irish tourism board has ever had gifted to them – it’s gorgeous, verging on miraculous. And the score by Carter Burwell recalls something deep underneath this island; an Irish Fargo maybe, with almost the same spirit.
Martin McDonagh likes to make films about unique, fringe places, and the fringe people who cross through these places; the locations are so defined and necessary to his stories. Here now he turns the Irish coastlines into a dream of somewhere far away and long ago, and he envelops you in it.