Cinema and Movie Thread: I like to remember things my own way.

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

Well, looking at the track record of what you all agreed on being great and my reaction to it, I think I'll pass for now.

Hey, I haven't given it a stamp of approval, so there is still hope.

Although I liked In Bruges, so I will probably dig it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

Well, looking at the track record of what you all agreed on being great and my reaction to it, I think I'll pass for now.

Don't be like that, if we can all agree on something being good the apocalypse will come and save us all from the hell timeline CERN got us into.

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

If I had to guess, I would say you specifically won't love it. But that's just a guess based on my poor understanding of your tastes - it's a difficult movie for me to project how other people will take it, so I certainly wouldn't stake my name on it.

  Reveal hidden contents

It's slow, completely character-driven while being dependent on whether you can empathize with at least one or both of the two main characters, has a weird and understated style of humor that you'll either get or you won't, and is very ambiguous.

 

It is sad, but I didn't really come away with that message at all. Big spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

As an aside, I was personally quite pleased with the film that it had Dominic kill himself, as I felt that was a much better and kinder resolution to his "repeatedly punch me until my brains violently explode out of my skull"-faced character than could be expected. It was just a shame that the father didn't suffer the same or preferably even worse.

I sympathized with Colm here more than I did Padraig. I mean, not that Padraig's point of view wasn't sympathetic as well (it's certainly easy to feel how hurt he is by this sudden rejection of old friendship, especially when he hasn't even done anything wrong), but Colm's feelings regarding our impermanence and being forgotten even before the living memory of you has run its time was, I felt, hugely empathizable - especially with a guy like Padraig dragging you down, making it so you never grow as a person, never gaining any sense of fulfillment or real contentedness...or just experiencing anything new at all. I wouldn't be happy drinking my life away listening to that utterly inane chatter all the while either. Padraig is nice, yes, but...no, if I somehow ever got into Colm's situation, I would do the same thing. Okay, maybe not quite the same thing, but you know what I mean. The fact that the movie also works as an allegory for Ireland's conflict with itself and never really ever being able to get past their irreconcilable differences was also neat.

Additionally, I didn't really think Padraig transformed into a monster. He was just hurting so bad, and lashed out as a result - in the final moments of the film, when Colm thanked him for not hurting and taking care of his dog, you saw him seemingly go back to his normal self immediately. Not a monster, just someone who desperately needs friendship from what was his closest friend after having lost most everything dear to him. As for Dominic...

 

 

I have a different interpretation. Get prepared to be DESTROYED by FACTS and LOGIC.

Spoiler

There's a lot to unpack here so I'll try to go the way my brain flows, rather than in order of your post.

So first of all I hope you never start chopping off your fingers to teach an earnest dumbass to leave you alone. Self-harm is very bad and you may need those fingers for something. As much as my edgelord adjacent jokes may imply otherwise, I genuinely don't like to see people suffer.

But more to the point....it's hard for me to find Colm sympathetic not because of his extreme and/or nasty actions but because after dropping his previously best friend he continues to spend most of his time going to the pub and chatting with others rather than composing full time, he may not be listening to a man talk about pony excrement but he's still doing much the same as he did before he ghosted Padraic. Obviously it's a film and we can only see so much, but my take on Colm is that he's someone deeply obsessed with leaving a legacy, aspiring to be something like the Irish Mozart, and that his failure to do so has driven him into a depression that he tries to avoid by projecting his anxieties or shortcomings on to Padraic as a sort of scapegoat. This inability to deal with his issues healthily, so to speak, transforms him into a callous and cruel man who would rather self-mutilate than consider that he may be wrong or accept his lot in life, and in doing so he ends up not only hurting himself but those around him.

As to Padraic, it's very hard not to sympathize with him because regardless of Colm's motivations or Padraic's short-comings, he got done dirty by Colm. Despite this betrayal and his very real hurt at least initially he tries his best to repair the situation, even if it's beyond his limited means, which endeared him to me somewhat. I don't think Padraic becomes a monster, and I blame the censorship of the forum for this, but during the course of the film he does transform from an earnest and kind man into someone that is bitter and spiteful. It's a tragedy of cruelty, that those who are on the receiving end of it can become cruel themselves.

And finally Dominic......I think him killing himself was the right move for the film, though in retrospect I think it makes his previous annoying interactions a lot more sad. Something I noticed was that Dominic was clearly much younger than the rest of Inisherin's inhabitants, with no one close to his age that he could form a connection with. That, the physical and sexual abuse from his father, and his conversation with Siobhan where you can see him staring at the water contemplating suicide but fishing for one last hope to keep him there, makes his annoying demeanor look much more like a cry for help than anything else. For me, Dominic is a tragic character who is indicative of the uncaring or ignorant nature of Inisherin's inhabitants and the toll of loneliness on someone.

I'll happily say that I think the anti-treaty forces were in the right in the Irish Civil War and that Irish reunification away from English influence is good, but I have political hangups. I think that McDonagh's use of the Civil War is brilliant and has at least a couple of relations to the conflict between Colm and Padraic. First, like the Civil War, for most of Inisherin Colm and Padraic's falling out is something in the background and not really of immediate concern or effect. Life goes on much the same, with evenings at the pub and gossip in town not really changing much. Secondly, at the very end it's explicit that the conflict has irrevocably damaged Colm and Padraic in much the same way the Civil War did for the people involved. Even if they (both Colm and Padraic and the Irish political factions) were able to reconcile their differences, and they aren't, what they've experienced and done has changed them and left wounds that aren't going to heal. Padraic may not want to kill a dog, but the old Padraic who was a dull but friendly man has been replaced with a vindictive man who wants to see his former friend dead and Colm is never getting his fingers back.

Banshees of Inisherin is a very dark comedy, perhaps even tragicomedy. I've said a few times that it is like the anti-EEAAO and I stand by that, while both films sort of have a message of kindness Banshees does this by showing how meanness can spiral out of control and damage everyone, like EEAAO if Evelyn had listened to Gong Gong and pushed Joy into killing herself.

 

2 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Hey, I haven't given it a stamp of approval, so there is still hope.

Although I liked In Bruges, so I will probably dig it.

It's great, even if you can't relate to the characters or don't find it funny, shots of the landscape are beautiful enough to justify watching it.

Edited January 23, 2023 by Space KP, Baby

[Bartimaeus]

4 hours ago, Space KP, Baby said:

It's great, even if you can't relate to the characters or don't find it funny, shots of the landscape are beautiful enough to justify watching it.

Rest of your spoilery post:

Spoiler

Just because you're ready to make a change or accomplish some kind of progress doesn't mean you immediately throw out your entire previous way of life. Doesn't matter if we're talking about wanting to beat an addiction or trying to compose and play here - he identified Padraig as what was holding him back from what he wanted and needed to do, rightly or wrongly. Yes, by most reasonable standards, he was too extreme by far, but some people have to quit cold turkey while others have to slowly wean themselves off, and both approaches are valid for different people. When you deeply feel you need to make a change in order for the betterment of yourself, whatever form that might take...you have the right to try to do so. Time passes, circumstances change, people slowly transform and move on: Padraig didn't have an inherent right to Colm's time, life, or friendship. It's that no-way-to-solve conflict that makes it interesting and, I think, is the brunt of it functioning as an allegory for Ireland: Colm needed the separation from Padraig just as much as Padraig needed Colm's companionship. That first morning, Colm tells him he can't do this anymore, they need to go their separate ways, and he doesn't want to hurt Padraig...but it is what he needs, and it is an irreconcilable difference of needs between the two men. I think both characters are sympathetic for that reason, but I can't but help view Padraig as transgressing against Colm in a way that Colm isn't against Padraig.

I've deliberately made decisions where the thinking leading up to them was "this is the last time I'm talking to this person whom I've known and spoken to for years" or "I'm never coming back here and seeing this group of people again". I have the right to make that decision, I have the right to choose whom I fraternize with, and if I need to no longer be around or communicate with a person or group of people, and if I decide that is going to be my course of action, I'm going to try my damnedest to accomplish that. It can hurt, and it will almost certainly hurt the people I've done it to, and sometimes I haven't always felt like I made the right choice years later...but it was the right choice for the me at the time, one way or another, and I've lived with it. I've also accepted, though certainly not appreciated or loved, the times I've been on the receiving end of this phenomenon from someone else. It hurts, it does, but that's our right as free individuals, and in this film, Padraig wasn't able to accept that, so...I can't put much blame on Colm except for the farcical extremes to which he went to prove what he needed. Self-harm coming into play is probably more of the Ireland allegory while also functioning as a kind of dark humor, to be honest - I don't think it really works elsewise.

Dominic: As I said, it was much better for his character that way than most any other I can think of. In 99% of other films, this is a guy whose setup would instead push towards assaulting someone in some manner, so it was nice to see it subverted it that way. I loathe that character type, so I wanted to see him brutally murdered in just about the first two seconds he was introduced - I'll accept what they did instead.

Edited January 23, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[InsaneCommander]

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Rest of your spoilery post:

  Reveal hidden contents

Just because you're ready to make a change or accomplish some kind of progress doesn't mean you immediately throw out your entire previous way of life. Doesn't matter if we're talking about wanting to beat an addiction or trying to compose and play here - he identified Padraig as what was holding him back from what he wanted and needed to do, rightly or wrongly. Yes, by most reasonable standards, he was too extreme by far, but some people have to quit cold turkey while others have to slowly wean themselves off, and both approaches are valid for different people. When you deeply feel you need to make a change in order for the betterment of yourself, whatever form that might take...you have the right to try to do so. Time passes, circumstances change, people slowly transform and move on: Padraig didn't have an inherent right to Colm's time, life, or friendship. It's that no-way-to-solve conflict that makes it interesting and, I think, is the brunt of it functioning as an allegory for Ireland: Colm needed the separation from Padraig just as much as Padraig needed Colm's companionship. That first morning, Colm tells him he can't do this anymore, they need to go their separate ways, and he doesn't want to hurt Padraig...but it is what he needs, and it is an irreconcilable difference of needs between the two men. I think both characters are sympathetic for that reason, but I can't but help view Padraig as transgressing against Colm in a way that Colm isn't against Padraig.

I've deliberately made decisions where the thinking leading up to them was "this is the last time I'm talking to this person whom I've known and spoken to for years" or "I'm never coming back here and seeing this group of people again". I have the right to make that decision, I have the right to choose whom I fraternize with, and if I need to no longer be around or communicate with a person or group of people, and if I decide that is going to be my course of action, I'm going to try my damnedest to accomplish that. It can hurt, and it will almost certainly hurt the people I've done it to, and sometimes I haven't always felt like I made the right choice years later...but it was the right choice for the me at the time, one way or another, and I've lived with it. I've also accepted, though certainly not appreciated or loved, the times I've been on the receiving end of this phenomenon from someone else. It hurts, it does, but that's our right as free individuals, and in this film, Padraig wasn't able to accept that, so...I can't put much blame on Colm except for the farcical extremes to which he went to prove what he needed. Self-harm coming into play is probably more of the Ireland allegory while also functioning as a kind of dark humor, to be honest - I don't think it really works elsewise.

Dominic: As I said, it was much better for his character that way than most any other I can think of. In 99% of other films, this is a guy whose setup would instead push towards assaulting someone in some manner, so it was nice to see it subverted it that way. I loathe that character type, so I wanted to see him brutally murdered in just about the first two seconds he was introduced - I'll accept what they did instead.

Now as the great philosopher once wrote "Schools serve the same social functions as prisons and mental institutions", in this essay I will demonstrate....

Spoiler

So as I reflected on the film last night and my views towards Colm softened, or at least became more understanding. I still find him needlessly cruel and his cutting off Padraic misguided, but he's clearly a man suffering from both depression and an existential crisis so expecting him to be rational is as much folly as expecting Padraic to be smart. Much like Dominic, his outer presentation masks a sea of issues boiling beneath the surface that are ignored or unobservable to others because of being annoying or being a ****. Colm deserves our sympathy and pity as much as Padraig does, as both are limited and bound by their mental limitations. 

I agree that Padraic isn't entitled to Colm's friendship and that he was much too persistent in dogging Colm after it was made clear that their friendship was over, arguably it borders on is harassment with virtually every other character telling Padraic to stop. Still....I think the way it was played with Colm dropping him without warning made me identify much more with Padraic than Colm, as Padraic initially at least was much more the wronged party. Obviously it's a film and we can only see so much, but I think if Colm had started off by talking to him first instead of being introduced by treating Padraic badly that I'd have had a much better view of him initially. And I think Colm recognizes that he's being mean to Padraic the second or third day when he explains himself to him, but by then the damage is done. I think in addition to needing mutually exclusive things, Colm and Padraic are incapable of understanding the other's needs, Padraic can not process Colm not wanting him in his life while Colm can't understand why Padraic can't leave him alone.

And Dominic....I think he's the standout character of the film precisely because of the way he's played. I find myself reexamining his scenes after the suicide and finding quite a lot of cues that there was a deep sadness within him that you can pick up on once you know that adds a great nuance to him beyond village idiot. While him killing his father and leaving would have been the justice move that would be best for the character's well being, for the film the suicide is the right choice.

 

[Raithe]

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

Yup, that pretty much sounds like some classic tabletop gaming sessions.

[LadyCrimson]

I haven't watched The Banshees... yet, despite my stated intention to do so. I think some of the reason is that my track record with most media these days makes me "afraid" to be disappointed with it, so maybe I'm waiting for any emotional over-expectations of mine to die down a bit. >.>

My main reason for interest in the first place is mostly Brendan Gleeson. I've seen him in lots of things, all the way back to Braveheart, to 28 Days, small roles, larger roles, and I love him every time. I did love (mostly) In Bruges, as well as The Guard. Colin Farrell can be good, but most of the films he's been in, I haven't liked overmuch - that said he certainly paired well with Gleeson in Bruges so hoping for similar chemistry to strike twice, in The Banshees.

Edited January 23, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[majestic]

Well, as you all probably know, I sometimes can't help myself and go against my own good judgement, especially when I already posted about not wanting to go against my own good judgement, and so, of course, I just watched the first thirty minutes of The Banshees of Inisherin. 31:29, according to the player, minus the length of the SEARCHLIGHT intro sequence.

Okay, so why am I stopping and bloody postin' 'bout it? First, and on the very bright side, the film gave me a hearty laugh when Siobhan said to Colm that her brother's always been dull, and I like watching Alastor Moody, so there's at least that. Colin Farrell is another matter, but this role seems to be made for him, as he's really convincing in it. I suppose that is... not exactly an endorsement of his acting skills as much as an insult, although I did like Phone Booth, and thought critics were overly harsh on it. I also really enjoyed Martin McDonagh's 7 Psychopaths, but that too was a film where Colin Farrell just worked by being himself. It was also carried by everyone else and it's incredibly funny meta commentary aspect, also a film that had Crewman #6 in it, and the archangel Gabriel*, and when was he not great in a movie?

So, that still doesn't explain why I am posting now instead of watching the rest of the film before doing that.

I feel like I've seen the entire movie by now.

Spoiler

Colm is fed up with Padraic's dullness, and luckily there's Dominic, the even more limited person, who I am fairly certain is going to serve as the outlet for Padraic's mounting anger at Colm and, well, himself. Because human nature is what it is, and pent up anger can be alleviated by discharging it on those below you - and even when you're near the bottom of the rung, there's always someone lower, right?

Will probably not end well for Dominic, because that's the way these films go.

There's still over an hour left. An hour and twenty minutes, give or take ten minutes of credits. Why? Why is this so long for what little content it has? Is the film trying to make me sympathize with Colm even more than I already am? Please stop with the feckin' repetitions already, or I'll start rowin'. Bloody hell. Jesus. I'm going to call it a day, as we're creeping up on it being 1:30 am. I'll finish watching tomorrow. Well, today, more like, so.

*The Prophecy's Gabriel, not Constantine's Tilda Swinton.

[Hurlshort]

45 minutes ago, majestic said:

 

*The Prophecy's Gabriel, not Constantine's Tilda Swinton.

edit: I guess he was playing an Angel named Metatron, which I didn't remember at all.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Hurlshort

[LadyCrimson]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

although I did like Phone Booth,

I like that one as well, although to this day I couldn't really say why. It was entertaining in some fashion I guess.
The other not-In-Bruges roles I liked Colin in somewhat was Minority Report and The Way Back (2010), which I watched because of Ed Harris. In neither did I think Colin's acting was all that great, but I liked the characters for whatever reasons.

Also, one of my favorite/most fun Gabriel's was Kevin Durand in that action-horror movie Legion (2010) - yes it was all action-ridiculous, what with the black armor and the slice and dice wings, but it made me giggle-cheer so I give it bonus points. Paul Bettany made a fun fallen Michael, too.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

Why is this so long for what little content it has?

Films have gotten extraordinarily indulgent in editing and run time in recent times. I don't really know why. I mean, I kinda do...setting a tone, setting the mood, allowing everything to take its time and breathe instead of feeling so basic and rushed all the time like was often the case in past decades of film...but it does feel excessive at this point. Before watching Banshees, I actually got ten minutes into some other recent historical drama film called The Favourite, and...I saw the run-time was 2 hours and thought to myself, 2 hours is a long time for a movie I'm not really feeling at all sold on - if this were an hour and fifteen minutes or thereabouts, I could probably convince myself to keep watching it, but this is just too freaking long. Welp, let's try the next one...aaand Banshees is 2 hours long as well, great. Difference was, it caught my interest much faster - which was a little funny to me, because the main characters in The Favourite are women, while the main characters in Banshees are men, and that's obviously unusual for me as a total cinematic man-hater. It's not my my fault! Or at least it's not completely my fault: films/shows centered around men just tend to be written completely contrary to when they're centered around women.

I'll let you watch the rest of it before any comments on anything you said about it.

@Space KP, Baby

Spoiler

Yeah, I think that's a much more reasonable position to have. As I said, I do think both characters are sympathetic - who you'll sympathize more with will probably depend on your own life experiences and what you want out of it all...and that's okay, especially because we're all at different points into our lifespans where some of what each character is experiencing will feel more or less important to each of us. Both characters were obviously in different places, so that's fitting.

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

It is always a good sign when you notice the little things in movies, yes? Particularily the little things that were not intentional. Like the curious case of Padraic's moving pint:

It really is a MYSTARY.

[majestic]

Finished watching the film. It is fine. The first thirty minutes are good, as are the last thirty minutes, the main problem, for me, is that hour in between that goes nowhere, or rather, it does go somewhere, but it is both obvious and unnecessary long, and hence as dull and dreary as life on Inisherin. If that was the point, then it is well executed. Now, it is not nearly as dull or overly long in the setup as some series I have watched who had preciously little to show for 26 episodes, like the recently watched Noir, but that cannot possibly be the yardstick against which to compare a self-indulgent film that otherwise had exquisite mastery of filmcraft lovingly applied to its making, including fantastic performances from almost everyone involved. Except the priest. Screw that guy. Pretty sure Colm was right, he does have impure thoughts about men.

So, basically, this has the exact same issue as Everything Everywhere All At Once had, just with darker and much less whacky humor.

Spoiler

Turns out I was not entirely right, as Padraic does not lash out against Dominic. Not directly. He is just awful to a random visitor because they are here to learn something from Colm, then brags to Dominic about it. He got the expected tragic ending though.

Beyond that, do I have much of an opinion about it? Not really, other than perhaps mentioning that in times past I have had my fair share of Padraics that I luckily managed to phase out of my life without becoming am Irish civil war analogy, a conflict I admittedly do not know enough about to find deeper meaning in what is depicted in The Banshees of Inisherin, but I doubt it would have led me to greater appreciation.

As far as there being any comedic (under)tones, I have laughed three times, which is actually not that bad:

Spoiler

1. The one time when his sister said that Padraic had always been dull
2. The second round of finger throwing
3. Colm calmly sitting in his house while Padraic sets fire to it

I also once knew a Dominic, someone who ended up on my team during my (not brief enough) stint in the armed forces. I could write a whole essay about how much fun acting out the Full Metal Jacket boot camp in real life is, but what would be the point, just go watch the boot camp part of Full Metal Jacket. We ended up carting him to an fro at the weekends, because his parents could not be bothered. They would have left him at the barracks. Hell, they probably intended for him to be left there just to have a couple more days without the guy around them.

Not entirely sure how he passed the psych/mental ability eval. He was much more limited than Dominic, really, barely capable of even remembering the ranks. He kept calling the corporals corpo-rats, and the NCOs sub-officers, which was hilarious in some ways, and decidedly less in others. Never managed to properly unload his assault rifle either. He also kept folding up his used shirts and putting them back into his locker for inspection, because he was told that all the shirts in the locker needed to be folded perfectly. Except, of course, the ones that should be in the laundry. Sigh.

Well, that is that. As with EEAAO, the world is once again safe from any impending apocalypse, at least as far as breaking the laws of physics to the point where reality unravels goes.

21 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Films have gotten extraordinarily indulgent in editing and run time in recent times. I don't really know why. I mean, I kinda do...setting a tone, setting the mood, allowing everything to take its time and breathe instead of feeling so basic and rushed all the time like was often the case in past decades of film...but it does feel excessive at this point.

Indeed. There is a time and place for everything, and I do not mind slow burning movies or even series. Not that I would need to state this so explicitly, as my past posts on the subject and on really slow material (Violet Evergarden comes to mind, but also the initial seasons of the new Battlestar Galactica series), but it bears repeating. The problem I had with The Banshees of Inisherin was that after 31 minutes I felt like the setup of the film had run its course, but instead of moving on, it basically kept showing the same things over and over again to really drive home the point that Colm was trying to make to Padraic.

It was enough to make me feel Colm's pain. Then I looked at the time elapsed, and it was 36 minutes. At this point I was ready to post "I hate myself" in this thread, and almost did, but then I just sat through the rest, at least until I noticed that Padraic's beer kept moving around in the same shot, depending on the camera angle. Three separate configurations in ten seconds, I have no idea how that was not caught.

Spoiler

Then it proceeded to make sure that we know that Shiobhan feels the same sort of depressing dullness in her life that drives Colm to abandon Padraic - as if that was not clear to begin with - and to once again show that women are usually just better written, because she does the sensible thing and just leaves the island. With her hands and sanity intact.

 

21 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Before watching Banshees, I actually got ten minutes into some other recent historical drama film called The Favourite, and...I saw the run-time was 2 hours and thought to myself, 2 hours is a long time for a movie I'm not really feeling at all sold on - if this were an hour and fifteen minutes or thereabouts, I could probably convince myself to keep watching it, but this is just too freaking long. Welp, let's try the next one...aaand Banshees is 2 hours long as well, great. Difference was, it caught my interest much faster - which was a little funny to me, because the main characters in The Favourite are women, while the main characters in Banshees are men, and that's obviously unusual for me as a total cinematic man-hater. It's not my my fault! Or at least it's not completely my fault: films/shows centered around men just tend to be written completely contrary to when they're centered around women.

Well:

Spoiler

It is not like you have a female Ashitaka in the film giving one the clearly and objectively best freaking solution to the problem of living on Inisherin: GTFO. Such is the fate of the one whose eyes are unclouded by being an idiot.

The film did catch my attention early on though. It did so rather well, it just completely turned sour at around the thirty minutes mark, and then it go progressively worse until just before the second round of Colm throwing stuff at Padraic's door. Funny, I had almost said that after that the film picks up some pace at the time, but it really does not. It just stops telling me that life on Inisherin is dreadfully dull. It felt like sitting through a work meeting or a seminar where someone keeps asking the same questions, and they are getting everything patiently explained over and over again until they finally understand it, while meanwhile I contemplate how to best resist my personal urge for self-harm in such situations.

22 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

edit: I guess he was playing an Angel named Metatron, which I didn't remember at all.

Alan Rickman was awesome in Dogma, but I was talking about Christopher Walken. I think you clearly need to go and watch The Prophecy. The film very clearly proves that most film critics are simply hacks, because they could not appreciate its greatness - at least it became a cult hit. Avoid the sequels though, they have something in common with the Starship Trooper sequels. You can watch them, of course, but only if you can appreciate them for what they are.

The Prophecy also had the best portrayal of Lucifer. Only appears for a very short time, but Viggo Mortensen steals everyone's show, and that is hard to do next to Christopher Walken.

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, so I thought the film was pretty funny throughout, which probably helped alleviate it from feeling dull throughout much of the middle,.

Spoiler

It is amusing that I just went on a rant in the anime thread about shows/movies featuring male protagonists failing to show any level of emotional intelligence and it causing them to be unreasonable, ridiculous, and arguably stupid...and here's Banshee to help illustrate the difference perfectly, . The key thing for me, and what mostly makes it okay here, is that this film also works as a clearly allegorical tragicomedy - otherwise, for example, Colm's obviously farcical actions would be completely unacceptable and unbelievable.

I would disagree, though, that Shiobhan gave the "objectively best" answer for everyone: she had the best answer for herself and she took it and readily accepted the hurt that would come with it - you know, like an adult might. I don't think Colm was ever interested in moving away from where he was at all...for a guy that clearly valued doing things his way and maintaining an appropriate level of social interaction vs. solitude and focus, I don't think moving to the mainland was the best option for him. Now Padraig, on the other hand...Shiobhan even gave him an out, to come stay with her, heal, figure things out, find yourself in a new situation around new people. Cinematically, it would be a bit of an anti-resolution to the film to do that, but character-wise...yes, it can be frustrating to see Padraig come across as a man-child that can't control himself or do the right thing for himself or for Colm. It's probably why I keep coming back to sympathizing with Colm more, since it's really difficult for me to not feel Padraig is more at fault for everything transpiring the way they did here.

I can't say much objective about Dominic, I hated him within two seconds of seeing his stupid slack-jawed face. I hate that character archetype so much, so it doesn't even much matter when my expectations about them are somewhat subverted.

For the record, this is not anywhere close to an EEAAO film for me: this is a 7/10 film, which is "good". It's above my average rating of 6/10 which denotes "fine". I found it very funny as well as touching, as it made me think about some of my own past relationships with people that I've abandoned much the way Colm was trying to accomplish, and it also entertained me more or less throughout, so it earned that rating.

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

On 1/23/2023 at 8:35 PM, Bartimaeus said:

 

@Space KP, Baby

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Yeah, I think that's a much more reasonable position to have. As I said, I do think both characters are sympathetic - who you'll sympathize more with will probably depend on your own life experiences and what you want out of it all...and that's okay, especially because we're all at different points into our lifespans where some of what each character is experiencing will feel more or less important to each of us. Both characters were obviously in different places, so that's fitting.

 

Reasonable?  Ye calling me feckin resonable? Now we're rowing.

3 hours ago, majestic said:

As with EEAAO, the world is once again safe from any impending apocalypse, at least as far as breaking the laws of physics to the point where reality unravels goes.

Well maybe next time we'll get to know the peace of oblivion.

[Bartimaeus]

i am sorry that i hate your face so much

but i hate your face so much

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

i am sorry that i hate your face so much

but i hate your face so much

[Chairchucker]

Saw The Amazing Maurice yesterday. Overall I enjoyed it. One of the better Pratchett adaptations I've seen. Helps that the most recent one I saw was The Watch, which was fairly mediocre.

[Hurlshort]

See How They Run - This was a fun story set around Agatha Christie's Mousetrap. It had a great cast. I enjoyed it as much as the Glass Onion movies.

[Raithe]

John Wick Star Keanu Reeves Excited to See Ana de Armas Wreak Revenge in Ballerina (movieweb.com)

[Malcador]

4 hours ago, Raithe said:

John Wick Star Keanu Reeves Excited to See Ana de Armas Wreak Revenge in Ballerina (movieweb.com)

Make it stop

[Chairchucker]

Sounds fun, I'll probs see it at some point.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I've seen a few films recently 

Reservoir Dogs (1992)- Quentin Tarantino at his best, I think because he had an editor willing to cut the fat. Not a perfect movie and not one of my favorites, to me it's the cinematic equivalent of eating a really good hamburger. You're not expecting it to wow you with innovation but you know it's going to be good and you'd like to watch another some other time.

Men (2022)- A very strange horror film with Rory Kinnear terrorizing a woman. As multiple characters including a child with Rory Kinnear's face. Has some weird cgi stuff and the end sequence will probably give you nightmares. Would not recommend to the faint of heart.

Old Man (2022)- Almost a bottle movie. Almost very good. As it is, it's ok to good. Basically an old man living (mostly) alone in the woods gets suspicious of a man that turns up on his doorstep. That can go several different ways and it's up to you to find out, because I'm not spoiling.

[Raithe]

Guy Ritchie Adds Henry Golding, Reacher's Alan Ritchson, Cary Elwes & More to The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (movieweb.com)

 

[Bartimaeus]

Snowpiercer (2013). I'd been looking forward to this one for a long time after having seen and loved Parasite.

It was a fairly bleh Hollywood-feeling affair through and through, though I would say at least above average for that - still not my cup of tea. I'm glad Bong Joo Ho decided to do something different after that, though this leaves me in the position of not knowing whether or not I should check out the rest of what he made.