Kicking Horse Culture – Film Klicks presents the Banshees of Inisherinn at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 16.
Described as some of director Martin McDonagh’s finest work, with a pair of outstanding lead performances by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, The “Banshees of Inisherin” is a finely crafted feel-bad treat.
Tragedy and comedy are perfectly paired in this latest jet-black offering from Martin McDonagh, which, like the writer-director’s previous film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2018), seems a strong contender for the Oscars’ best picture race. Reuniting the two stars of McDonagh’s 2008 debut feature In Bruges, it’s an end-of-friendship breakup movie that swings between the hilarious, the horrifying and the heartbreaking in magnificent fashion.
It’s 1923, and on the fictional island of Inisherin the sounds of the Irish civil war can be heard across the water, providing suitable background noise for the internecine struggles to come. Every day at 2 p.m., dairy farmer Pádraic calls on his best friend, Colm, and the two head to the pub. They’re a chalk-and-cheese pair: the former a simple soul who can talk for hours about horse poo; the latter “a thinker” who writes music, plays the fiddle and falls prey to bouts of existential despair. Circumstance has made them inseparable.
Today, however,when Pádraic knocks, Colm simply sits in his chair, smoking. “Why wouldn’t he answer the door to me?” Pádraic asks his smarter sister Siobhán, with whom he shares the home from which she constantly has to eject his beloved donkey. “Perhaps he just doesn’t like you no more,” Siobhán replies – a joke that soon turns out to be horribly true.
There are plenty of quotable, laugh-out-loud moments in “The Banshees of Inisherin” that meld odd-couple comedy with toxic bromantic satire. Behind the gags lies the terror of being forgotten when we die, and it’s that, rather than any friendship issue, which seems to drive Colm’s self-mutilation. There’s real sadness, too, in the way that Pádraic’s dismissal of Dominic as the island’s premier dullard mirrors his own mistreatment by Colm – an unjust hierarchy of hurt.
On a more gentle note and brimming with warmth and the ache of cherished memory, Film Klicks presents “Aftersun” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 6.
Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells’ feature debut is a quiet revelation. Recalling a father–daughter journey to a Turkish seaside resort some 20 years after the fact, “Aftersun” employs the gentlest touch yet leaves an indelible mark.
Though Calum (Paul Mescal) is 30 and his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) just 11, they occasionally get mistaken for siblings. This is because of Calum’s baby face, but also his playful attitude: the pair really get along.
Having split from Sophie’s mum, and having left their Edinburgh home for England, Calum knows how precious their time together is. Whether hanging by the pool, taking excursions on the sea, or shopping for carpets, Calum encourages Sophie’s abundant curiosity… until he doesn’t. Every now and then, with their MiniDV camera in hand, Sophie makes enquiries that Calum won’t accommodate.
Fleeting glimpses of adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) remind us whose perspective animates “Aftersun,” something underlined by Wells’ elegant weave of Sophie’s DV footage and the film’s gorgeous 35mm imagery.
So much about Wells’ approach to sound and image feels intimate, yet never intrusive — the inner life of her characters remains mysterious without being portentous. In this regard, “Aftersun” is a showcase not only for Wells, but also for her actors. Corio’s Sophie is wondrously alert to everything going on around her, and Mescal, so memorable in his recent roles in The Lost Daughter and Normal People, is magnetic in his first big-screen lead. It won’t be his last.
Film Kicks advance tickets are available at the Art Gallery of Golden (AGOG) 516 9th Ave. North, or call 250-344-6186 to buy with your card. Prices include: adult members $10, non-members $12, students $5. Tickets are also available at the door if the show has not sold out. AGOG is open 10:30 a.m.to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on stat holidays, summer Sundays and Sundays in December.
