new colin farrell movie reviews

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Movie Reviews

LISTEN & FOLLOW
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

A farmer gets dumped by his best friend in 'The Banshees of Inisherin'

Justin Chang

Colin Farrell plays a sweet-souled farmer whose best (human) friend abruptly dumps him in The Banshees of Inisherin. Jonathan Hession/Searchlight Pictures hide caption

Colin Farrell plays a sweet-souled farmer whose best (human) friend abruptly dumps him in The Banshees of Inisherin.

Because we as a culture can mistakenly equate beauty with shallowness, it's taken time for some to realize what a great actor Colin Farrell is. He's always been a charismatic screen presence, though in recent years he's revealed striking new emotional depths as a leading man in movies like The Lobster and this year's After Yang . He's also proved willing to bury his good looks under mounds of prosthetics as the villainous Penguin in The Batman .

Farrell gives what may be his strongest performance yet in The Banshees of Inisherin , and one of the reasons he's so good in it is that he's playing a character who, perhaps like Farrell himself, is used to being underestimated. His character, Pádraic, is a sweet-souled farmer who's spent his entire life on Inisherin, a small, fictional island off the coast of Ireland.

It's 1923, and life here is simple and repetitive, which is why it sends off small shockwaves one day when Colm, Pádraic's older best friend, refuses to join him for their usual afternoon pint down at the pub. He soon learns that Colm, who's played by Brendan Gleeson, has decided to end their decades-long friendship with nary a word of explanation.

Movie Interviews

Brendan gleeson, on 'guard' as a small-town cop.

In time, the truth comes out: Colm finds Pádraic dull, and is tired of listening to the younger man's endless yammering — especially since it keeps Colm from pursuing his passion: playing and composing violin music.

Gleeson is terrific at showing you the tenderness beneath his outward stoicism, and what's heartbreaking is that Colm does still like Pádraic — but he also knows that their friendship is draining him. But Pádraic can't accept Colm's decision. He tries cajoling his former friend, then pleading with him, then badgering him.

At one point, Colm becomes so irritated that he threatens to physically harm himself if Pádraic doesn't leave him alone. And since this is a movie written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the British Irish playwright and filmmaker with a taste for baroque comic violence, you know it isn't an idle threat.

This movie isn't as grisly as some of McDonagh's earlier stage and screen works — I still have fond memories of seeing his blood-soaked play The Lieutenant of Inishmore years ago, and somewhat less fond memories of his Oscar-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri . Compared with that movie's wildly uneven mix of comedy and tragedy, The Banshees of Inisherin is a quieter, gentler work, but its melancholy also cuts much deeper. McDonagh opens the story with gorgeous, postcard-worthy images of Inisherin, all lush green landscapes and even a rainbow in the sky. But by the end, he has quashed any sweet or sentimental thoughts we might harbor toward this isolated community, where people can be spiteful and small-minded and mock those who want to leave or strive for something better.

Few people know this as well as Pádraic's bookish sister, Siobhan, played by a terrific Kerry Condon. She loves her brother dearly, flaws and all. She's also one of the few people in town who can connect with Colm intellectually, and she understands why he wants to be left alone.

These are the new movies and TV shows we can't wait to watch this fall

There are other colorful supporting characters, too: a nasty policeman, a doom-prophesying old woman and an annoying young man played, with marvelous pathos, by Barry Keoghan. And I haven't even mentioned the animal cast: Two of the movie's most important characters are Colm's pet collie and Pádraic's pet donkey, noble creatures who put the pettiness and stupidity of humans to shame.

There's something a little glib about that idea — and also about the way The Banshees of Inisherin uses the Irish Civil War, raging in the background of the story, as a counterpoint to the conflict between Pádraic and Colm. But there's nothing glib about how these two characters are written. To watch Farrell and Gleeson rage against each other is to better understand what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. It's been a while since a movie extracted this much drama from the end of a beautiful friendship.

an image, when javascript is unavailable

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson Turn a Buddy Tragedy Into a Masterpiece

By David Fear

“I just don’t like ya no more.”

Then, one day, Pádraic leaves the modest house he shares with his sister, Siobhan (Kerry Condon), and his cow herd, and Jenny the miniature pet donkey, and goes to fetch his drinking companion. There’s no answer to his knock. He spies Colm through the window, sitting alone, smoking. Confused, the man ambles down to the tavern by himself. “Have you been rowin’?” asks the bartender. “I don’t think we’ve been rowin’,” Pádraic replies. When he finally catches up to Colm at the bar, his pal tells him to sit somewhere else. What’s going on, the younger man wants to know. And then Colm says the seven words that will cost these two gents a lot more than just their friendship.

Editor’s picks

Every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, 'action is character': george miller on the wild ride of making 'furiosa', ‘the apprentice’ is the most brutal donald trump biopic imaginable, the most delirious film at cannes a transgender cartel-gangster musical starring selena gomez, grateful dead honor bill walton: ‘biggest deadhead in the world’, bill walton's long, strange trip with the grateful dead, meet the drummer who spent decades with david gilmour and david crosby — and a day with bowie, 'it helped me embody someone else': how 'cyberpunk 2077' helped gene park battle cancer.

McDonagh also wants to give his actors a hell of a showcase, too, and it’s the two stars butting brows at the center of The Banshees of Inisherin that make this a masterpiece of men behaving very feckin’ badly. We don’t want to ignore the great work that Keoghan or Condon are doing on the periphery, or the exquisite cinematography by Ben Davis, or Carter Burwell’s ability to channel both regional folk music and a universal sense of grief in his score. It’s just that the Farrell-Gleeson Blues Explosion is what grounds McDonagh’s heady notions and fuels its fire.

There’s such an incredible give and take between these two, and while we’ve been taking Gleeson’s off-kilter charisma for granted since 1998’s The General, the performance that leaves scars is Farrell’s. It’s tough to think of a portrayal that finds so many emotional shades and levels of depth in incomprehension; his Pádraic can’t grasp the logic behind his friend’s decision any more than he can control his reactions, his sudden neediness or the shame that he’s done something wrong by doing nothing much with his life. You also see why a friend might be tempted to back away from him as well, yet you never feel that Farrell is tipping his hand toward sympathy or antipathy for this remarkably simple soul. It’s not a coincidence that the two men give the film’s ending a sense of ambiguity regarding what might happen after the credits role. Yet it’s also not a mistake that Farrrell is the one who gets the final shot, and that he’s the fella who leaves you with the sense that you’ve just witnessed wounds that may never heal. May the Banshees shriek for this duo forever. As for McDonagh: Welcome back.

'Eric' Shows What Happens When a Puppet Master Loses Control

Not So Sunny Day
By Alan Sepinwall

'13 Reasons Why' Dylan Minnette on Stepping Away From Acting: It 'Started to Feel like a Job'

Taking a Break
By Kalia Richardson

'Survivor' Superfan Sia Is Done Awarding Cash Prizes to Her Favorite Contestants

No More Money
By Jodi Guglielmi

'The Beach Boys' Doc Is One Endless Summer — and Concludes the Group's Story Far Too Soon

By Joseph Hudak

Hollywood Crew Members Call for Safety on Set After Production-Related Deaths

State of the Union
By Krystie Lee Yandoli

Most Popular

Morgan spurlock, 'super size me' director, dies at 53, matthew perry death sparks dea, lapd joint criminal investigation, prince william & kate middleton are 'deeply upset' about the timing of the sussexes' brand relaunch, diddy yelled "like a lunatic" at chaka khan and had her son beat up, alleges her daughter, you might also like, zee sets ‘dhadak 2’ for november theatrical release – global bulletin, another man launches chinese edition with huasheng media, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, ‘the sympathizer’ finale reflected the ‘tortured’ audition process for star hoa xuande, why the biggest tech companies are suddenly streaming sports.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

'The Banshees of Inisherin' review: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson bring friendly fire to dark comedy

Most folks can relate to the emotional doom spiral of a romantic interest suddenly ghosting them out of nowhere. But there’s nothing worse than the thought of a trusted best friend telling you to take a hike and wanting to cut off all contact.

Writer/director Martin McDonagh ’s dazzling dark comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” (★★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters and streaming on HBO Max) takes this universal conceit, set on a remote Irish island in 1923, to hilarious and extraordinarily bleak places. The “In Bruges” duo of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson reteam to give understandable humanity to two friends with a permanent wedge between them. And Farrell, especially, offers one of his most nuanced performances as a nice guy driven to extremes because of forced loneliness.

Happy-go-lucky Pádraic (Farrell) goes about his day like any other on the fictional isle of Inisherin – caring for his miniature donkey and other animals, bantering with his sister Siobhán (a scrappy Kerry Condon) and heading to the local pub for a midafternoon pint with his buddy, Colm (Gleeson). Colm, an older man, tells him to sit somewhere else, and eventually takes his drink outside. Pádraic wants to know what’s up with the rebuff, and he’s not excited by Colm’s answer: “I just don’t like you anymore.”

'Banshees of Inisherin': Why broken friendships hit home for stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson

Colm explains that he no longer has time for Pádraic’s “aimless chatting” and just wants his former BFF to leave him alone so he can play his fiddle and live his life in peace and quiet. Spurred on by this suddenly fractured friendship – and the fact that everyone’s thrown, including Siobhán and Dominic (the delightfully excitable Barry Keoghan ), the locale's capricious voice of reason – Pádraic keeps bugging Colm to find out what he can do to fix things. This bothers Colm even more, to the point where he threatens to start cutting off his fingers if Pádraic won’t leave him alone. Both men are on the stubborn side, and take this feud to unfortunate, violent lengths.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

McDonagh, who splendidly captured another community in turmoil with 2017's best-picture nominee “ Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ,” insightfully sets “Banshees” during the Irish Civil War: Residents of Inisherin frequently see skirmishes occurring on the mainland, while a more intimate battle escalates around them. Even though they live on a glorious and expansive landscape, these people are all up in each other’s business constantly, so everybody has a stake in Pádraic and Colm’s uncivil row, from Dominic’s abusive cop dad (Gary Lydon) to a witchy elderly woman (Sheila Flitton) who may or may not be a banshee herself. (For those unfamiliar, a banshee is a female spirit in Irish folklore who foretells death.)

Holiday movie preview: New photos from the biggest films including 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,' 'Avatar 2'

There is a certain heightened reality to the goings-on that belies how grounded the film is in its themes of isolation, desperation and mortality. Its characters pick sides, but the film doesn’t, and while it’s told mostly from Pádraic’s brokenhearted perspective, you clearly see each man’s point of view.

Pádraic is gobsmacked to lose his closest friend; Colm yearns to leave some sort of artistic legacy; and others, like Siobhán – who’s by far the smartest person on the island – are left to choose between picking up the pieces or looking out for themselves.

'The Banshees of Inisherin'): All the best movies we saw at Toronto Film Festival, ranked

Condon and Keoghan give “Banshees” extra personality and verve, while Farrell and Gleeson are the two halves of its beating heart. It’s hard to hate Colm because of the world-weary depth Gleeson lends him – plus, he has a ridiculously cute dog that plays a vital role in the film’s memorable endgame. And Farrell brings a lovable underdog nature to Pádraic that doesn’t let him off the hook for his questionable actions.

“Banshees” masterfully explores the complications of a platonic friendship – when old pals stop being polite and start getting real – with a sailor’s mouth and a mix of hilarity and tragedy in one wail of a tale.

Review: In buddy breakup drama ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ all’s Farrell in love and war

Two men sit drinking beer at a wooden table overlooking cliffs and the ocean

Show more sharing options
Copy Link URL Copied!

It’s hardly an original insight to note that “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh’s caustic and mournful new movie, is also his latest work to give its location top billing. Longtime admirers of this British-Irish writer-director’s stage work know his fondness for regionally specific titles like “The Cripple of Inishmaan” and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” two plays that — together with this film — form a loosely connected trilogy, tied together not by common characters but by common ground. If character is destiny in McDonagh’s work, then both are also inextricably tied to location and landscape. Here, as before, he draws us into an insular Irish enclave, where the air is thick with salty insults and bitter laughs, and cruelty seems to well up from the soil like highly acidic groundwater.

Which is not to suggest that Ireland — either the country of McDonagh’s firsthand experience or the one of his fictional imagination — has a monopoly on cruelty. That much is clear from his farther-flung plays, like “A Behanding in Spokane,” and also from his movies such as “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “In Bruges.” That 2008 comedy’s co-leads, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, are superbly reunited in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” only this time, rather than playing two hit men on a less-than-idyllic Belgian holiday, they’re playing longtime best friends who have never known any home beyond Inisherin. And from our first glimpse of this small, fictional island, with its lush greenery and not-infrequent rainbows (beautifully filmed by Ben Davis), that might not seem like such a bad state of affairs.

For your safety

The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials .

By movie’s end, we know better. The year is 1923, and in the distance the Irish civil war is raging, providing some blunt yet hazy thematic scaffolding for this more intimate tale of men in conflict. The beauty of Inisherin will soon turn sour and corrosive, much like the once-harmonious friendship between Pádraic Súilleabháin (Farrell), a sweet-souled dairy farmer, and Colm Doherty (Gleeson), a gruff, gimlet-eyed fiddle player. In the opening scene, Pádraic sets out to meet Colm for their usual afternoon pint, only to find the man sitting at home, his back to the window, quietly ignoring Pádraic’s knocks and entreaties. Can a man scowl not just with his face but with his entire hulking frame? Somehow, Gleeson manages.

Bewildered by this silent treatment, Pádraic remains unperturbed — surely it must be some sort of joke or misunderstanding — and refuses to accept that the friendship is over, even after Colm later spells it out for him down at the pub: “I just don’t like ya no more.” After a pause that lasts a small eternity, Pádraic responds, with a mix of confusion, disbelief and heartache that Farrell plays to perfection: “Ya do like me!” And the funny thing is, he’s right. Colm’s abrupt decision stems not from a lack of affection but a lack of time: Gripped by despair and newly aware of his encroaching mortality, he wants to live out his days playing and composing music, the only thing that provides him with any semblance of comfort or meaning. He also wants to consume his last pints in peace, away from Pádraic’s incessant yammering.

A man walks on a hilly Irish road with his donkey.

Incessant yammering, of course, is one unflattering if essentially correct way to describe McDonagh’s own flavorsome dialogue, which uses staccato rhythms and purposeful word repetitions to generate a sustained back-and-forth almost as musical as Carter Burwell’s lovely score. Apart from “feck,” the favored expletive of this early 20th century Irish milieu, the script’s most frequently deployed four-letter words are “dull” and “nice,” two words that are often hurled in Pádraic’s direction. Agreeable and simple-minded, Pádraic gets along with just about everyone, from his sharp-as-a-tack sister, Siobhan (a flat-out wonderful Kerry Condon), to the animals placed in his reliable care. (None of the latter is more beloved than his miniature donkey, Jenny, the most important member of the movie’s splendid four-legged ensemble.)

Colm’s rejection of Pádraic is also, in its way, a rejection of the tyranny of niceness, and an assertion that greatness — whether in the form of a Mozart symphony or, God willing, the humbler violin piece he’s trying to compose — is of far greater value. All of which opens up a rich, thorny dialogue concerning McDonagh himself, who likes to blur the lines between humanism and nihilism, and who in “The Banshees of Inisherin” comes perhaps as close to greatness as he’s ever gotten. One measure of the movie’s skill, and its generosity, is that it embraces the wisdom of both its protagonists. You’ll share Colm’s exasperation and defend his right to pursue an unimpeded life of music and the mind, but you’ll also concede Pádraic’s point that kindness and camaraderie leave behind their own indelible if often invisible legacies.

A man sits at a table in a darkened room, with a horse leaning over the table.

Muddying the waters still further: Colm, despite his strict enforcement of boundaries (including a not-so-idle threat to harm himself if Pádraic doesn’t leave him alone), nonetheless finds ways to treat his hapless former friend with decency and compassion. Meanwhile, Pádraic, for all his talk of niceness, is the one whose escalating harassment of Colm takes on menacing overtones, lubricated by whiskey, desperation and anger. To watch these two characters rage against each other is to acquire an entirely new understanding of what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. And no one ultimately understands that dynamic better than Siobhan, who — as both Pádraic’s loyal, loving sister and the one person on Inisherin who can keep intellectual pace with Colm — could hardly be more divided in her sympathies.

Siobhan’s presence — and her own fiercely individual decisionmaking — opens up another dialectic. Although centered on the conflict between two equally unyielding men, the movie is no less about the tension between a small, isolated community and the vast world that lies beyond its overcast horizon. Mocked by the provincial townfolk for being single and bookish, Siobhan is eyeing her own possible escape. And who can blame her? “The Banshees of Inisherin,” like much of McDonagh’s earlier work, uses its physically remote setting to map out an entire human cosmos of greed, spite and self-delusion, populated by characters including a gossipy shopkeeper (Bríd Ní Neachtain), a physically abusive policeman (Gary Lydon), a witchy prophesier of doom (Sheila Flitton) and, on the more likable side, a village idiot named Dominic (Barry Keoghan).

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

Colin Farrell doesn’t have many ‘true friends.’ But Brendan Gleeson is one

From ‘In Bruges’ to ‘Saturday Night Live,’ the ‘Banshees of Inisherin’ co-stars have never had a problem picking up where they left off.

Oct. 19, 2022

With the exception of Dominic, a perpetual troublemaker whom Keoghan invests with wit, mischief and unexpected pathos, none of these peripheral characters reveals more than one or two dimensions. If “The Banshees of Inisherin” marks a significant improvement on the wildly uneven “Three Billboards,” it still doesn’t entirely shake off some of the reflexively glib, cynical aspects of McDonagh’s writing, namely his tendency to reduce some of his characters to one-note personalities, or to make them the butt of cruel comic (and sometimes cosmic) punchlines. They are the playthings of a God who dispenses punishments with a whimsical, even arbitrary hand, and whom few of these habitual churchgoers — maybe not even the meddlesome priest (David Pearse) who’s enlisted to mediate the central conflict — ultimately really trusts or believes in.

And so Colm is only right to be consumed with despair. Which doesn’t make Pádraic wrong to assume that there are salves for life’s woes, and that he might, in fact, be one of them. Farrell’s performance, one of the finest he’s ever given, is a balm in itself, a thing of rough-hewn simplicity and exquisite delicacy, nailing comic beats and striking emotional chords with the same deft touch. Without ever turning leaden or oppressive, he shows us a man who isn’t the same by movie’s end, who’s experienced more loss, fury and grief than he’d ever thought possible. All he can count on anymore, really, is the ground beneath his feet — and in that respect at least, McDonagh suggests, he may be far less alone than he realizes.

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’

Rated: R, for language throughout, some violent content and brief graphic nudity Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes Playing: Starts Oct. 21 at AMC the Grove, Los Angeles; AMC Century City

Colm Tóibín’s latest tale is bound together by the tension between secrecy and revelation

May 3, 2024

A brooding man of action plans his next move.

Review: ‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners,’ where Liam Neeson once again has his vengeance

March 30, 2024

Review: In Denmark’s ‘The Promised Land,’ the virtues of an old-school western still blaze

Feb. 2, 2024

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Justin Chang was a film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2016 to 2024. He won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in criticism for work published in 2023. Chang is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Diego Mariscal, in a black cap and T-shirt, sits on a camera dolly.

Company Town

Hollywood crews in ‘crisis’: ‘Everyone’s just in panic mode’ as jobs decline

Anya Taylor-Joy in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' action adventure FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Entertainment & Arts

‘Furiosa’ and ‘Garfield’ tussle over worst Memorial Day weekend box office in 29 years

May 26, 2024

Dr. Wang (Terry Chen) and Dr. Bartnovsky (Greg Kinnear) in "Sight."

‘Sight’ highlights the journey and faith of an Asian American medical hero who helped the blind see

May 25, 2024

Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ wins Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘the banshees of inisherin’ review: colin farrell and brendan gleeson reunite with martin mcdonagh in vintage form.

Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan also star in this dark comedy premiering in the Venice competition, about the abrupt breakup of lifelong friends, sparking violence, suffering and self-reflection.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Send an Email
Show additional share options
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Share on Tumblr
Share on Whats App
Print the Article
Post a Comment

The Banshees of Inisherin Still - TIFF - Publicity - H 2022

Full credits

Thr newsletters.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Karlovy vary fest unveils lineup with oleh sentsov ukraine war doc; geoffrey rush among jurors, huanxi media ceo talks betting big on zhang ziyi tentpole ‘she’s got no name’: “this one could thread the needle”, josh o’connor and cailee spaeny join ‘wake up dead man: a knives out mystery’, halle berry reflects on how her ‘flintstones’ role was a “big step” for black women in hollywood, richard dreyfuss slammed for alleged sexist and homophobic comments at ‘jaws’ screening, box office meltdown: ‘furiosa’ edges past ‘garfield’ to win memorial day with worst no. 1 opening in three decades.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

What Is Cinema?
Newsletters

Colin Farrell’s At His Best in The Banshees of Inisherin

By Richard Lawson

Image may contain Drink Beverage Brendan Gleeson Human Person Clothing Apparel Glass Sitting Alcohol and Beer

It is admirable, in a way, that after Martin McDonagh ’s third film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri brought him such accolades and attention, his next on-screen effort should be such a humble return to his playwriting roots. The Banshees of Inisherin , which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, will seem familiar to anyone who’s seen McDonagh’s two Aran Islands plays—now a trilogy that ends at the movies. Banshees —like The Cripple of Inishmaan , though far less like The Lieutenant of Inishmore —is quaint and quirky, melancholy and distinctively Irish, a better mode for a writer and filmmaker who gets inexact when he takes bigger swings (or travels overseas).

Set in the early 1920s, as the Irish Civil War rages on the nation’s main island, Banshees is about a friendship gone sour. Is there a metaphor there? Yes, I think so. Pádraic ( Colin Farrell ) is a dim and affable guy who tends to his livestock and spends time every day at the only pub in town. In the past, he’s been the inseparable drinking companion of Colm ( Brendan Gleason ), older and morose with a touch of the poet in him. But one day, Colm coldly declares that he doesn’t want to be friends with Pádraic anymore. Colm sees the end of his life looming and he can’t stand the thought of wasting any more time listening to Pádraic’s incessant, empty nattering. Pádraic is bruised but defiant, unable to accept that he could lose his only steady friend in a place as lonely as this.

It’s a curious thing, watching these two rough men in a rough place bicker over something as squishy as hurt feelings over a friendship—and for McDonagh to be the one staging it. But McDonagh adds, as he’s wont to do, a nasty twist: Colm, sick of of Pádraic’s protestations and entreaties, says he’ll start cutting off his own fingers any time Pádraic dares to bother him. His threat seems like a dramatic bluff, until it very much doesn’t.

The film unfolds in grim and sorrowful episodes, ones that are funny in a sideways fashion, until McDonagh gently reminds us how deep the pain and confusion at the heart of both men really is. Now that he’s finally got some peace and quiet, Colm sets about writing a song, a folk tune he hopes will be sung long after he’s gone. He’s trying to build a legacy, some bit of him that will last, that will leave an impression on a world he feels he’s merely stumbling through inconsequentially. That he’s willing to harm himself so profoundly to do so suggests a far more serious malaise than anyone seems able to talk about. Pádraic, for his part, gradually gathers his daffy stupor and condenses it into anger. Maybe this is how wars begin.

The Banshees of Inisherin is not, I don’t think, a direct allegory for any one thing. Sure, the occasional shot of an explosion happening across the sea is there to remind us that there are bigger, more concrete things on the movie’s mind than this sad squabble alone. But the viewer probably shouldn’t go mad trying to draw direct lines between Pádraic and Colm’s sorry situation and matters of geopolitics. Gestures toward the larger civil war are, I think, serving a more allusive purpose, merely putting the film’s existential tussle in the soft focus of broader context. Or maybe McDonagh really is being that on-the-nose.

He’s a tricky writer to figure out sometimes. His aura of acclaim, hanging around him for decades now, makes one want to lean forward and listen closer, trying to detect the hidden mechanics whirring underneath his torrents of prickly wordplay and profanity. Sometimes, that process can be frustrating and yield little results, as it did recently in the Broadway production of Hangmen .

But Banshees is a sturdy vessel for such thematic exploration—set on such a picturesque but fading place, populated by souls all lost to various degrees. McDonagh’s version of isolated Ireland may be a bit condescending, rural farce that’s more snide than sweet. But Banshees is balanced by a decency, a sensitivity, that tempers some of McDonagh’s folksy stereotyping.

In that regard, he has enormous help from his cast. It’s a treat to see Farrell and Gleason, so glimmering with chemistry as talkative hitmen in McDonagh’s In Bruges , back together again. (Though moviegoers hoping for a narratively similar kind of adventure will be disappointed.) Farrell is the particular standout here, once again making the case that he is one of the more underappreciated movie stars of his era. He sands Pádraic’s most glaring dimensions—his irksome childishness, his mulish stubbornness—into human shape. It’s a soulful and intricate performance that never loses itself in tics.

Young Barry Keoghan , formerly Farrell’s castmate in The Killing of a Sacred Deer , is asked to load on a heap of idiosyncrasy, playing the addled town dunce who becomes Pádraic’s new confidant once Colm has forsaken him. But Keoghan, and McDonagh, find a way to even the character out, blending him into the texture of this finely tailored film. Kerry Condon , as Pádraic’s bookish and quietly ambitious sister, is also a welcome presence, a firm representative of the portion of the community who wants more and better for themselves, but without any haughty disdain for her fellow islanders.

A lesser film would keep all these characters in the confines of their shorthand descriptions, setting them off on visibly plotted lines. But choices and consequences seem almost organic in The Banshees of Inisherin , as if McDonagh is letting these people wander and transgress on their own. Those wary of McDonagh after the bulldozer that was Billboards should seek out this film; The Banshees of Inisherin whispers and laments and amuses the way McDonagh’s best stage writing does. And it offers the invaluable opportunity to see Farrell in his hangdog element, as Pádraic scrambles about trying to find purchase in the world, ever creaking and groaning in motion.

Richard Lawson

Chief critic.

A Fearless Demi Moore Faces the Horrors of Aging&-or Not&-in The Substance

By David Canfield

Apple’s New iPad Ad Is a Neat Metaphor for the End of the World

By Matthew Jacobs

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt Work Movie Star Magic in The Fall Guy

By Molly Jong-Fast

Martin Freeman Addresses Backlash Over 31-Year Age Gap With Jenna Ortega in Recent Romantic Thriller

By Savannah Walsh

Newsletters
Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

Martin McDonagh’s Follow-up to Three Billboards Is His Best Movie Yet

This very irish dark comedy, reuniting in bruges ’ colin farrell and brendan gleeson, is one ye shouldn’t miss..

“I just don’t like you no more.” This blunt and mysteriously motiveless declaration, made by Colm (Brendan Gleeson) to his longtime best friend Pádraic (Colin Farrell), as the latter comes to fetch the former for their daily trip to the village pub, begins a cycle of apologies, rejections, recriminations, and outlandish gestures of revenge that will change both men’s lives and those of the other residents of Inisherin, the fictional island off the coast of Ireland where they live.

The year is 1923, although given how remote and rustic Inisherin is—the settlement appears to consist of little more than a seaside market, a pub, a church, and a few scattered houses surrounded by sheep—there are few markers to place us in any historical time. Across the water on the Irish mainland, a civil war is raging, but it reaches the inhabitants of the island mainly in the form of the occasional puff of smoke from a distant explosion. The hostilities between Colm and Pádraic are of a more personal but no less deadly nature. As imagined by writer-director Martin McDonagh ( In Bruges , Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ), Inisherin is a lonely and primordially violent place, where the local cop (Gary Lydon) brutally beats his developmentally delayed son (Barry Keoghan), and Pádraic’s bookish sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) has no one to talk to about anything more elevated than the contents of her brother’s pet pony’s manure.

Before becoming a filmmaker, McDonagh, the London-born son of two Irish parents, was an acclaimed playwright, and the first thing the viewer notices about The Banshees of Inisherin is the economical but precise dialogue. Repetition and rhythm are used to richly comic effect: “Have ye been rowin’?” Siobhan asks her brother when she hears of the old friends’ split, and in the scenes that follow the question gets repeated in identical form by the local bartender, his barfly friend, and the puzzled Pádraic himself (“ Have we been rowin’?”), in the style of a choral motet. McDonagh’s attention to the patterns of regional speech, and the cast’s evident pleasure in delivering his finely tooled language, had the audience at my screening laughing out loud multiple times per scene—at least for the first half hour or so. But as the conflict between the two men spirals into a more destructive place, the tone shifts from folksy humor to existential black comedy. Colm, an accomplished fiddler who lives alone with his dog, is a darker and more complicated sort than the placid, sweet-natured but hopelessly dull Pádraic. Colm’s decision to withdraw from the friendship appears to have more to do with wrestling with his own mortality than with anything his friend has done. As he explains patiently but unbendingly to anyone who asks, he simply wants to be left in peace to play his fiddle for however many years he has left.

In an authorial gesture similar to Colm’s refusal to give Pádraic a reason for his rejection, McDonagh refuses to come down on one side or another of the friends’ quarrel. At first, like Pádraic, we are confused and hurt by the older man’s intransigence, but as the heartbroken Pádraic continues to pursue him, trying every tactic from reasoned persuasion to scabrous insult, we start to admire Colm’s respect for his own boundaries. When his rage at his friend’s incessant pestering takes a violently self-destructive turn—for every time Pádraic addresses him in the future, he vows, he will take a pair of shears and chop off one of his own fingers—the film veers toward horror without losing either its philosophical gravitas or its earthy sense of humor.

As it moves toward an ambiguous and haunting finale, The Banshees of Inisherin has the fanciful yet gruesome quality of a folk tale or fairytale, a mood enhanced by Carter Burwell’s harp-and-flute-heavy score and Ben Davis’ painterly widescreen cinematography. Often, the camera pulls far back to emphasize the tininess and isolation of the town’s inhabitants in their dramatic cliffside setting. The character of Mrs. McCormick (Sheila Flitton), an old woman who stalks the island in a black cape, muttering cryptic pronouncements about various character’s fates, adds to the quasi-magical mood. But the story that unfolds between these two stubborn, lonely men is not supernatural but quintessentially, tragically human.

I was a fan of McDonagh’s 2008 cult hit In Bruges , which also starred Gleeson and Farrell as an odd-couple pair of hitmen hiding out in the medieval Belgian city of the title, but The Banshees of Inisherin is the trio’s greatest work together to date. Colin Farrell, a reliably marvelous actor, has never had a role better suited to his gifts than the soulful simpleton that is Pádraic. As he peers through his recalcitrant friend’s window, his eyebrows forming a thatched roof of quizzical melancholy, his expression alone is enough to make us laugh, even as we fear for his safety and, in the film’s final third, his sanity. Gleeson’s fearsome, glowering Colm is an equally impressive creation, almost like a Samuel Beckett character in his saturnine self-containment. And every member of the extended cast, many of whom have worked with McDonagh before in theater productions, gives the kind of beautifully detailed performance that turns the specific into the universal. Especially unforgettable are Keoghan as the island’s holy fool, Condon as a bright young woman longing for a less provincial life, and Aaron Monaghan in a one-scene appearance as a musician friend of Colm’s on whom Pádraic plays an uncharacteristically cruel trick.

The Banshees of Inisherin ’s greatest gift to its audience is its refusal to turn its eccentric, intimate story into an allegory for anything other than what it is: the sad tale of an abruptly interrupted friendship in a beautiful, isolated place. Though the film takes on big questions about morality, loyalty, and the ultimate purpose and meaning of human life, McDonagh leaves us with no tidy moral lessons or injunctions about how to get on with our own friendships or otherwise conduct our lives. As the end credits roll, the audience is like the denizens of the movie’s eponymous island, left with only our own thoughts for company as we stare out at the implacable sea.

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.

Colin Farrell's new movie gets 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating after rave first reviews

It's an In Bruges reunion.

preview for The Banshees of Inisherin - Official Trailer (Searchlight Pictures)

The film, from writer and director Martin McDonagh, puts together the same team of his 2008 black comedy In Bruges , with The Batman star and Brendan Gleeson ( Paddington 2 , the Harry Potter films) once again in the lead roles.

An atmospheric tale of a fallout set across the backdrop of the Irish Civil War, The Banshees of Inisherin features Farrell and Gleeson as Pádraic Súilleabháin and Colm Doherty respectively. The protagonists are two longtime friends whose relationship comes to a halt abruptly, with terrible consequences for both of them.

colin farrell, the banshees of inisherin

Related: Thirteen Lives review: Is The Batman star's real-life movie worth a watch?

Alongside Gleeson and Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin also stars Better Call Saul 's Kerry Condon and Marvel's Barry Keoghan .

Presented at Venice on September 5, the film received a 13-minute standing ovation. It garnered ecstatic reviews, with Empire calling Farrell's turn his best performance to date.

"Another great feel-bad treat from Martin McDonagh, featuring one of Colin Farrell's best performances yet as a guy trying (and failing) to deal with the fallout of a falling out," the review reads.

brendan gleeson and colin farrell, the banshees of inisherin

Related: The Batman 2 still isn't officially happening

Film magazine Little White Lies , praised the bond between its two leading men, writing: " The Banshees of Insherin is a testament to McDonagh’s gift for dialogue and the infinitely watchable chemistry between Farrell and Gleeson."

Farrell will next executive produce and star in Apple TV+ series Sugar , opposite The Sandman 's Kirby Howell-Baptiste . Details of the plot are being kept under wraps, but it seems the show will be a genre-bending detective story set in Los Angeles.

The Banshees of Inisherin will be released in cinemas on October 21.

Best Entertainment and Tech Deals

Shop Sky deals across TV, broadband and mobile

Shop Google Pixel 7a phones

Coronation Street X Joanie - Gilroy Retro Newton And Ridley Sweatshirt

LEGO Disney and Pixar ‘Up’ House

LEGO 007 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond

Sign up for Apple TV+

Heartstopper Volume 5

Barbie The Movie doll

Sign up for Disney+

Ted Lasso x Nike: AFC Richmond home kit

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Jojo: Finally Home by Johannes Radebe

The Witcher wolf pendant

Barbenheimer - Barbie v Oppenheimer T-shirt

Barbenheimer T-shirt

Best PS5 deals - where to buy PS5 today?

Anker PowerCore Essential 20,000 PD Power Bank

Reporter, Digital Spy

Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy .

Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} Movies

Star Trek: Discovery duo reunite on new film

Richard Armitage talks new movie and more

Dwayne Johnson shares update on Moana remake

Is Back to Black available to stream?

Civil War is now available to watch at home

Back to Black is now available to watch at home

Spider-Man: No Way Home is on TV tonight

EastEnders star praises "very topical" new movie

daniel jun, rahul kohli, the fall of the house of usher

Rahul Kohli talks missing out on Fantastic Four

Furiosa star wanted to "be careful" about romance

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga disappoints in box-office

The Banshees of Inisherin: awards, how to watch, review and everything we know about the movie

Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Martin McDonagh reunite for The Banshees of Inisherin.

Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin

It’s been five years since Martin McDonagh has had a new movie, but the Irish director is back with The Banshees of Inisherin , his first movie set in his home country. To top it off, the movie marks a reunion with the stars of In Bruges , Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.

Add all that together and The Banshees of Inisherin is one of the more intriguing new movies coming out in the fall of 2022 and a potential player in the Oscars race.

Here is everything that we know about The Banshees of Inisherin .

How to watch The Banshees of Inisherin

The Banshees of Inisherin is playing exclusively in movie theaters, but is heading to streaming in the US and UK in December.

Here's what you need to know on how to watch The Banshees of Inisherin .

The Banshees of Inisherin plot

The Banshees of Inisherin is described as a "break-up story" by writer/director Martin McDonagh, but not a romantic one. Instead the central relationship is a friendship between Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson’s characters. Here is the official synopsis from Searchlight Pictures:

"Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them."

The movie is an original idea from McDonagh and is set in Ireland in the 1920s, with the 1923 Irish Civil War as a backdrop.

If you've seen the movie and have some questions, check out our The Banshees of Inisherin ending explained piece.

The Banshees of Inisherin trailer

The trailer for The Banshess of Inisherin is here and it looks fantastically offbeat. Farrell’s Padraic is befuddled but determined to win back his longtime friend Colm (Gleeson), despite his stubborn attitude, threats to cut off his own fingers and comparisons to Mozart. Watch the full trailer right here.

Another trailer for the movie gives us a few more examples of the movie's dark humor while also highlighting a potential standout performance from Kerry Condon. Give it a watch here:

The Banshees of Inisherin reviews — what the critics are saying

The Banshees of Inisherin is one of the best reviewed movies of the year so far. It has been "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes , with a current score (as of October 21) of a 99%. The other popular review aggregator site, Metacritic , has The Banshees of Inisherin with a score of 90 and has earned its "Must-see" designation.

We at What to Watch agree, as our The Banshees of Inisherin review gives the movie five stars and calls it one of the best movies of the year.

The Banshees of Inisherin awards and nominations

Here's a rundown of the major awards and nominations that The Banshees of Inisherin has received:

Academy Awards

Best Picture (nominee)
Best Director — Martin McDonagh (nominee)
Best Actor — Colin Farrell (nominee)
Best Supporting Actor — Brendan Gleeson (nominee)
Best Supporting Actor — Barry Keoghan (nominee)
Best Supporting Actress — Kerry Condon (nominee)
Best Original Screenplay — Martin McDonagh (nominee)
Best Editing (nominee)
Best Score (nominee)

BAFTA Awards

Best Film (nominee)
Outstanding British Film of the Year (nominee)

Golden Globes

Best Picture: Comedy/Musical ( winner )
Best Actor: Comedy/Musical — Colin Farrell ( winner )
Best Screenplay — Martin McDonagh ( winner )

Critics Choice Awards

Best Acting Ensemble (nominee)
Best Comedy (nominee)

Director Guilds Association Awards

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Film — Martin McDonagh (nominee)

London Critics Circle Awards

Film of the Year (nominee)
British/Irish Film of the Year (nominee)
Director of the Year — Martin McDonagh (nominee)
Screenwriter of the Year — Martin McDonagh (nominee)
Actor of the Year — Colin Farrell (nominee)
Supporting Actress of the Year — Kerry Condon (nominee)
Supporting Actor of the Year — Brendan Gleeson (nominee)
Supporting Actor of the Year — Barry Keoghan (nominee)
British/Irish Actor of the Year — Colin Farrell (nominee)

National Board of Review

Best Actor — Colin Farrell
Best Supporting Actor — Brendan Gleeson
Best Original Screenplay — Martin McDonagh
Top 10 Film

New York Film Critics Circle

Best Screenplay — Martin McDonagh

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Best Screenplay — Martin McDonagh (runner up)

Venice Film Festival

Best Actor — Colin Farrell (winner)
Best Screenplay — Martin McDonagh (winner)

Gotham Awards

Best International Feature (nominee)

American Film Institute

AFI Special Mention

The Banshees of Inisherin cast

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson lead The Banshees of Inisherin as the two friends at odds, 14 years after the two played a pair of hitmen sent to hide out in Belgium in In Bruges . The pair were great together then and early signs point to another strong dynamic between the two here.

2022 is a big year for Farrell, as he has starred in After Yang , The Batman and Thirteen Lives . The Banshees of Inisherin marks his third time working with McDonagh ( In Bruges , Seven Psychopaths ).

Gleeson has also been busy of late, starring in The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2021, State of the Union earlier in 2022 and now The Banshees of Inisherin . Gleeson hasn’t worked with McDonagh or Farrell since In Bruges , though he has collaborated a few times with John Michael McDonagh, Martin’s brother.

Also starring in The Banshees of Inisherin are Barry Keoghan ( Eternals , Dunkirk ) as Dominic Kearney and Kerry Condon ( Better Call Saul , voice of FRIDAY in Avengers movies) as Siobhan Súilleabháin.

How long is The Banshees of Inisherin?

The Banshees of Inisherin has a runtime of one hour and 49 minutes.

What is The Banshees of Inisherin rated?

The Banshees of Inisherin is rated R in the US and 15 in the UK for "language throughout, some violent content and brief graphic nudity."

Martin McDonagh movies

We’ve covered a bit of writer/director Martin McDonagh’s filmography already, but here is everything that the Oscar-winning filmmaker has done.

Six Shooter (2004) (his Oscar-winning short film)
In Bruges (2008)
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Get the What to Watch Newsletter

The latest updates, reviews and unmissable series to watch and more!

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

Ultraman: Rising: release date, voice cast, plot, trailer and everything we know

Arguably the first great war movie is free to watch this Memorial Day Weekend

Twisted Cover Up tells the shocking story behind the disappearance of Martre Coles

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Link to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Hit Man Link to Hit Man
Babes Link to Babes

New TV Tonight

Eric: Season 1
We Are Lady Parts: Season 2
Geek Girl: Season 1
The Outlaws: Season 3
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted: Season 4
America's Got Talent: Season 19
Fiennes: Return to the Wild: Season 1
The Famous Five: Season 1
Couples Therapy: Season 4
Celebrity Family Food Battle: Season 1

The New World

Where to watch.

Watch The New World with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Despite arresting visuals and strong lead performances, The New World suffers from an unfocused narrative that will challenge viewers' attention spans over its 2 1/2 hours.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Terrence Malick

Colin Farrell

Christian Bale

Q'orianka Kilcher

Jason Aaron Baca

Greg Cooper

More Like This

Related movie news.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the pocahontas story stripped bare.

Now streaming on:

Terrence Malick's "The New World" strips away all the fancy and lore from the story of Pocahontas and her tribe and the English settlers at Jamestown, and imagines how new and strange these people must have seemed to one another. If the Indians stared in disbelief at the English ships, the English were no less awed by the somber beauty of the new land and its people. They called the Indians "the naturals," little understanding how well the term applied.

Malick strives throughout his film to imagine how the two civilizations met and began to speak when they were utterly unknown to one another. We know with four centuries of hindsight all the sad aftermath, but it is crucial to "The New World" that it does not know what history holds. These people regard one another in complete novelty, and at times with a certain humility imposed by nature. The Indians live because they submit to the realities of their land, and the English nearly die because they are ignorant and arrogant.

Like his films " Days of Heaven " and " The Thin Red Line ," Malick's "The New World" places nature in the foreground, instead of using it as a picturesque backdrop as other stories might. He uses voice-over narration by the principal characters to tell the story from their individual points of view. We hear Capt. John Smith describe Pocahontas: "She exceeded the others not only in beauty and proportion, but in wit and spirit, too." And later the settler John Rolfe recalls his first meeting: "When first I saw her, she was regarded as someone broken, lost."

"The New World" is Pocahontas' story, although the movie deliberately never calls her by any name. She is the bridge between the two peoples. Played by a 14-year-old actress named Q'orianka Kilcher as a tall, grave, inquisitive young woman, she does not "fall in love" with John Smith, as the children's books tell it, but saves his life -- throwing herself on his body when he is about to be killed on the order of her father the chief -- for far more complex reasons. The movie implies, rather than says, that she is driven by curiosity about these strange visitors, and empathy with their plight as strangers, and with admiration for Smith's reckless and intrepid courage. If love later plays a role, it is not modern romantic love so much as a pure instinctive version.

And what of Smith ( Colin Farrell )? To see him is to know he knows the fleshpots of London and has been raised without regard for women. He is a troublemaker, under sentence of death by the expedition leader, Capt. Newport ( Christopher Plummer ) for mutinous grumblings. Yet when he first sees Pocahontas, she teaches him new feelings by her dignity and strangeness. There is a scene where Pocahontas and Smith teach each other simple words in their own languages, words for sky, eyes, lips, and the scene could seem contrived but it doesn't, because they play it with such a tender feeling of discovery.

Smith is not fair with Pocahontas. Perhaps you know the story, but if you don't, I'll let the movie fill in the details. She later encounters the settler John Rolfe ( Christian Bale ), and from him finds loyalty and honesty. Her father, the old chief Powhatan ( August Schellenberg ), would have her killed for her transgressions, but "I cannot give you up to die. I am too old for it." Abandoned by her tribe, she is forced to live with the English. Rolfe returns with her to England, where she meets the king and is a London sensation, although that story, too, is well-known.

There is a meeting that she has in England, however, that Malick handles with almost trembling tact, in which she deals with a truth hidden from her, and addresses it with unwavering honesty. What Malick focuses on is her feelings as a person who might as well have been transported to another planet. Wearing strange clothes, speaking a strange language, she can depend only on those few she trusts, and on her idea of herself.

The are two new worlds in this film, the one the English discover, and the one Pocahontas discovers. Both discoveries center on the word "new," and what distinguishes Malick's film is how firmly he refuses to know more than he should in Virginia in 1607 or London a few years later. The events in his film, including the tragic battles between the Indians and the settlers, seem to be happening for the first time. No one here has read a history book from the future.

There are the familiar stories of the Indians helping the English survive the first winter, of how they teach the lore of planting corn and laying up stores for the winter. We are surprised to see how makeshift and vulnerable the English forts are, how evolved the Indian culture is, how these two civilizations could have built something new together -- but could not, because what both societies knew at that time did not permit it. Pocahontas could have brought them together. In a small way, she did. She was given the gift of sensing the whole picture, and that is what Malick founds his film on, not tawdry stories of love and adventure. He is a visionary, and this story requires one.

This review is based on a viewing of the re-edited version of "The New World," which runs about 130 minutes; I also saw the original 150-minute version and noticed no startling changes.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Monica Castillo

Christy Lemire

You Can't Run Forever

Brian tallerico.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Tomris laffly.

I Saw the TV Glow

Robert daniels.

Boy Kills World

Simon abrams, film credits.

The New World (2006)

Rated PG-13 for some intense battle sequences

135 minutes

Colin Farrell as Capt. John Smith

Q'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas

Christopher Plummer as Capt. Newport

Christian Bale as John Rolfe

August Schellenberg as Powhatan

Wes Studi as Opechancanough

David Thewlis as Wingfield

Yorick Van Wageningen as Capt. Argall

Irene Bedard as Pocahontas' Mother

John Savage as Savage

Directed and written by

Terrence Malick

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024 Video #6: Ben Kenigsberg on The Substance, Anora, Emilia Perez, and Napoleon

A Larger Kind of Career: Morgan Spurlock (1970-2024)

Cannes 2024: Armand, The Kingdom, September Says

Cannes 2024 Video #7: Award Winners

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Viewers struggle to grapple with ‘ill-judged twist’ in Hollywood star’s detective thriller

Share this with

Colin Farrell ’s new TV series has received glowing reviews since it landed, with viewers hailing it as ‘utterly brilliant’.

However, some viewers have struggled to grapple with an ‘ill-judged twist’ in the series, which might not ‘make sense’ to all who tune in to watch.

The Irish movie icon, 47, stars in the Apple TV Plus drama as private detective John Sugar.

An official synopsis for the detective series explains how Sugar ‘investigates the disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel.’

However, ‘as Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he unearths Siegel family secrets, old and new.’

Castleknock-born Farrell stars alongside Amy Ryan, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Sydney Chandler, and James Cromwell, to name just a few, with viewers already hooked despite the first two episodes only dropping on April 5.

Taking to X to share their excitement, user WW2HistoryGal wrote: ‘The new Colin Farrell show SUGAR on AppleTV is utterly brilliant. The way they’ve filmed it, with films of old Hollywood and classic movies interspersed into the narrative, is so cool. And Farrell’s character is smart, cool, and very good at his job as a PI. Highly recommend.’

TheCinesthetic described the series as ‘captivating and addictive’.

‘This show Sugar on Apple TV with Colin Farrell is great. He plays an American, so more proof that it’s not just the Irish accent – it’s the whole package. I’ve always loved Colin!’, wrote bingetheginge.

User posaidwhat added: ‘Finished the first two episodes of Sugar on Apple TV and it’s fantastic so far!! Colin Farrell is fantastic in this. The writing is slick/sharp . The call backs to classic film noir is fantastic. There’s a lot of mystery to it already!!. Can’t wait to see how this goes’.

As for critic reviews, Financial Times described the show as ‘an affectionate homage to the golden age of silver-screen crime dramas’.

Dan Einav described Farrell’s performance as ‘delectable’, adding that there is’a rich sense of atmosphere’ that is ‘well complemented by sharp yet sinuous plotting’, plus a ‘cool aesthetic and jaded narration are balanced with pronounced melancholy and inner conflict.’

I can’t say much about it but I can say that if you don’t watch Sugar, the forthcoming series on Apple TV+ starring Colin Farrell, you are missing one of the best shows of the current century. And that is not an understatement. — Randy Shulman (@RandyShulman) March 27, 2024

âSugarâ on @AppleTV has one of the best opening episodes in a long time. Colin Farrell is full of swagger and vulnerability. A real neo-noir with old school investigative narration directed by Fernando Meirelles, who directed âCity of Godâ. Hyped for the season ð pic.twitter.com/Xo3Sv5N49R — Bruno Lopes (@bruno7obe) April 6, 2024

Well what a bag of surprises #AppleTV is. Iâm watching Colin Farrell in Sugar and itâs like a 60âs Detective Comic in modern day. Itâs good to see a good series being made in 2024.. They have some great series on Apple better than anything on the BBC or ITV. pic.twitter.com/50oQUSuYRP — ððð¦ð ðððªð¤ ðï¸ î¨ î¨ î¨ (@BestPaulSays) April 5, 2024

The new noir mystery series “SUGAR” on Apple TV, starring Colin Farrell, is captivating and addictive. pic.twitter.com/6qBIAelMNW — cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) April 5, 2024

This show Sugar on Apple TV with Colin Farrell is great. He plays an American, so more proof that itâs not just the Irish accent â itâs the whole package. Iâve always loved Colin! pic.twitter.com/sfYuKOcSDA — Binge the Ginge (@bingetheginge) April 6, 2024

Finished the first two episodes of Sugar on Apple TV and it’s fantastic so far!! Colin Farrell is fantastic in this. The writing is slick/sharp . The call backs to classic film noir is fantastic. There’s a lot of mystery to it already!!. Can’t wait to see how this goes #Sugar pic.twitter.com/fVZKXy7il7 — Po Muad’Dib (@posaidwhat) April 5, 2024

Alas, there’s one element of the series that hasn’t gone down so well – the twist.

FT adds: ‘Unfortunately it turns out that the series is also harbouring a terrible secret – a woefully ill-judged late twist. I guarantee that whatever theory you come up with to explain Sugar’s many idiosyncrasies will make more sense than what transpires.’

Meanwhile, The Guardian gave the series two stars overall.

Reviewer Lucy Mangan notes that, because it comes after the halfway point, the twist is ‘too deep into the story to work’.

‘But your mileage may vary. If it adds something to the experience for you, then you are more generous than I – who thinks this kind of thing should be stamped on immediately, and stamped on hard,’ she adds.

‘Sugar could have been – especially with a little script-polishing – at least an honourable addition to the genre. As it is, it’s nothing at all.’

Thankfully for Farrell, not everyone hated the twist, with X user KristenGBaldwin describing it as something ‘the best detective wouldn’t see coming.’

RandyShulman even declared it ‘one of the best shows of the current century. And that is not an understatement.’

Speaking about the role recently during press, Farrell told TheWrap in an interview that Sugar is not the ‘archetypical private detective.’

‘He’s deeply intuitive, very attuned to his environment, very attuned to anything living in creation; truly trees, birds, humans, dogs,’ Farrell said.

‘That was one of the lovely things about him. He had a tenderness to him as well, and a concern for all things [in] creation.’

Watch Sugar on Apple TV Plus.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : The truth about Lee Mack’s private life – from his real name to his gorgeous wife

MORE : 90s Hollywood heartthrob looks completely different on 25th anniversary of iconic rom-com

Hot Property Picks from Metro

What I Own: My partner and I bought our own home before we were 30 — through a loophole

I pay £395 a month to live in an underground doomsday bunker

'Magical' town with two castles named best place to live in the South West

What I Rent: 'I pay £1,925 for a one bed flat but it revived my social life after divorce'

Someone is literally renting out their garden shed – for £1,300 per month

Get us in your feed

Cast & crew
User reviews

Private investigator John Sugar examines the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer. Private investigator John Sugar examines the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer. Private investigator John Sugar examines the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer.

Mark Protosevich
Colin Farrell
137 User reviews
38 Critic reviews

Bernie Siegel

David Siegel

Jonathan Siegel

Stallings …

Olivia Siegel

Manuel Cortez …

Thomas Kinsey

Mrs. Siegel …

Carlo Dibenidetto

Roberta Anne Lynn …
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia Sugar's car is a classic 1966 Chevrolet Stingray Corvette convertible.

User reviews 137

Apr 7, 2024
How many seasons does Sugar have? Powered by Alexa
April 5, 2024 (United States)
United States
Apple Studios
Genre Films
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

More to explore

Colin Farrell Teases Just How Intense 'The Penguin' Spin-Off Is: 'Dark as Night'

E xpect Colin Farrell's "The Batman" spin-off series "The Penguin" to meet the Robert Pattinson film's intense energy. In fact, the actor told SiriusXM's Jess Cagle that the show is "dark as night."

"We did it over a year because there was that unfortunate and necessary strike in the middle for five or six months, but it was intense," Farrell said. "It's dark. The show is dark as night."

Farrell went on to sing the praises of "The Batman" makeup artist Michael Marino, who was responsible for making him unrecognizable as the classic Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot. Marino returned with Farrell to the limited series to continue his work .

"I'll be going on the, on the Mike Marino publicity tour," Farrell noted. "Mike is the gentleman who created, devised, thought up that whole face. I mean, he created the whole character. He created the puppet and I'm the marionette, is the way I think of it, and it feels like an on-the-nose description of what happened. He created this beautiful puppet and I got to animate it and it was a joy."

The spin-off comes out of Matt Reeves' "The Batman" film starring Pattinson, and continues the story of crime boss Oz Cobblepot following the events of the 2022 movie. Reeves serves as an executive producer on the show, which was created by Lauren LeFranc.

Starring alongside Farrell are Cristin Milioti ("Fargo," "Made for Love") as Sofia Falcone, Clancy Brown ("Billions," "Dexter: New Blood") as Salvatore Maroni and Michael Zegen ("Rescue Me," "Boardwalk Empire") as Alberto Falcone.

There isn't an exact date set for the eight-episode series, but expect it to drop sometime this fall.

The post Colin Farrell Teases Just How Intense 'The Penguin' Spin-Off Is: 'Dark as Night' appeared first on TheWrap .

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Sugar EP Tells All About That Mind-Blowing Twist (And Why It Came So Late), Shares Season 2 Hopes

Dave nemetz, west coast bureau chief.

Share on Facebook
Show more sharing options
Submit to Reddit
Post to Tumblr
Share on LinkedIn
Share on WhatsApp
Print This Page

Warning: This post contains spoilers for all eight episodes of Apple TV+’s Sugar .

Does Sugar still have more surprises left up its sleeve?

Apple TV+’s neo-noir detective drama blew our minds a few weeks ago when it revealed that private eye John Sugar, played by Colin Farrell , was actually an alien from another planet. In this week’s finale, Sugar solved the case of missing girl Olivia Siegel, bringing her home safe and sound — only to learn that her Hollywood producer grandfather Jonathan might be her biological father. Plus, Sugar discovered that his fellow alien Henry was an accomplice to Olivia’s serial-killer kidnapper, and he decided to stay on Earth rather than flying home. ( Read our full finale recap here .)

The finale left us with a lot of questions — and got us thinking about the possibilities for a Season 2 — so TVLine reached out to Sugar executive producer Simon Kinberg (who has also penned big-screen blockbusters like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Mr. & Mrs. Smith ) for answers. Read on to get the full scoop on why they waited until Episode 6 to drop that extraterrestrial bombshell… and how likely it is that Sugar will be back to solve a new case in another season. (Apple TV+ has not officially renewed the series yet, for the record.)

TVLINE | Before we get into the finale, I just wanted to go back to the big twist that was revealed in Episode 6. At what point in the process did you decide to keep it a secret for that long? Because I understand there was some thought of revealing it in the premiere. Yeah, the original script that [series creator] Mark Protosevich wrote that got us all excited and got us all involved had Sugar revealing himself as an alien at the end of the pilot. And we talked a lot about if that would make it harder for the audience to connect and empathize with him as a character from that point forward, that it would feel like such a big departure that it would sort of color the experience of the show for them. So we then talked about: How much time do we want to create for the audience to form a human connection to him?

We talked about it possibly remaining a secret until the end of the entire season, and then we felt like that robbed the audience of something else, which is a different kind of connection to him, once you realize exactly this aspect of his identity. So we settled on it happening at the end of six episodes, so that you’ve laid enough breadcrumbs, spent enough time with him and now get to see the world through a slightly different lens as the audience. And so we landed there, from no exact science, but just a feeling, you know?

TVLINE | So the sci-fi aspect was baked into this series from the start? Was there ever any thought of just playing it as a straight-up human detective series? The sci-fi aspect was baked in from the start. It was in Mark Protosevich’s pilot script, which he wrote on spec himself, and had spent quite a long time constructing and conceiving. There was only thought, and it wasn’t thought from the creative team, but there was thought around it just being a detective show without the science fiction aspect when we went to go sell it. Because a lot of the people that were buyers — networks, platforms — said, “We love it, and we love the writing, but does he really need to be an alien?”

And we gave it some thought because I think, as bears out for almost six full episodes, audiences are around for the ride of just him as a unique, idiosyncratic, film noir detective unraveling an interesting mystery. But we always felt like the big swing and what made it extra special was this mashup of genres, and I, personally, specifically, as someone who has done a lot of work in the science fiction genre and loved it as a kid, whether I was reading comic books or science fiction literature or watching Star Wars and all the great science fiction movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s… I just loved the idea of such an unlikely mashup. So I really held out for the places that were supportive of keeping the science fiction element, and Apple was incredibly supportive and never wavered in that support and real excitement about what it could be.

TVLINE | There’s a lot that sort of goes unspoken this season about Sugar ’s identity and past, and I was wondering: Did Sugar use old movies as a way to learn about humanity, and that’s why he’s such a throwback to those old-school gumshoes? I think that the answer is yes. He did use movies, in general, to understand modern human civilization and culture, which I think is a good way to understand it. But I think his taste was for film noir. It’s not like film noir was more insightful about the human condition than other genres. It’s just that he gravitated toward this particular genre, and that’s why he fashioned himself a detective of all the different things he could be on Earth. The protagonist, obviously, in so much film noir, is the detective. So it was a way to see the world, and it was a way to create his identity.

TVLINE | The season finale had a few more twists for us, starting with Jonathan Siegel possibly being Olivia’s father. How does knowing that change the dynamics of this whole case? Well, it goes without saying, but I will say it, that Chinatown was a huge influence on this particular case this season, in the way that we portrayed sort of upper-crust Hollywood, especially in a missing-persons detective story. So that was something that we talked about: Is it too close to Chinatown , or is it kind of a nice homage to Chinatown ? It changes a lot of the character dynamics more than anything, and I think it changes, for Sugar , his relationship with Jonathan and the way he sees him as a sort of paternal figure. But in a world where nobody is what they seem — which is a staple of the film noir genre, and maybe is true just for reality — we gave Jonathan the extra wrinkle or twist as well, so nobody left that season unscathed, in a way.

TVLINE | Then we learned that Henry was this silent accomplice to the killer, taking notes on his behavior. That sort of casts a sinister pall over the aliens’ mission, doesn’t it? Well, I think it casts a sinister pall over Henry. What we talked a lot about is that aliens would have, for lack of a better description, bad apples the same way humans would. As we imagined it, he was their first bad apple, and they were scrambling as a community to figure out how to manage something they had never handled before, and they handled it, in some ways, the way humans would, which is that they bungled it a little bit. And they didn’t know how to handle amorality among their, let’s call it, race or species. We wanted in some ways the alien experience to resemble and start to reflect human experience as well. So creating a bad guy who was an alien, but not the aliens all being here to invade us or have some larger sinister plot… They didn’t have a sinister reason for being here. There just happened to be one guy who got a little too close to the subject of humans and became fascinated in ways that were perverse and violent and nefarious.

TVLINE | There are plenty of questions still left to be answered, and that leads me to the possibility of a Season 2. Is that still an option? Have you guys had discussions with Apple about that? What’s the status? The status is: We would love it. We have had discussions with Apple and with Colin and with the creative team about it. It’s been great to see that the response to the show, both critically and from an audience standpoint, has been what we really hoped it could be. So yeah, all of us would be very excited about doing another season and creating a new mystery and case for Sugar .

I think what Colin did… I mean, the whole creative team, but specifically, what Colin did with this character is so indelible and special. As with anything in storytelling, but especially television, if you create a great character, that’s what is the franchise of the show. You come back for that character. And Colin is in this really kind of wonderful, unique place in his career where he is still a leading man, and obviously, he’s very sort of conventional square-jawed leading man in Sugar . But he’s doing these interesting, quirkier character parts. We just loved the way that he brought what he’s been doing with Yorgos [Lanthimos] or [ The Banshees of ] Inisherin , with Martin McDonagh. He’s been working with these really interesting filmmakers. He brought that character-y side and the kind of conventional leading man stuff and mashed them up, too, in the part of Sugar. So yeah, we would love it. He would love it. Fingers crossed we get to continue telling Sugar stories.

Cancel reply

12 comments.

Email * Your email address will not be published. We will notify you when someone replies.

Huge spoiler right in the title. Good job, idiots.

Unless something changed, the spoiler is in the URL, not the story title. Good interview, but I also dislike when the spoiler is in the URL.

Loved this show. Really hope for another season (or 2 or 3).

Typed in “Sugar series” to check some reviews on the show, immediately see “alien twist” in damn near at the top of the google page smh

I would watch Colin Farrell read the phone book (do they still have phone books :))! Sugar was smart, well written, acted and intriguing. Twist was interesting. Hoping for a Season 2!

Colin Farrell has shown such skill with this character that I believe for a moment in the possibility of aliens living among us. Maybe a second season is what we all need.

I absolutely loved the show and the whole format. Colin played such a gentleman.. I couldn’t wait for each episode. I’d watch them 2x just in case I missed something. I would love to see what happens with him and the woman friend he trusted, I can’t remember her name but when they held hands at the end that was very emotional and so special.. no words were needed!!

I liked the show, liked it more before the big reveal. My wife tuned out completely after the big reveal.

I thought they were CIA or some secret organization. Didn’t guess outer space!

Interesting interview. Exceptional show. I was one of the viewers who loved it for Colin Ferrell, and the noir crime drama, and wouldn’t have watched if i knew it was going to turn sci-fi. But. When the reveal occurred, I was hooked, and would happily watch another season if it is as intelligently written. Kudos. Colin Ferrell is key.

The season left us with a bit of a cliff hanger that should be explored and resolved in a second season

I loved Sugar! I actually watched the entire season twice, which is something I never do, just to see if I missed any clues about his real identity. Great writing and casting. I really hope they continue with this. And Colin Farrell..I just totally fell in love ❤️

Most Popular

6 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week

Whether you’re a casual moviegoer or an avid buff, our reviewers think these films are worth knowing about.

Share full article

By The New York Times

CRITIC’S PICK

He’s got killer charisma.

A woman with long brown hair leans her chin on the shoulder of a man wearing a leather jacket.

Gary (played by Glen Powell) is a reserved philosophy professor who finds himself posing as a hit man for a sting operation in this Richard Linklater comedy. While in disguise, he falls for one of his clients (Adria Arjona).

From our review:

If I see a movie more delightful than “Hit Man” this year, I’ll be surprised. It’s the kind of romp people are talking about when they say that “they don’t make them like they used to”: It’s romantic, sexy, hilarious, satisfying and a genuine star-clinching turn for Glen Powell, who’s been having a moment for about two years now. It’s got the cheeky verve of a 1940s screwball rom-com in a thoroughly contemporary (and slightly racier) package. I’ve seen it twice, and a huge grin plastered itself across my face both times.

In theaters . Read the full review.

It’s worse than Mondays.

‘the garfield movie’.

The grouchy tabby gets another big-screen adaptation, this time following an unexpected reunion with his father.

The film, directed by Mark Dindal, is an inert adaptation that mostly tries to skate by on its namesake. In other words, it’s a Garfield movie that strangely doesn’t feel as if Garfield as we know him is really there at all. Part of this can be attributed to the voice — Chris Pratt, an overly spunky casting choice that was doomed from the start — but there’s also a built-in defect to the very concept of the big-screen Garfield treatment. An animated, animal-centric children’s movie tends to require a narrative structure of action-packed adventure — the antithesis of Garfield the cat’s raison d’être.

In theaters. Read the full review .

An A.I. movie that sticks to the script.

In this sci-fi thriller, Jennifer Lopez plays Atlas, a data analyst with a distaste for artificial intelligence, who must help capture an A.I. robot that wants to destroy humanity.

Lopez, who was also a producer on the movie, flings herself into the role with abandon, the kind of performance that’s especially impressive given that she’s largely by herself throughout. … At times “Atlas” feels like pure pastiche, and it looks, in a fashion we’re getting used to seeing on the streamers, kind of cheap, dark, plasticky and fake, particularly in the big action sequences. Science fiction often earns its place in memory by envisioning something new and startling — but with “Atlas,” we’ve seen it all before.

Watch on Netflix . Read the full review .

The sorrow and the surreal.

‘kidnapped: the abduction of edgardo mortara’.

Based on a true story, this film follows a Jewish child, Edgardo Mortara, in 19th-century Italy who is kidnapped by the papal state and raised as Roman Catholic.

The director, Marco Bellocchio, anchors the period with a somber visual elegance and employs surreal gestures to tease out the psychological and spiritual aspects of the tragedy. Political cartoons lambasting Pope Pius IX come to life through animation. During an especially sorrowful moment in the boy’s confinement, one of the figures of the crucified Christ in the Roman dormitory for child converts takes leave of his cross with the help of little Edgardo.

Shantay, you stay.

In Montreal, Simon (Théodore Pellerin) pursues a career as a drag queen and contends with two thorny relationships: a destructive crush on a fellow performer and a reunion with his absentee mother.

“Solo” is a subtle snapshot into a gay man’s profound yet familiar upheavals. Simon’s drag spectacles may be intentionally fierce and operatic, but there’s something refreshing about this drama’s intimate scale and lack of interest in sweeping tragedies, especially in the context of queer cinema.

Inspirational, not necessarily insightful

A man who endured a traumatic childhood during the Chinese Cultural Revolution becomes a world-renowned eye surgeon in this fictionalized account of the life of Dr. Ming Wang.

As is the custom with inspirational medical movies, however, the new film “Sight,” directed by Andrew Hyatt, leans hard into uplift — it provides only the narrative-necessary minimum of the science. Wang’s achievement in developing innovative technology is central to one of the stories here, yes. But the dominating narrative is one of personal growth.

Compiled by Kellina Moore .

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Season 49 of “Saturday Night Live” has ended. Here’s a look back at its most memorable monologues, sketches, product parodies and impressions .

“Megalopolis,” the first film from the director Francis Ford Coppola in 13 years, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Here’s what to know .

Why is the “Planet of the Apes” franchise so gripping and effective? Because it doesn’t monkey around, our movie critic writes .

Luke Newton has been in the sexy Netflix hit “Bridgerton” from the start. But a new season will be his first as co-lead — or chief hunk .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

How Apple TV+'s Sugar Evoked the Darywn Cooke DC Classic, The New Frontier

The new acclaimed Apple TV+ series, Sugar, starring Colin Farrell, has an interesting connection to Darwyn Cooke's classic series, DC: The New Frontie

This article contains major spoilers about the Apple TV+ TV series, Sugar , starring Colin Farrell, streaming now.

John Sugar's origin on "Sugar" echoes that of J'onn J'onzz in DC's New Frontier, both inspired by Earth media.
Darwyn Cooke's Martian Manhunter embraced television, while Sugar embraced classic films for purpose.
The outsider heroes find a sense of justice through exposure to pop culture, which they come to from a pure standpoint.

Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me. Today, I explain how Apple TV+'s Sugar evoked the classic Darywn Cooke DC comic book series, The New Frontier .

Okay, if you're clicking on an article about Sugar, I would like to believe that you've seen the show, and if you haven't, then, well, sorry for spoiling it for you, but damn, I've given you plenty of advance warning before this point! Sugar is an unusual series to recommend to people because it is hard to tell people that you know would be into this specific genre of TV show that this show IS that specific genre of TV show without, you know, spoiling the fact that Colin Farrell's mysterious private detective, John Sugar, is actually one of a group of aliens who were sent here years ago to study Earth and humanity, and a number of the aliens have taken side jobs while they're here, including John Sugar's job as a private detective who specializes in finding kidnapped people.

As you no doubt are aware, the DC Universe has a famous alien who lives on Earth, and pretends to be a private detective named John - Martian Manhunter, J'onn J'onnz , who goes by the name John Jones on Earth. There is a certain aspect of John Sugar's experience on Earth that really reminded me of the late, great Darwyn Cooke's take on J'onn's early days on Earth in Cooke's classic miniseries, DC: The New Frontier . And, well, I'll talk about that now!

Taylor Swift's Possible MCU Role Was the Wolverine of Late 1940s Marvel Comics

How did the john jones, the martian manhunter, originally become a detective.

Something that is very important to note about the debut of J'onn J'onnz, the Manhunter from Mars, in 1955's Detective Comics #225, is that in 1955, Detective Comics was still clinging to the idea of still being an anthology series, and not just Batman's OTHER comic book, and editor Jack Schiff seemed to have been looking for features that could fit into the theme of, well, you know, detective comics. The main back-up was Jack Miller and Ruben Moreira's Roy Raymond: TV Detective, and now, Joe Samachson and Joe Certa were introducing ANOTHER detective feature, this time a detective from MARS!

The intriguing thing about the early Mahunter from Mars features is that J'onn J'onnz's Martian background, while obviously the setup for the strip, wasn't really much of a VISUAL aspect of the book. J'onn is pulled from his planet by a machine built by a naive, but well-intended scientist. J'onn takes on human form to avoid freaking out the scientist, but it is too late, and all of the excitement causes the scientist to die, thus trapping J'onn on Earth.

J'onn accepts his fate well, and takes a jacket, and just adopts the name John Jones, and goes about exploring this new world...

When he comes across a newspaper article about gangsters, he realizes that Earth still has crime, so he decides to become a detective, which he succeeds at right away (Oh, is it hard?")...

Those early features just saw J'onn as John Jones, using his Martian powers while in his Earth form almost all of the time. Over the course of many years, John Jones eventually becomes a private detective. Everything was so matter-of-fact back in the day. The Cooke take on J'onn's origin, though, is a lot more clever.

The Splendid Serendipity of X-Men: The Animated Series

How did john jones' new frontier origin echo john sugar's origin.

In DC: The New Frontier #2 (about the birth of DC's Silver Age superheroes, only in a comic in a setting designed to be closer to the actual 1950s/1960s), Cooke shows an alternate version of J'onn's arrival on Earth, with the same basic results (of the scientist dying of a heart attack, and J'onn being trapped on Earth)...

Then we get a brilliant sequence where we see that J'onn has embraced popular culture via watching a ton of television, and as he watches it all, it serves to inspire him, and ultimately, all the detective shows on television inspire J'onn to become a police detective...

We see John Jones in action with his partner, Slam Bradly, who was one of the ORIGINAL detectives featured in Detective Comics, well before Batman arrives on the scene (Bradley was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who never went on to create anything else of note...maybe except Funnyman)....

Sugar, meanwhile, embraced old Hollywood movies while on Earth, and just like how the TV detectives inspired Cooke's John Jones, so, too, did the classic movie detectives (like Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade) influenced Mark Protosevich's John Sugar, not just his STYLE, but also his strong sense of justice...

Both men are aliens on Earth, but both of them saw a sense of purpose through their exposure to popular culture, a pure form of heroism that might not make sense to anyone actually BORN on Earth, but sure makes a lot of sense to these two outsiders. Of course, embracing that ethos has made John Sugar a bit of an outcast among his own people, something that J'onn didn't have to deal with, as much, being the only Martian who was trapped on Earth (at least for many years).

In any event, my wife and I both got a kick out of how much Protosevich unintentionally (I sincerely doubt Protosevich actually read New Frontier) evoked the classic comic book. Here's hoping to a second season of Sugar !

If anyone else has an interesting piece of comic book history that they'd like to see me write about, drop me a line at [email protected]!

Screen Rant

Eric review: a fierce benedict cumberbatch & stellar supporting cast narrowly save overstuffed show.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Why Eamonn Walker's Boden Left Chicago Fire & What It Means For Season 13

An easy to miss fallout easter egg perfectly explains the ncr's downfall, how brooklynn's story ties into jurassic world movies & sets up chaos theory season 2.

The engaging missing persons story Eric struggles to balance its surreal puppet concept with its intertwining storylines.
Stellar performances by Benedict Cumberbatch, Gaby Hoffman and McKinley Belcher III only somewhat keep the show's overstuffed plot afloat.
The show addresses timely social issues like the rise in homelessness and police corruption, but much of it feels like a distraction from the central mystery driving the plot.

Crafting an engaging missing persons story is no easy feat, particularly one meant to extend across six hour-long episodes, as is the case with Netflix's Eric . That said, while the show seeks to subvert expectations of its central concept with a surreal manifestation of the titular puppet monster and an ensemble of intriguing characters, it finds itself a little too weighed down by these competing elements to make for a fully engrossing watch.

Eric follows Vincent, a talented puppeteer whose life is shattered by the mysterious disappearance of his son, Edgar. As Vincent spirals into a world of despair and obsession, he channels his anguish into his puppet, Eric.

Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a superb manic performance.
The supporting cast are just as engrossing in their roles, namely Gaby Hoffman and McKinley Belcher III.
The show meaningfully parallels the modern rise in homelessness and troublesome police.
The focus is too low on its central catalyst of the missing child.
Some characters feel underdeveloped with unresolved arcs.
The attempts to veer into levity feel out of place.

Hailing from Shame co-writer Abi Morgan, Eric primarily revolves around Benedict Cumberbatch's Vincent , the co-creator and star of a children's puppet TV show in the '80s. Vincent's home life is anything but bright as his narcissistic personality frequently conflicts with his wife, Cassie (Gaby Hoffman), and young son, Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe), as well as his coworkers.

When his son goes missing, Vincent's worst traits become all the more prevalent, eventually manifesting into a delusional hallucination of the titular monster puppet created by his son whom he tries to get onto the show in the hopes of convincing him to come home. But with so many other characters and storylines happening, the show ultimately feels overstuffed.

Eric Never Finds The Right Balance Between Its Central Story & Characters

Despite having a roster of well-rounded characters, the focus feels too sporadic..

Beyond Vincent, Eric utilizes its six-episode story to explore a large roster of characters with their own individual narratives. Cassie only stays married to Cumberbatch's volatile character for her son; McKinley Belcher III's Detective Ledroit struggles between his reassignment to the Missing Persons unit and caring for his partner dying of AIDS; and Dan Fogler's Lennie is stuck between a rock and a hard place as he tries to comfort his best friend amid his son's disappearance, while also grappling with his endlessly toxic behavior and the strain it's putting on their show.

Though these intertwining plots do come to a head in the later chapters of the show, the overall build-up feels a little too sporadic for its pacing.

But even as Eric looks to explore these characters, it finds itself grappling with a variety of intertwining stories, including a rise in homelessness in New York at the time, political corruption masquerading as healthy growth for the city and the police sweeping some cases under the rug in favor of others. While these are all certainly compelling, they ultimately feel both out of place and a distraction from the main crux of the show.

Where shows like True Detective have thrived in slowly meting out answers to their central mystery while focusing on character development, Eric can't find the right rhythm to do that. In some episodes, the focus on other characters and stories is so prominent that the desire to find Edgar, or tell us who or what is behind his disappearance, is practically non-existent. Though these intertwining plots do come to a head in the later chapters of the show, the overall build-up feels a little too sporadic for its pacing.

Eric's Puppet-Based Concept Does Provide Some Unique (If Uneven) Twists

The cumberbatch-voiced monster works well for vincent's growth, but leads to odd tonal jumbles..

The biggest selling point for Eric — beyond Cumberbatch in the lead role — is that of the titular monster puppet, whom Vincent begins hallucinating as his desperation to find Edgar increases. In any other show, this concept would be utilized for a more comedic effect, leaning into surreal situations and awkward conversations of the human character having to explain away his seemingly unhinged conversations with a non-existent figure to those around him.

With the Netflix show , Morgan attempts to not only lean into the humorous possibilities of such a dynamic, but also uses Eric as a parallel for Vincent's overall growth. Though she certainly succeeds in both parts, it ultimately feels a bit too jumbled when it comes to Eric 's overall tonal balance. The majority of the series takes a definitively dark path with its story, showing the traumatic impact Vincent's behavior has left on his family and friends, as well as himself, as he deals with alcoholism and various drug addictions.

While the inclusion of Eric could be seen as a welcome reprieve from this darkness, and it offers moments of levity, it ultimately makes parts of the show feel a bit too uneven in their tone. Moments in which we want to feel energized by Vincent's steady change into a determined father searching for his son, or even a man nearing rock bottom with his vices, are more undermined than engaging as his goofy antics and foul-mouthed quips cut through these potentially moving moments rather than adding to them.

Eric (2024)

Eric's stellar cast & fierce timely themes narrowly save the show, it's one of cumberbatch's best performances to date and modern social parallels keep everything afloat..

In spite of some of its shortcomings, there are a few key factors that keep Eric from being a complete disappointment, with the cast being the biggest one. In his central turns as both Vincent and the titular monster puppet, Cumberbatch absolutely dominates his performance , believably tapping into the former's darker tendencies, while also making Eric feel like both a completely separate character and extension of his flawed protagonist. Hoffman and Belcher III similarly shine in their respective roles, layering them with their own unique emotional arcs that make them fascinating to watch.

Eric is a show with a lot to say and many characters it wants to explore, but lacks the benefit of time.

Another major benefit is the timely social commentary Morgan explores throughout the show's interweaving storylines. The government's shady handling of an increasing homeless population feels ripped right out of current headlines from major US cities, with local governments similarly struggling to find a meaningful solution, albeit the corrupt route the show takes is a little less reported on. Similarly, the show's frequent highlighting of news coverage for a missing white child being greater than that of one of color rings true as the Black Lives Matter movement remains just as prevalent as ever.

Ultimately, Eric is a show with a lot to say and many characters it wants to explore, but lacks the benefit of time. Though it could be argued that spreading a missing persons story across multiple seasons could lead to even further issues regarding proper narrative focus, it would have at least allowed Morgan more room to better explore the various themes and well-rounded characters. That said, thanks to the stellar performances of her incredible cast and some very powerful moments, the show does just narrowly avoid crumbling under the weight of its various plots.

Eric begins streaming on Netflix on May 30.

IMAGES

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN Trailer (2022) Colin Farrell Movie
The Gentlemen Movie 2020 Wallpapers
WATCH: Teaser Trailer For New Colin Farrell Movie
Watch Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell in New ‘The Beguiled’ Trailer
15 Best Colin Farrell Movies (According To Rotten Tomatoes)
Fright Night

VIDEO

The Worst Movie Colin Farrell Has Ever Played In
The Best Colin Farrell Performance Ever
Colin Farrell on Working with the 'Magic' Tim Burton on 'Dumbo'
Colin Farrell at the 'Total Recall' Premiere in Moscow
COLIN FARRELL talks to about his new movie THE WAY BACK
Colin Farrell photoshoot

COMMENTS

'The Banshees of Inisherin' review: Colin Farrell is at his best
Colin Farrell plays the sweet-souled Irish farmer in Martin McDonagh's film. One day, his friend Colm (Brendan Gleeson) abruptly refuses to join him for their usual afternoon pint down at the pub.
The Banshees of Inisherin movie review (2022)
One thing I didn't have on my lifetime cinematic bingo card—and I bet it is not on yours either—was Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson become the 21 st century's answer to Laurel and Hardy. And yet. With 2008's "In Bruges," and now "The Banshees of Inisherin," the Irish actors, under the writing and directing aegis of frequently pleasantly perverse Martin McDonagh, display a ...
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
The Banshees of Inisherin: Directed by Martin McDonagh. With Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Pat Shortt. Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Angela Basset, Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal, & More Reflect on Their Oscar Nominations Angela Basset, Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal, & More Reflect on Their Oscar Nominations 18:03 Best Movies of 2022 ...
'Banshees of Inisherin' Review: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson
Both a comedy and a tragedy — one that substitutes Irish wit and irony for the Greeks' gods and monsters — The Banshees of Inisherin somehow feels ancient; it takes place in 1923, not ...
'Banshees of Inisherin' review: Colin Farrell headlines dark comedy
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are Irish buddies who suddenly break up in the excellently relatable dark comedy 'The Banshees of Inisherin.' Summer movies 🍿 How she cooks Best looks 💃💃 ...
'The Banshees of Inisherin' Review: Giving Your Friend the Finger
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play feuding frenemies in Martin McDonagh's latest film, set on an Irish coast in 1923. ... violent brute and the closest thing to a pure villain this movie ...
Review: In buddy breakup drama 'The Banshees of Inisherin,' all's
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson reteam with their "In Bruges" writer-director, Martin McDonagh, in this piercing dark comedy set on a windswept Irish island. 'The Banshees of Inisherin' review ...
'The Banshees of Inisherin' Film Review: Colin Farrell in Dark Comedy
Rated R, 1 hour 54 minutes. The film reunites Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, whose difference in age, physicality and character type makes for a Beckettian pairing that brings out the best in ...
Colin Farrell's At His Best in The Banshees of Inisherin
Pádraic ( Colin Farrell) is a dim and affable guy who tends to his livestock and spends time every day at the only pub in town. In the past, he's been the inseparable drinking companion of Colm ...
Venice: Colin Farrell on "The Banshees of Inisherin"
Colin Farrell at the premiere of "The Banshees of Inisherin" in Italy. Andreas Solaro/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. VENICE — When it comes to feuds, this year's Venice Film ...
Banshees of Inisherin review: Colin Farrell movie should get him his
Three Billboards. Is His Best Movie Yet. This very Irish dark comedy, reuniting In Bruges ' Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, is one ye shouldn't miss. Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in ...
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Banshees of Inisherin (/ ˌ ɪ n ɪ ˈ ʃ ɛr ɪ n /) is a 2022 black tragicomedy film directed, written, and co-produced by Martin McDonagh. Set on a remote, fictional island off the west coast of Ireland in the 1920s, the film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two lifelong friends who find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with severe ...
Colin Farrell's new movie gets 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating
By Stefania Sarrubba Published: 06 September 2022. Fresh off its Venice International Film Festival debut, Colin Farrell's new movie The Banshees of Inisherin has landed a 100% score on Rotten ...
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Now on Digital and Streaming on HBOMaxSet on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN follows lifelong friends Pádraic (Colin...
The Banshees of Inisherin: release date, reviews and more
To top it off, the movie marks a reunion with the stars of In Bruges, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Add all that together and The Banshees of Inisherin is one of the more intriguing new movies coming out in the fall of 2022 and a potential player in the Oscars race. Here is everything that we know about The Banshees of Inisherin.
'Sugar' review: Colin Farrell plays an old-style detective in a twisty
Breathing strange new life into an old genre, "Sugar" makes connections to the detective movies of the 1940s and '50s, casting Colin Farrell as a modern private eye.
'Sugar' Review: In a Lonely Place With Colin Farrell
April 5, 2024. This much I can tell you: Colin Farrell plays a private detective in "Sugar.". He has a license. We see it being handed to him and everything. I can also tell you that his ...
The New World
63% Tomatometer 191 Reviews 58% Audience Score 100,000+ Ratings Arriving with a British expedition in Virginia in 1607, Capt. John Smith (Colin Farrell) is captured by Native Americans. His life ...
The New World movie review & film summary (2006)
Terrence Malick's "The New World" strips away all the fancy and lore from the story of Pocahontas and her tribe and the English settlers at Jamestown, and imagines how new and strange these people must have seemed to one another. If the Indians stared in disbelief at the English ships, the English were no less awed by the somber beauty of the new land and its people. They called the Indians ...
Viewers struggle with 'ill-judged twist' in Hollywood star's thriller
Colin Farrell 's new TV series has received glowing reviews since it landed, with viewers hailing it as 'utterly brilliant'. However, some viewers have struggled to grapple with an 'ill ...
Sugar (TV Series 2024- )
Sugar: Created by Mark Protosevich. With Colin Farrell, Kirby, Amy Ryan, Dennis Boutsikaris. Private investigator John Sugar examines the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer.
The Gentlemen Cast & Character Guide
The film combines action and comedy, with recognizable actors like Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam, and Hugh Grant in key roles. The Gentlemen cast features several recognizable faces from across ...
Colin Farrell Teases Just How Intense 'The Penguin' Spin-Off Is ...
Expect Colin Farrell's "The Batman" spin-off series "The Penguin" to meet the Robert Pattinson film's intense energy. In fact, the actor told SiriusXM's Jess Cagle that the show is "dark as night."
Sugar (2024 TV series)
April 5, 2024. ( 2024-04-05) -. present. ( present) Sugar is an American mystery drama television series created by Mark Protosevich with Fernando Meirelles directing 5 episodes and Adam Arkin directing 3 episodes. The series stars Colin Farrell, who also serves as executive producer. It premiered on Apple TV+ on April 5, 2024.
'Sugar' Alien Twist Explained: Renewed for Season 2? Colin Farrell
Apple TV+'s neo-noir detective drama blew our minds a few weeks ago when it revealed that private eye John Sugar, played by Colin Farrell, was actually an alien from another planet. In this week ...
6 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week
Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in "Hit Man." Netflix. 'Hit Man'. Gary (played by Glen Powell) is a reserved philosophy professor who finds himself posing as a hit man for a sting operation ...
How Apple TV+'s Sugar Evoked the Darywn Cooke DC Classic, The New ...
Summary. John Sugar's origin on "Sugar" echoes that of J'onn J'onzz in DC's New Frontier, both inspired by Earth media. Darwyn Cooke's Martian Manhunter embraced television, while Sugar embraced classic films for purpose. The outsider heroes find a sense of justice through exposure to pop culture, which they come to from a pure standpoint.
Eric Review: A Fierce Benedict Cumberbatch & Stellar Supporting Cast
Hailing from Shame co-writer Abi Morgan, Eric primarily revolves around Benedict Cumberbatch's Vincent, the co-creator and star of a children's puppet TV show in the '80s.Vincent's home life is anything but bright as his narcissistic personality frequently conflicts with his wife, Cassie (Gaby Hoffman), and young son, Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe), as well as his coworkers.

Movie Reviews

A farmer gets dumped by his best friend in 'The Banshees of Inisherin'

Movie Interviews

These are the new movies and TV shows we can't wait to watch this fall

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson Turn a Buddy Tragedy Into a Masterpiece

Editor’s picks

'Eric' Shows What Happens When a Puppet Master Loses Control

'13 Reasons Why' Dylan Minnette on Stepping Away From Acting: It 'Started to Feel like a Job'

'Survivor' Superfan Sia Is Done Awarding Cash Prizes to Her Favorite Contestants

'The Beach Boys' Doc Is One Endless Summer — and Concludes the Group's Story Far Too Soon

Hollywood Crew Members Call for Safety on Set After Production-Related Deaths

Most Popular

Verify it's you

'The Banshees of Inisherin' review: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson bring friendly fire to dark comedy

Review: In buddy breakup drama ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ all’s Farrell in love and war

Colin Farrell doesn’t have many ‘true friends.’ But Brendan Gleeson is one

More to Read

Colm Tóibín’s latest tale is bound together by the tension between secrecy and revelation

Review: ‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners,’ where Liam Neeson once again has his vengeance

Review: In Denmark’s ‘The Promised Land,’ the virtues of an old-school western still blaze

More From the Los Angeles Times

Hollywood crews in ‘crisis’: ‘Everyone’s just in panic mode’ as jobs decline

‘Furiosa’ and ‘Garfield’ tussle over worst Memorial Day weekend box office in 29 years

‘Sight’ highlights the journey and faith of an Asian American medical hero who helped the blind see

Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ wins Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

site categories

David Rooney

Related Stories

Full credits

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Colin Farrell’s At His Best in The Banshees of Inisherin

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

Richard Lawson

Martin McDonagh’s Follow-up to Three Billboards Is His Best Movie Yet

Colin Farrell's new movie gets 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating after rave first reviews

Best Entertainment and Tech Deals

Shop Sky deals across TV, broadband and mobile

Shop Google Pixel 7a phones

Coronation Street X Joanie - Gilroy Retro Newton And Ridley Sweatshirt

LEGO Disney and Pixar ‘Up’ House

LEGO 007 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond

Sign up for Apple TV+

Heartstopper Volume 5

Barbie The Movie doll

Sign up for Disney+

Ted Lasso x Nike: AFC Richmond home kit

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Jojo: Finally Home by Johannes Radebe

The Witcher wolf pendant

Barbenheimer - Barbie v Oppenheimer T-shirt

Barbenheimer T-shirt

Best PS5 deals - where to buy PS5 today?

Anker PowerCore Essential 20,000 PD Power Bank

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} Movies

The Banshees of Inisherin: awards, how to watch, review and everything we know about the movie

How to watch The Banshees of Inisherin

The Banshees of Inisherin plot

The Banshees of Inisherin trailer

The Banshees of Inisherin reviews — what the critics are saying

The Banshees of Inisherin awards and nominations

The Banshees of Inisherin cast

How long is The Banshees of Inisherin?

What is The Banshees of Inisherin rated?

Martin McDonagh movies

Get the What to Watch Newsletter

Most Popular

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

The New World

What to Know

Critics Reviews

More Like This

Movie Reviews

Roger Ebert

Now playing

Monica Castillo

Christy Lemire