---
title: "The Banshees of Inisherin"
year: 2022
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-banshees-of-inisherin"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 85
critics_reviews: 29
published: "2026-09-20T08:35:30.691578+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-20T08:35:31.242301+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Directed by Martin McDonagh · 1h 54m · MPA R · Drama, Comedy

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 85 from 29 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two men fall out over nothing on an island where nothing is all there is

> Martin McDonagh puts Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson on a small Irish island and has one of them stop liking the other. It is his funniest and saddest film, and it says its Civil War parallel out loud once too often.

## Synopsis

Inisherin, 1923: a small island off the west coast of Ireland, close enough to the mainland to hear the gunfire of the Civil War. Every afternoon at two, Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell), who keeps a few cows and a donkey, calls on his friend Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) to walk to the pub. Today Colm will not open the door. Later he tells Pádraic he simply does not like him any more; he has a fiddle and a tune to finish and no time left for dull company. Pádraic’s sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) tells him to leave it. Dominic Kearney (Barry Keoghan), the policeman’s son, offers company nobody wants. Pádraic keeps trying.

## Review

Inisherin is a small island off the west coast of Ireland, and in 1923 gunfire drifts across the water from a Civil War that nobody here quite follows. Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) calls for his friend Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) at two o’clock, as he does every day, so they can walk to the pub. Colm sits inside, smoking, and does not answer the door. When Pádraic corners him, Colm tells him the truth. He does not like him any more. Pádraic is dull, and Colm has not enough time left to spend any of it being dull with him.

That is the whole plot, and Martin McDonagh, who wrote and directed, gets more out of it than most directors get out of a war. It is his best film since [*In Bruges*](https://film.one/film/in-bruges), the 2008 comedy that first put Farrell and Gleeson in a room together, and it is sadder than that one. We recommend it, with one warning: it is a comedy for about an hour and then it stops being one.

Pádraic has never had a complicated thought and is now being asked to have one, and Farrell plays him with his eyebrows up and his mouth slightly open. The scene that got us comes in the pub, when Pádraic, drunk, stands up and makes a speech about being nice, and everyone else looks at their pints. We had been laughing at him a minute before. We were not laughing then, and it was the way his voice kept trying to stay reasonable while his face gave up that did it. Gleeson, by contrast, barely moves. Colm has a fiddle, a cottage full of masks and a tune he wants to finish, and Gleeson plays him as a man who has made a decision and is now watching, with some interest, what it costs.

Ben Davis shoots the island in the grey-green light it actually has, wide and flat, so the two men are always small against it. Indoors he lets the lamps and the fire do the work, and Colm’s cottage, which Mark Tildesley has filled with instruments and a wall of grotesque masks, says everything about him. Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh puts everyone in wool that looks as if it has been wet for a decade. Carter Burwell’s score is spare and chiming, like a music box, and it plays the whole thing as a fairy tale, cruelty and all. Mikkel E.G. Nielsen cuts to the rhythm of the day, the walk, the pub, the walk home, until the repetition becomes the joke and then the sorrow.

Kerry Condon plays Siobhán, Pádraic’s sister, the only person on Inisherin who reads, and she is dry, tired and kind; she gets the two or three lines that stopped us cold. Barry Keoghan is Dominic, the policeman’s son, who says whatever comes into his head and is beaten for it by his father Peadar (Gary Lydon). We laughed at Dominic a good deal and then felt slightly ashamed, because Keoghan never lets you forget that the boy is frightened. Pat Shortt keeps the pub as Jonjo Devine, and Sheila Flitton is Mrs. McCormick, an old woman in black who stands in the road and predicts deaths.

Mrs. McCormick is where McDonagh’s stage habits show. She is a banshee with a walking stick, and the film would lose little without her. The larger flaw is the war. McDonagh wants the quarrel on the island to stand for the quarrel on the mainland, former friends now shooting each other over something neither side can quite state, and the parallel is a good one. Then he has a character say it out loud, and then another, and the point is made once more than it needed to be. The second half takes a turn we will not describe, except to say that McDonagh’s taste for the grim shock has not left him.

He has always written the best lines going and has sometimes let that be enough. This is the film where he lets the lines run out and stays on the faces. It is a 15, mostly for the language and for some blood, and it runs 114 minutes. Do not watch it in the week after falling out with a friend, unless you want to be told it will not be fine.

*Fi1m score 84, published 20 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

All 29 reviews are positive and the praise gathers in the same places. Most critics treat this as McDonagh’s best film since In Bruges, and a quieter, more mature one. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are singled out, Farrell most of all, for the hurt he brings to Pádraic. The dialogue is admired for its rhythm and black comedy, and several reviews reach for Beckett as the trivial falling-out turns bleak. Nearly everyone notes the Civil War allegory and thinks it earns its place.

The spread is narrow, running from warm to rapturous. The cooler reviews, chiefly The New York Times and The New Yorker, find McDonagh on familiar turf and the story thin by ordinary standards; The New Yorker credits Kerry Condon with much of its life. The Ringer thinks the wider island community is sketched thinly, and Polygon finds the themes harder to hold together in the final act. Nobody argues the leads are less than excellent.

### Reviews we read (29)

- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (5/5/5): McDonagh deploys his acerbic wit to an affectionate folktale, reuniting Farrell and Gleeson for an intimate study of small-town dynamics and the bittersweet end of a long friendship. It praises the chemistry, dialogue, and blend of wry humanity with understated visuals that make dramatic beats hit harder. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-banshees-of-inisherin)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): Martin McDonagh delivers a visually stunning and consistently witty Beckettian drama that is unafraid to ask serious questions about life. The refined maturation of his signature style results in a perfectly formed piece with lacerating sadness. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/the-banshees-of-inisherin-film-review-martin-mcdonagh-colin-farrell-m2jg2lvcd)
- **Empire**, Dan Jolin (90/100, inferred): McDonagh delivers a brutal yet empathetic breakup story between two friends on a remote Irish island during the Civil War. Farrell gives one of his best performances as the devastated Pádraic, supported by strong turns from Gleeson, Condon and Keoghan in a beautifully shot, darkly funny and moving film. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-banshees-of-inisherin/)
- **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (90/100, inferred): McDonagh has crafted a stone-cold classic that is a visually stylish, focused take on obsession and a platonic breakup. Farrell delivers a legendary performance in this funny/sad story that deserves Baftas and Oscars and will inspire awe for centuries. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-banshees-of-inisherin-movie-review-colin-farrell-martin-mcdonagh-b1032631.html)
- **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (A-): The critic hails it as McDonagh's best film since In Bruges, commending the wry tragicomedy of a violent falling out between friends and its poignant exploration of the rift. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-1234758446/)
- **Sight and Sound** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it McDonagh’s most resonant tragicomedy, a reflective and compassionate tale of two friends violently falling out in a small Irish coastal village. It highlights strong performances from Farrell and Gleeson, the mythic island setting, and an advance in the director’s compassionate tone. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/banshees-inisherin-rich-resonant-blackly-funny-tragedy)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it one of McDonagh's best and most Irish films, praising the superb acting by Farrell and Gleeson in a story of friendship's abrupt end that balances tragicomic and macabre elements. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-banshees-of-inisherin-colin-farrell-brendan-gleeson-martin-mcdonagh-1235210098/)
- **The i Paper**, Geoffrey Macnab (90/100, inferred): Brilliantly performed by Farrell and Gleeson, this is a funny but searching anti-buddy drama as dark and absurd as Samuel Beckett, ranking with McDonagh’s very finest work. It makes you laugh and wince while exploring male friendship, trivial beginnings of conflict, and the Irish Civil War allegory. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/the-banshees-of-inisherin-colin-farrell-and-brendan-gleeson-shine-in-a-violent-anti-buddy-comedy-1925220)
- **The Telegraph** (90/100, inferred): Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are terrific in this slippery comedy-drama about a friendship breakdown set against the Irish Civil War. The film uses dazzling comic dialogue to smash open tricky subjects while leaving a black laugh at the end. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/banshees-inisherin-review-colin-farrell-brendon-gleeson-shine/)
- **Total Film** (90/100, inferred): McDonagh’s latest is a worthy In Bruges reunion: smart, funny, deeply felt, with another acerbic, darkly amusing and heartbreakingly sad character drama from a master of shifting tones. Farrell and Gleeson are predictably brilliant in this quieter, empathetic take on a breakup movie. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review/)
- **Vulture** (90/100, inferred): The critic describes it as the best thing McDonagh has done for the screen, a spectacular breakup movie that offers a brilliantly anti-romantic portrait of rural Ireland and deep melancholy. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/banshees-of-inisherins-anti-romantic-portrait-of-ireland.html)
- **Variety**, Guy Lodge (Critics Pick): The review hails it as McDonagh’s richest and most moving film, a searing, darkly comic study of male friendship’s devastating breakup with mythic resonance and heartfelt performances. [Read](https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-colin-farrell-1235360424/)
- **Radio Times**, Max Copeman (4/5): The critic deems it McDonagh’s most mature film yet, a knotty black comedy about a squabble between friends that stealthily becomes an allegorical parable of the Irish Civil War. It singles out the leads’ performances, especially Farrell’s sad-eyed pathos, and the refusal of easy answers. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/banshees-of-inisherin-review/)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4/5): The critic hails the In Bruges reunion as a melancholy marvel and McDonagh’s best film since that debut, blending belly laughs with emotional gut punches in a ghosting story set in 1920s Ireland. It singles out Farrell’s puppy-dog hurt performance and the haunting break-up tale against the Civil War backdrop. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-banshees-of-inisherin-2022)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a caustic and mournful buddy breakup drama, highlighting Farrell’s revelatory performance as a balm of rough-hewn simplicity amid the island’s bleakness and grudges. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-10-20/review-the-banshees-of-inisherin-colin-farrell-brendan-gleeson-martin-mcdonagh)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): The Venice review finds the film starts as rural character farce but grows darker and macabre, with resonant echoes of Irish history and Beckettian despair. It praises the counter-intuitive performances, rhythmic comic dialogue, and the story of an inconsequential feud spinning out of control. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-banshees-of-inisherin-venice-review/5174117.article)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The film is a macabre black comedy about toxic male pride and wounded feelings set on a remote Irish island during the civil war. It mixes genuine laughs with pain in a compelling study of male loneliness and swallowed anger. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/05/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-martin-mcdonagh)
- **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (70/100, inferred): The review finds the black comedy treading familiar turf but animated by strong performances, especially Kerry Condon's, that give life to the whimsy and violence. It singles out the clash between personal grudges and larger historical turmoil. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/24/whimsy-and-violence-in-the-banshees-of-inisherin)
- **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (70/100, inferred): The critic views the film as familiar McDonagh territory—a darkly comic feud between friends that is beguiling in its sincerity and characters but might feel thin by conventional standards. It is praised as village gossip given literary polish and a handsome pastoral finish. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/20/movies/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review.html)
- **/Film**, Marshall Shaffer (9.5/10): McDonagh's reflective work explores existential divides through the deconstruction of dialogue in a story about a friendship's end that mirrors the Irish Civil War. It balances zesty humor with creeping isolation and features career-best turns, especially from Farrell and Gleeson. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/994124/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-martin-mcdonaghs-best-film-is-wordsmithing-at-its-wisest-venice/)
- **Collider**, Brian Formo (A-): The critic finds the film a darkly charming comedy about feuding friends that engages deeply with its island community. Performances by Farrell, Gleeson, Condon, and Keoghan are highlighted as marvelous. [Read](https://collider.com/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-brendan-gleeson-colin-farrell-martin-mcdonough/)
- **NME**, James Mottram (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the hilarious and profound black comedy about a friendship's abrupt end on a remote Irish island during the Civil War. Farrell and Gleeson's performances, along with sharp dialogue and striking visuals, are singled out as highlights. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-colin-farrell-brendan-gleeson-3333646)
- **Paste**, Matthew Jackson (9.8): The review calls the film a haunting, masterful portrait of mundane despair and one of the best films of the year. It praises the screenplay's balance of bitter notes, comedy, and profound questions about relationships. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/martin-mcdonagh/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review)
- **Polygon**, Siddhant Adlakha (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it 2022’s funniest, darkest comedy and a return to form for McDonagh, with rich performances and layered introspections. It singles out the humorous repetition and tonal balance while noting some difficulty stringing themes in the final act. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23414840/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-brendan-gleeson-colin-farrell-in-bruges/)
- **Consequence** (B+): The critic describes the film as a tender but devastating meditation on male friendship and civil war, McDonagh's most restrained effort. It highlights the emotional impact of the central conflict as an allegory for larger strife. [Read](https://consequence.net/2022/10/banshees-of-inisherin-review-martin-mcdonagh/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Emily Breen (4/5): McDonagh crafts an unforgettable journey through the implosion of a friendship between two men on a remote Irish island, using the estrangement to unearth resentments in the community amid parallels to the civil war. The film is a pitch-black tragicomedy buoyed by strong performances from Farrell and Gleeson and sharp direction. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review/)
- **The Ringer** (80/100, inferred): The review finds the film transfixing, especially in its central feud and the natural rhythm of Farrell and Gleeson's performances. It praises the bracingly funny verbal jousting while noting some thinness in sketching the larger community. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2022/10/21/movies/banshees-of-inisherin-review-colin-farrell-martin-mcdonagh)
- **The Wrap**, Steve Pond (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a quiet, elegiac meditation on mortality and loneliness that remains touching and disturbed, with McDonagh retaining his perversity amid gentle conversations. They single out the priceless performances of Farrell and Gleeson and the blend of lovely and disturbing elements in portraying the island community. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-colin-farrell-brendan-gleeson/)
- **Deadline**, Todd McCarthy (75/100, inferred): The critic calls it a fiendish tale of a friendship's end, full of bristling humor and startling violence, sustained through twists and serious moments. They praise the vibrant dialogue delivered by the cast and the film's beautiful craftsmanship in capturing the bleakly spectacular Irish setting. [Read](https://deadline.com/2022/09/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-martin-mcdonagh-venice-film-festival-1235108378/)

## Details

- **Director:** Martin McDonagh
- **Director:** Martin McDonagh
- **Writer:** Martin McDonagh
- **Cinematography:** Ben Davis
- **Editor:** Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
- **Music:** Carter Burwell
- **Production design:** Mark Tildesley
- **Costume design:** Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh
- **Producer:** Graham Broadbent, Martin McDonagh, Peter Czernin
- **Cast:** Colin Farrell as Pádraic Súilleabháin; Brendan Gleeson as Colm Doherty; Kerry Condon as Siobhán Súilleabháin; Barry Keoghan as Dominic Kearney; Gary Lydon as Peadar Kearney; Pat Shortt as Jonjo Devine; Sheila Flitton as Mrs. McCormick; Bríd Ní Neachtain as Mrs. O'Riordan
- **Runtime:** 1h 54m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 4 November 2022
- **Genres:** Drama, Comedy
- **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2022); [BAFTA Best Film winners](https://film.one/collections/bafta-best-film.md) (Nominee, 2022); [Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-comedy.md) (Winner, 2022)
- **Budget:** $20 million
- **Box office:** $49 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-R9u2UD3FU

## Where to watch in the US

- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-20.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2023: Best Picture (nominated); Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated)
- Golden Globes 2023: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (won)

## If you liked this

- *In Bruges* (2008), Fi1m 83: The same two men, a decade younger, hiding in Belgium and talking just as much. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/in-bruges.md)
- *Calvary* (2014), Fi1m 81: Gleeson as a priest given a week to live, in an Ireland just as unforgiving. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/calvary.md)
- *Withnail & I* (1987), Fi1m 88: Another friendship that ends in the rain, with better drink and worse manners. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/withnail-and-i.md)
- *Man of Aran* (1934): The islands themselves, filmed when the wool really had been wet for a decade.
- *The Hunt* (2012), Fi1m 82: A Danish village turns on one man over a rumour, and nobody can take it back. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-hunt.md)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-banshees-of-inisherin