Banshees of innishiren

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Anyone seen it? I saw it tonight. Not exactly enjoyable, but well acted and filmed.
But intensely frustrating to spend the film watching people behaving so stupidly.

But then, without that, there wouldn't be a film.

Just home from seeing it, I loved it, thought it was funny and different.

I loved it, esp the close up shots of the goats. A really gorgeous film to watch that captures how desolate it was. A sad story. The miniature donkey steals alot of scenes :) so pretty.

It's beautiful but I wasn't expecting it to end so bleakly. The soundtrack adds a lot to it.

Oddly enough, I am enjoying it more in retrospect.

Imo a perfect film for the cinema. If I'd have streamed it, I wouldn't have stuck with it.

Just back from watching it and feel emotionally rung out. It is pitch perfect and utterly tragic. I though Barry Keoghan nearly stole the film with his portrayal of Dominic - pathos at it's very best. But as an ensemble the cast were terrific.

I thought he did as well

Saw it last night. I loved it: haunting, eerie music, gorgeous scenic shots, amazing acting. All 4 main characters were superb. The dialogue was plain, appropriate for island-dwellers 100 years ago, but flowed beautifully. Some very funny bits too. The whole audience jumped and screamed at the sudden "punch".

The mini donkey should get an Oscar. But left ambivalent about the film. Enjoyed the acting but felt bleak and lonely at the end. Agree it needs to be seen on the big screen though.

Agree with all of this. We thought it was excellent and can imagine that it captured very well what life would have been like somewhere so remote and cut off. Had to suspend belief a couple of times. won't say more so as not to spoil.
Won't be everyone's cup of tea, but very definitely worth seeing in the cinema and making your own mind up.

Saw it last night I thought it very different to mainstream, strange, thoughtful funny and beautiful
Agree that Barry Keoghan (Dominic) stole the show

A small point, and I know there is a bit of creative license, but (to those that have not seen it please don't read) donkeys don't have the ability to vomit or did they choke?

Booked to see this on Wednesday. Really looking forward to it.
I have loved Brendan Gleeson since Calvary.

You all get that it’s not a documentary, right? That it’s in no way any kind of effort to accurately depict the lives or language of islanders off the west of Ireland at any period, any more than The Cripple of Inishmaan was about what it was like to be disabled on the Aran Islands in the 1930s — it’s a film by a London-Irish writer satirising Synge’s depictions of the Aran Islands, stage-Irish stereotypes of the ‘primitive Irish’, a black comic take on the Civil War and the idealised version of Mayo his immigrant parents fed him as a child.

Yes. It's a film. But thanks for the heads-up.

I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

I saw it at the weekend. Visually beautiful. I can’t say I enjoyed it. But I’m really glad I went to see it. Thought the acting was excellent.

To be fair Martin McD has spent a lot of time in Ireland particularly the west, so he has more than “the idealised version of Mayo his immigrant parents fed him as a child”. My sister is friends with him (she lives in the middle of nowhere in Ireland) and he visits a couple of times a year, no doubt he also has loads of relatives around Galway/Mayo. I really don’t think there is any fear people think it’s a documentary.

I get that — he spent summers on the family farm as a child always, also — I’m just saying that part of the black comedy comes from kicking back against his parents’ generation’s nostalgia. My second-generation British Asian and Somali students recognised that when we did The Cripple of Irishman, because they had a similarly complex relationship with where their families originated, and where they sometimes spent holidays with family.

And at least two posters on the thread have indicated they think the film is an attempt to depict reality — one said the dialogue was ‘plain, appropriate for island-dwellers a hundred years ago’ and another that ‘it captured very well what life would have been like somewhere so lonely and cut off’. It really doesn’t. I enjoy Martin McDonagh’s work, but this is no more an attempt at realism than the Leenane Trilogy, which depicts rural Galway as full of murderers, suicides and torturers, people who shoot their fathers because they insult their new haircuts, or torture their mothers with chip pan oil for not passing on a message, or mutilate a dog as revenge on its owner etc.

I am glad I saw it and the acting was superb, but just too brutal/shocking/sad for my taste.
Colin Farrell and Barry Keoghan were particularly stand out brilliant.

I’m planning to go see it, you all make it sound v compelling

I saw it yesterday. I thought it was dull as hell but dh loved it.

Jenny choked I think but you're right they did insinuate vomit close by

“My second generation British-Asian and Somali students recognised that when we did the Cripple of Inishman” blah blah @WildGooses . How long how you been waiting to creep in with your little I get all the references speech. Aren’t you the clever one? Yawn.

I enjoyed it, great acting and funny but my friend found it bleak and depressing. It’s not for everyone I suppose but great to see something different in the cinemas.

I am Galway born, parents are from Mayo and grandparents on both sides from the islands. No problem with the film, I mean to be authentic it would be in Irish but I’d rather an Oscar nod for those involved.

Go away wit ya. So be they're actors you say?

Barry Keoghan absolutely amazing.

We've just been with my elderly MIL. She thought the acting was fantastic. Thank goodness she enjoyed it. I agree needs to be seen at the cinema.

I thought it was great, but it took me a few days to shake the feeling of miserable desolation it left me with.
Hilarious but relentlessly bleak must be quite a difficult combo to pull off.

I thought all the performances were good, but agree that Barry Keoghan's was outstanding.

Saw it last night and really enjoyed it. Scenery is beautiful, as an Irish person, I've seen that type of scenery a million times, but I'd imagine it will be well received by a global market.

The thrust of the story revolves around a harsh friend dumping and the confines of a rural life - all still relevant today. The politics of the enmeshment of a rural community is suffocating.

It was funny and engaging and there are lots of gasp moments.

Some flaws that bugged me: All of the actors are Irish, but all have different regional accents, so to a trained ear it was clear that the characters didn't all speak with the same local accent. Some of the language used was not suitable for the time, even in 1980s (never mind the 1920's) Ireland no-one used the words "guys", no one from a working class/farming background would say touché.

Overall it's thought provoking and entertaining and well worth watching.