This is classic McDonagh, but playwright McDonagh more than film McDonagh. A "feel bad comedy" which, and I cannot understate this, is VERY funny (it has the best joke about a bread van I have ever heard in my life, and it was a welcome respite for my tense cinema) but undercut and intrinsically woven with a pitch black story about divides, the meaning of friendship, and our own dreadful existential realisations. Fun stuff.
Classic McDonagh! There are excellent little touches (the sound of gunfire and explosions on the mainland during a confrontation, other characters reading the paper regarding the civil war, and trying to figure out who will win and why they are fighting) and some great supporting turns (Kerry Condon is excellent) but it remains largely a 2-man show with a fantastic Farrell and glorious Gleeson. They flip dynamics, play off of each other, get one up on each other, and own the stage (for this, despite its cinematic flair and trappings, is still very much a stage play) in this petty, narrow minded game. In the end nothing matters, none of this does, and it's gruelling as a result.
The ending has no real closure, it ends on a bleak note, and I would expect nothing less from McDonagh. We as people don't make sense, we're irrational, we hold grudges, we're petty, we're pretentious, we're casually cruel.
It's excellent cinema.
But maybe watch a nice light hearted affair afterwards, to rinse the taste.
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