There was a glorious moment in The Banshees of Inisherin when Pádraic (Colin Farrel) tells Colm (Brendan Gleason) why he refuses to be shunned by his former friend despite the latter’s threats of self-mutilation. At that moment, I thought perhaps he was acting as an allegory for another who refuses to let us be no matter what ingenious ways we conceive of to let him know he is not welcome in our lives.
That allegorical reading never panned out, and it took me weeks of thinking about the film to come to appreciate it on its own terms — as a story about depression, aging, isolation, loneliness, and the desperate lengths we will go to convince ourselves that our lives have significance. At the core of the movie is a confessional scene where a priest and a not-quite-penitent debate the difference between what is sin and what is unkind yet not sinful. If you can answer that question, you are a wiser man than Colm…or his priest…or me. — Kenneth R. Morefield (2022)
Arts & Faith Lists:
2022 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #1