6 OF THE BEST
Team Empire on the month’s essential movies and TV
PICK OF THE MONTH
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 114 MINS
The last time that director Martin McDonagh worked with stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, they made the hilarious and heartbreaking In Bruges. Their reunion might be even better, and we don’t say that lightly. Here, the pair are friends, living close by on the same tiny island during the Irish Civil War, when Gleeson’s Colm announces he no longer wants to be friends. The simple, almost childish taunt sends Farrell’s Pádraic into a spiral, and soon the pair are locked in a tragi-comic battle of wills. But what’s extraordinary is the glut of big themes lurking underneath their antics, and the questions about life, art and fellowship that the film raises. All that, and a bit with a donkey. You can’t beat it. HELEN O’HARA