Catching Up! 'The Banshees of Inisherin,' 'All Quiet On The Western Front,' and 'Ticket to Paradise'
#198: "The Banshees of Inisherin," "All Quiet On The Western Front," "Ticket to Paradise," "Autumn In New York," "V For Vendetta"
Edition 198:
Hey movie lovers!
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
The No Content For Old Men Cinephile Bucket List went on sale Monday. Hit the link for full details. Basically, it’s a scratch-off poster with my best 100 movie recommendations on it, giving you a check list to complete if you want to call yourself a true movie lover. Your support on this project would mean the world to me. Plus, it’ll make a great Christmas present! Now on to this week’s movies:
The Banshees of Inisherin
It’s hard to think of too many movies with a higher approval rating than In Bruges, a 2006 action-comedy set in Belgium about a pair of guilt-stricken assassins played hilariously by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, written and directed by Martin McDonagh.
But the trio are all Irish, through and through, so it’s appropriate that when they agreed to reunite for another two-hander two decades later it would take place somewhere as specific as Inisherin, a fictional island off the coast of Ireland that feels as real and lived in as any filming location in recent memory.
The setting makes the movie. Not just because of it’s gorgeous, unspoiled coastline but because of its culture, the epitome of a small town where nothing ever happens. Our point of view character, Pádraic (Farrell), tends animals every morning and gets drunk on Guinness in the local pub every afternoon, along with seemingly every other male on the island. That cycle suddenly becomes unendurable for Pádraic’s best friend Colm, who tells Pádraic he’ll cut off his own fingers if Pádraic doesn’t leave him alone.
That’s a crazy, almost silly concept for a movie. And it doesn’t shy away from that identity. I would call this the funniest movie of the entire year, a combination of subtle, salty and stupid that had me cackling in the theater throughout.
As with most of McDonagh’s movies, that humor hides an undertone of real melancholy. This is a story about fulfillment. Is it found in friendship? Family? Homeland? Treating others well? Our life’s work? Or can it be found at all?
Pádraic might be what we’d call a simpleton, a guy who isn’t very smart but he’s proud of being “nice.” He’s totally content with his little life, leaving him incapable of coming to terms with Colm’s cruelty, and he only starts making sense of the world once he stops treating others well. It’s a sad evolution to witness. Still, at times it’s easy to sympathize with Colm, who wants to transcend the insignificance of his little life by writing a truly great piece of music, to which he sees Pádraic as an annoying distraction.
Add into the fold two fantastic supporting performances from Barry Keoghan as the village idiot (including one absolutely heart-wrenching scene where he unsuccessfully asks out a girl) and Kerry Condon as Pádraic’s sister, clearly too smart and capable to ever be fulfilled on the tiny island yet incapable of abandoning her brother and her home. As you can tell, every single one of these characters has something they want and some reason why they can’t have it, and we care equally about all their quests, a sign of masterful screenwriting.
It’s strange in this year of bigger, faster, noisier (three of my current top five are the chaotic Everything, Everywhere; the pulse-pounding Top Gun: Maverick; and the batshit crazy Barbarian), the movie to break the prestige #MovieSZN slump was an incredibly quiet, still, and patiently-paced drama with the absolute lowest of stakes.
Perhaps it’s the world class acting of Gleeson, or Farrell, who never quite fit in as a movie star but has become one of my favorite actors in the world in his embrace of weird and creative roles like this one. Or perhaps McDonagh’s particular brand of human psychological deep dive really gets me (I’m one of the few who loves Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri without reservation).
Either way, Banshees feels like the first worthy entry into the awards season slate, and slots comfortably into my top 10 for the year.
All Quiet On The Western Front
Netflix
The concept of an anti-war war movie isn’t new. At this point it’s practically its own subgenre. But ordinarily this sentiment comes with caveats — like war is terrible but soldiers are heroes; or war is bloody but the cause is just; or war is miserable but you end up learning everything there is to know about the shrimpin’ bid’ness (ok, fine, that last one is just Forrest Gump).
I’ve never seen a movie so thoroughly and unflinchingly depict war as being pointless, joyless and inhumane. Our protagonists are a group of idealistic German school children who volunteer to fight on World War I’s western front and are systematically stripped of their optimism, then their patriotism, then their hope, then their humanity. Their souls are corrupted as they kill, maim and steal in the name of nothing more than survival. It’s incredibly powerful because it doesn’t preach these things, it merely unfolds one powerful image after the next until you’re overwhelmed by the unnecessary loss of life.
With all due respect to the impressive technical achievement that was awards juggernaut 1917, which begs obvious comparison as the other recent World War I prestige movie, I liked this one more.
Yes, it’s sad and yes, it’s long — 2 hr. 28 min — but it’s not just a bummer for bummer’s sake like movies I’ve complained about in the past month. It’s compelling and emotionally devastating in a way that feels profound, and in some of the scenes I’d put its cinematography toe to toe with the great Roger Deakins in 1917. The story is perhaps too simple to be considered high art or stand up next to some of the year’s other great movies, but it’s more memorable. It’s easy to get lost in the world and cease to think of this as a movie at all, which is the highest of compliments. If you’re a history buff or a war movie junkie I think this is a must-watch.
Something New
Ticket to Paradise (Theaters): If there’s ever been a movie more dedicated to the notion of “get out of the way and let the movie stars cook,” I’m not sure I’ve seen it. Most people think “star vehicle” supposes the movie is a car and the stars are the engine that makes it go, but in cases like this one, the car is actually the stars’ careers, and the movie is the engine working to advance them. Luckily, the aforementioned stars are Julia Roberts and George Clooney, two of the defining movie stars of the past 30 years and two of the most charming screen presences of all time. When they’re happy and having fun, we’re happy and having fun.
The movie pays off on its promise to be a banter-y, feel-good story about an ex-husband and wife who hate each other but team up to break up their daughter’s wedding. Clooney does 90 minutes of dorky dad routine, interrupted by a single, out-of-nowhere serious scene that, incredibly, might be his best acting in 10+ years. Roberts refinds her best America’s sweetheart charm. The stakes are hilariously low, as everyone in the movie is rich, beautiful, and has no issues that can’t be solved with a quip and a heart-to-heart conversation.
Is the movie “good?” Absolutely not. There’s not a single thing that’s “real” anywhere in the movie. But who cares if Roberts wakes up after a night sleeping in the literal jungle with perfectly curled hair and spotlessly white sneakers, or if the supporting characters are cartoonishly one-note, or if the daughter (played by rising star Kaitlyn Dever) is supposedly about to start a job as a full-blown lawyer after just four years of undergrad college??
We’re here for laughs, or if that’s too much to ask, at least soft smiles and warm-n-fuzzies in our bellies as we watch a couple of our favorite movie stars take a paid vacation to a tropical locale and toss around semi-funny barbs at each other for a couple of hours before everyone kisses and makes up in the end.
Something Old
Autumn In New York (2000, Amazon Prime): Every year around this time, I see the photos and videos on social media of the multicolored fall wonderland that is Central Park, one of the most iconic rom-com settings in cinematic history (When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, etc.) and the entire justification for this turn of the century rom-dram starring a young Winona Ryder and an ageless Richard Gere. I’m not sure I love this movie, or even really like it, but I promise you New York City has never looked dreamier and more romantic.
This movie comes from the era when the ideal leading man was a sex-crazed, super-rich silver fox — think Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson and of course Gere, who was 50 when he made this movie but makes sure to say his character is “only 48,” as if that makes it easier to justify dating Ryder’s vivacious 22-year-old. Movies have been trying to copy and capture the magic of Love Story ever since it broke audience’s hearts back in 1970 (including this year with Jim Parsons’ new movie), but the inherently problematic nature of this relationship likely tilts modern audiences against an otherwise totally formulaic rom-com tear-jerker. The whole reason to watch the movie is for the NYC exteriors, which are truly immaculate.
Something to Stream
V For Vendetta (HBO Max): “Remember remember the 5th of November…” As hard as it is to make a good movie, it’s a hundred times harder to make an iconic movie, and this 2005 thriller succeeded in creating images like the Guy Fawkes mask and Natalie Portman’s shaved head that have entered and survived in the pop culture lexicon for now almost 20 years.
The story is very “1982” meets Robin Hood, where a masked vigilante with a penchant for rhyming monologues serves justice on the hooligans of an oppressive government. The movie’s vision of near-future London as a city living in fear of fascist authoritarian rule proved to be incredibly prescient of the political movements that have developed across the world since, as did its portrayal of wild conspiracy theorists who take drastic action in the name of their beliefs (good or evil). All wrapped in the neat package of a fun action movie!
Trailer Watch: The Pale Blue Eye
I’m a sucker for Edgar Allan Poe. People who only know him as the poet who wrote “The Raven” miss out on the fact that he basically invented the modern detective story (Sherlock Holmes is basically a total rip-off of his C. Auguste Dupin), and wrote a lot of great short fiction.
Taking on one of those stories is writer/director Scott Cooper, who I consider a very up and down filmmaker (Crazy Heart is great but Black Mass is kinda crap), but this is his third movie with Christian Bale (Out of the Furnace, Hostiles). This trailer doesn’t show off much of the story, nor does it even show credited actors Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton or Robert Duvall (!!), which makes me think there could be some twists and turns in store. It’s enough for me to put this on my must-see list for early January on Netflix.