Martin McDonagh‘s The Banshees of Inisherin opens today. All shrewd-minded, able-bodied Hollywood Elsewhere contributors need to see it tonight, tomorrow or Saturday and make their reactions known.
In a “reading the Oscar tea leaves” piece, IndieWire‘s Anne Thompson speculated that “the stealth candidate from wily Searchlight is Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, which could build support from the speciality-leaning and international side of the Academy.”
Translation: In a pig’s eye.
Jordan Ruimy: “Banshees is brilliant, acerbic and tinged with melancholia, but it might be a tad too artfully vague for Oscar voters tastes.
“I’ll be more than happy if my assumption turns out to be wrong and McDonagh wins the top prize, but if you’ve seen Banshees then you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a bitter film about how bitter life is.”
HE: “A film about eccentric oddballs, incomprehensible Irish nihilism and bloody fat finger stumps is NOT going to connect with a plurality of Academy voters. Forget it.”
Northeastern Hotshot Critic: “I’m with you on this.”