#159. 'The Banshees of Inisherin'
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Sonny, JVL, and Mike are unanimous raves for The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh's dark comedy about a suddenly-severed friendship set on a fictional Irish island during the Civil War; Sonny calls it darkly funny and unsettling and praises all four leads (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, Kerry Condon), JVL declares it "extraordinary" and dissects the confessional scene as some of the funniest filmmaking he's seen, and Mike — drawing on his own Irish family and a visit to the actual filming islands — argues the movie's mix of grotesque comedy and melancholy is simply how Irish people tell stories, and walks the others through the free-staters-vs-IRA history behind the Civil War metaphor JVL and Sonny both flag (also doubling as commentary on American "national divorce" talk). The trio also debates McDonagh's filmography (In Bruges beloved, Seven Psychopaths shrugged at, Three Billboards a Sonny pan from initial release), the film's Oscar nominations, and whether Colin Farrell has ever given a bad performance. The first third is classic Sub-Beacon banter: Mike's five-week-old baby and "peak fussiness," Sonny's self-inflicted Valentine's Day wine-foil finger cuts and defense of instant mashed potatoes, JVL's still-raw fury at the Eagles' Super Bowl loss to Andy Reid's Chiefs (with Mike commiserating as a lifelong Falcons fan), excitement for the upcoming Cocaine Bear, Dungeons & Dragons, and Super Mario Bros. movies (including the Chris Pratt Italian-accent discourse), and a long digression on dine-in theater chains and Sonny's aversion to talking to waitstaff. They close, as ever, with Mike recapping his stint as his son's second-grade "mystery reader," reading The Hobbit aloud to a classroom that had never heard of it.
From the show notes
The guys head to Ireland!
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Now if I've done something to you just tell me what I've done to you when you didn't do anything to me I just don't like you no more Like me yesterday Why does he not want to be friends with you no more? Why is he 12? What the hell's going on with you, me feckin brother? He's dull, Siobhan But he's always been dull. The other night two hours You spent talking to me about the things you found in your little donkey shite that day Well, it wasn't me little donkey shite, it was me pony shite, which shows how much you were listening
Sonny00:00:30Welcome back to the Sub-Beacon. I'm Sonny Bunch One of the one of these several co-hosts that we have here one of I'm one of the permanent guest hosts JVL another permanent guest host Is is with us today and our third permanent guest host Mike Warren? Thank you for being back today Mike where we're glad to have you as a as a regular
Mike00:01:02Guest so are we so are we each other's guests like is that how the guest host hurts like we're welcome
Sonny00:01:08I did you I I've invited you into my home. You've invited me into your homes We're all we're all here together as guests for everybody Mike. How are you doing? What's what's going on in your world?
Mike00:01:19Oh, you know new baby stuff
Sonny00:01:24How's that working out for you, it's great
Mike00:01:27You know, it helps it helps that they're so cute You know like that really just What are you ten weeks in no no a month? Plus a month. Yeah, I'm at five weeks five weeks basically far so you're about to hit the peak
JVL00:01:41Okay, right is the peak fussiness, which is the euphemism all the books use is six weeks. That's right. That's right
Mike00:01:47No, no, so it's like it's like remembering that again because again - after two kids It's like I forgot like you just get that stuff out of your head And forget about especially with this long tail, you know five-year tail, so You know, it's fine. We're actually sleeping fine. It's it's just It's it's a lot and I'm Older than I was with my first two kids and that makes a huge difference, too You're just like oh like getting out of bed at 2:00 a.m. Is just a different thing than it was when I was like
JVL00:02:24Yeah, this is the unfairness of it right and people always say like, you know Yeah, when you have the resources you don't have the energy And when you have the energy, you don't have the resources, but it's more than just like financial resources It really is like wisdom and the emotional resources to to handle this stuff and you just don't have them I don't think anybody could ever fully be ready to have a kid But you really aren't ready to have a kid at like age 22 correct or age 19 or they're like where you're I mean You're but on the other hand you do have the energy to like exactly
Mike00:02:54I mean your frontal lobe is like not completely finished forming at that age So but you know like Then you think back like, you know, my grandparents were like 19 and 20 years old when when my mom was born You know stuff like it's in County is Sherman. No, but not not too far off. They're not not too fucking far off Don't neither of you do that. Oh, there's good Sonny. There's gonna be a lot of Irish accent
Sonny00:03:23Irish No, it's funny I take what both of you guys are saying but it just reminds me of my opinion that the best the best way to have children is To be like rich and in the 18th century and just give them over to maids to send off to boarding schools As soon as you can like that is such hot talk Think about think about how great that would have been to be like an oil magnate in the in the 1900 or you know Early 1900s or like late 1800s just like oh, I got I got some kids. I'm just gonna send them off to
JVL00:04:00Exeter or whatever. Yeah, especially if you don't have to die during childbirth. Yeah That's not you just be there for me just be the the the dad who doesn't drive any risk of dying
Sonny00:04:10Because of exactly that'd be great. Once again, just a better time better time the golden age. Yeah
JVL00:04:17Santino what you up to buddy?
Sonny00:04:19Not a not a whole lot. I managed to I Found a new and humiliating way to injure myself yesterday. I was I was I was I was opening a wine bottle And you know, you know the like foil that they have on top of the wine bottle. It's called a capsule That's what that is and you take it off with a foil cutter You have a foil cutter you like spin it around you pop it off and then you can get to the cork Well, I I was taking off the foil yesterday For Valentine's Day pull back the curtain. We're taping on Wednesday opening a bottle of wine for Valentine's Day and classy classy, you know $10 bottle of wine and I I'm peeling I'm trying to get the foil cap off and it's like come on. It's all ragged it's like it's coming off and strips and straps and I Foolishly moved my hand across. I got a paper cut. I got a paper cut from the from my wine bottle Which was which was at first I was like, oh that's just kind of annoying and then the blood started pouring out You know as as it tends to do. I hope I'm fine from a hand cut So I had to like stop doing what I was doing Go get a band-aid put it on come back And finish opening my bottle. You haven't even opened open the actual bottle
Mike00:05:35It wasn't like you had the excuse you had been no drink. I didn't cut it on glass
Sonny00:05:39You know, that would be a you know That would be I didn't break I didn't drop the bottle and have it shatter everywhere and then stick my hand in that that would be A totally acceptable way to injure yourself stupid absolutely that this was like this was a this was a whole new thing So now I've got and I was the best part was it wasn't even one finger I managed to I managed to get paper cuts foil Cuts on two fingers at the same time hi, I don't know how I did this don't know how it happened such a Romantic sunny you really are but I I suffered I suffered for for Valentine's Day We got it all we got it all together. I went out. I bought some fancy steaks at the at the Whole Foods You know got some fancy mushrooms made up a little steak But we did do we did do instant mashed potatoes because I have I came to the opinion years ago a decade ago Maybe longer that the amount of time that it takes to make like mashed potatoes at home It's absolutely not commensurate with the increase in taste or quality level that you get I don't know. Do you guys have do you guys have strong feelings on this? Do you ever mash potatoes? I look like from actual I love mashed potato peel your Yukon potatoes and then oh, yeah. Yeah, you got to do it
Mike00:06:50I mean, but the thing is is it's only worth it for a major meal like Thanksgiving or Christmas or something like that? Because as you point out the time commitment to it, but like my wife does not like mashed potatoes But not because she doesn't like the taste It's because of what you just pointed out of the time of the like the effort like it doesn't you know? But what awesome really good creamy mashed potatoes like tons of butter tons of cream. Oh, it's it's totally worth it
Sonny00:07:18Believe it or not Mike you can actually put butter and sour cream and chives on instant mashed potatoes It tastes just as good. It tastes it's again. It tastes like 90% It's good the only the only difference really between instant mashed potatoes and mashed potatoes you make at home is The texture of it the texture of the mashed potatoes is like it's you make it. It's a little it's a little lumpier It's a little you know You've got you've got a little more a little more texture to it sometimes you get some peel in there And it'll it'll give it that that extra little little bit, but like in terms of in terms of taste terms of taste again 90% as good for literally one
Mike00:08:0050th of the sure it's all I mean for the is it does it say on the little packet potato or potato product? I mean, that's always sort of like my I don't care. I don't care
Sonny00:08:08I don't I don't potato product and potato as long as they taste the same or again 90% the same this is like
Mike00:08:18Ice cream that's his frozen dairy dessert and not ice cream on it cuz like they can't legally I say I've gotten I've gotten some
Sonny00:08:24Of that before so when I was when I was doing when I was when I was on my When I was dieting when I was like hardcore dieting like eggs. I I would I like went and got some of the Like ice milk product or whatever it was that they because I can't call it cream. It's not it's not ice cream It's like frozen dairy dessert. It is It's it's some sort of yeah frozen dairy dessert or whatever whatever it's called and again it tastes like it tastes like It tastes like 40% as good as regular ice cream. I didn't get my I got one part of it I was like a like this. I'd rather just eat nothing I'd rather just I'd rather just and the other problem with it Is that it's really not that much healthier than regular ice cream like you might as well just get the regular ice cream at that point
JVL00:09:11Because it's gonna satisfy you because it will it you'll at least feel you'll at least it at least tastes good
Sonny00:09:17as opposed to the frozen dessert product Which is not as good. JVL what's happening?
JVL00:09:25I'm getting over the Super Bowl It's the first time in my life that I've ever turned a Super Bowl off Early, I'd say somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes left in the game not of clock time, but of like, you know notional game time. I Just I had been angry since the kickoff and I got progressively angrier as the game went on And there's no reason for this right when you're a teenage boy in sports matters to you a lot you get angry at sports outcomes I don't actually care. I don't know why It was making me angry but it was like in a very real and visceral way and What was making I could just feel just the the looming disappointment of knowing the Eagles were going to lose That's that's all not not because they were getting cheated or anything like that but just I could just see the train coming down the tracks and And so I turned it off and I felt much better as soon as I did
Sonny00:10:24Now Mike, you're a you're a Falcons fan, right? Yeah I knew that was coming up. You've never you've never experienced anything like this right in terms of the crushing disappointment of a Defeat after being up at halftime by two scores or more
Mike00:10:42That's never happened to you. Right, especially especially a situation where your your Patriots fan superfan neighbor comes over before the game and You spend ten minutes talking shit about the superior Falcons Offense. Yeah. Yeah, that's never happened to me. So I have a I have a friend a Philadelphia Eagles fan friend Former colleague who was at the Super Bowl and till no no. No, this is a former CNN colleague And oh, I know who I know. No, it's not it's not it's this is not somebody you would know who was there at the game and Texted me that night in the next morning. Just these Set like I'm so sad. I can't get over it. I was like, yeah, you'll you'll get over it And I like reminded him of 28 to 3. I said I got over 28 to 3 eventually and he's like, oh Oh, I like he immediately felt better. He was like, oh, yeah, I can't get bad
JVL00:11:44I can't get mad about that. Like did you know that it was going south though in that Super Bowl? We went like that. That's Mike. Well, like did you when you guys were up? Did you think we did it we beat? Tom Brady and then have the slow disbelief as it was you know, the the cascades coming down the mountain or Or did you have that? Omen that feeling of death will be here the entire time because that's what I had
Mike00:12:13Yeah, I mean, I I don't think we're dissimilar JVL and in our relationship with our Hometown sports franchises and that I mean there's a there is with as with Philadelphia with Atlanta there Is this kind of expectation of disappointment and I would say my memory of going into halftime was wow, we're up What is gonna go wrong in the second half that's going maybe not necessarily we won't lose this game But it's not gonna be this nice Going into the second half and so when it was happening It was that again like you said like a train coming down. You're just like here it comes here it comes and and frankly like Patrick Mahomes Tom Brady There's a lot of you know similarities in the way that I mean that cuz that it was my home It's like he was incredible. So like how can you really be mad about? Anything else you just accept your disappointment if you're an Eagles fan, but I don't know Philly Philly won a Super Bowl relatively recently
JVL00:13:14Right like within the last time they have won a Super Bowl first ever in franchise history was five years ago It was when they beat beat Brady. That's right, and it was an amazing game The best Super Bowl I've ever seen I think yeah
Sonny00:13:29Anyway, but what I would what I would this was a good super. This was a guy
JVL00:13:34No, the other one we get that no, but the other one had like eight lead changes or something like this one had a a lead that was then overcome that was then tied, but then a go-ahead the the Patriots Eagles Super Bowl Was a back and forth back and forth. Yeah, they just had lead changes over and over, you know
Mike00:13:57The I just don't know will understand why I care
JVL00:14:01That's what I am from this think on this journey of self-discovery and asking myself Why what do you what do you care about this and I can't explain it
Sonny00:14:09You were you you said something in your newsletter about you know, you were you were trying to come come You know you were in a dark place I think was the the phrase that you used and I was kind of surprised by that because you had not been You know, you hadn't been really like talking up the Eagles
JVL00:14:25All year or anything it was like I'm sure I was sure because I'm watching but I had the sense all year that this was An overachieving team that the season was a gift and that they were destined for disappointment What is the feeling?
Sonny00:14:40What is the feeling in your household and Eagles nation as a whole about Jalen hurts are is everybody very high on him? Is that is everyone like well, this is this is okay because you know for the next five years or so We've got a constant Super Bowl threat
JVL00:14:54People are very high on hurts The the the the educated Eagles fan Actually moron, but the I would say the Eagles fan that is the smart mark Knows that they they have 13 Significant players who are either gonna retire or hit free agency this season So this tip this was the final run for this team And this team was not expected to be this good and they have a lot of building blocks in place for the future but the next season is not certainly not a guarantee I mean the next season is basically a Modified rebuilding year just because they have so many guys who who are probably not going to be there Yeah, and so, you know, we'll see there's I will say that there is There is good feeling also in coaching staff. They believe they're likely to lose both the offensive and defensive coordinator but there is a Exhalation on the idea of the head coach Nick Sirianni who when he was hired people thought was a very bad hire and I would say people are basically feeling like okay at least the the head coach is is competent and is capable of putting together a team where there is buy-in from the players and
Sonny00:16:16So there's that are people are people in Philly happy for Andy Reid who is now on his second Super Bowl But not with the Eagles
JVL00:16:24Are you fucking kidding me? Honestly, that's why it hurt so much like if they had lost to the Rams or something I've been like, yeah, whatever Yeah, the Rams it's losing to Andy Reid the guy who quit on the organization for the last like three years of his you know instead of just resigning Because he you know clearly didn't have it anymore and needed a break and needed a change of scenery He was like I'm just gonna stay here and wait till they push me out So I get paid Fuck that guy The first time he's been accused of good clock management was I was gonna say
Sonny00:17:03lost to Andy Reid You lost to Andy Reid and in a game where he out out You know outworked the clock. He had a player go down on the way. That's good coaching right there Having a player go down on the one, you know
JVL00:17:17What's funny is that the the knock against him in Philly even when he was beloved like in the when things were going great For him in Philly the two knocks on him were his clock management is atrocious and he never makes second-half adjustments Right like he'll he'll the way he beat people Was with scheme going going into the game and with preparation. He's a great preparation coach You know the week before a game like he really knows how to get his team Together and have them planned so they they're in a good position to win But if things go south in the first half like don't Expect a lot of comebacks because he's not a guy who could sit there and reorient the team at halftime And that's how he beats the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Great. Well
Mike00:18:02Great great. He was a great guitarist for the DB brothers. I thought so
JVL00:18:07Anyway, it's fine Do you want to talk about a movie one day? can we talk briefly about how excited I am personally for the next several weeks of movies because we got We've got cocaine bear which we're gonna do five or six shows on we've got The Super Mario Brothers movie we've got the Michael Jordan signed by Sonny Vaccaro movie and we've got There's one of the dragons coming out Dungeons and Dragons, which I am
Sonny00:18:42So excited about yeah, you're weirdly excited for that one, which I don't know. I don't know about does it not look amazing?
JVL00:18:49Chris Pine and Hugh Grant and a movie about Dungeons and Dragons sign me the fuck up
Sonny00:18:53See I'm not a Dungeons and Dragons guy. I've never I've it's never been a thing for me I don't I don't really get it I've told you I've told you my my experience with playing Dungeons and Dragons right after I must have I must have told this story before on the show But like tell it again When I when I was like when I was nine or ten or or something I was living in Florida at the time So it was either nine or ten I Went over to a friend's house who had for Christmas gotten a Dungeons and Dragons said you know this was like lots of people Talking about Dungeons and Dragons. We were like yeah, let's play this game. I hear we hear great things It sounds like a lot of fun. Let's set it up and play and he starts taking out The stuff and it's I was like, where's the board? Where's I don't wire board? What is what is the board is your mind? How do we how do we move pieces?
JVL00:19:43I the dungeon master around the board in your imagination
Sonny00:19:47And I literally I literally didn't understand the game. I so like he's sitting there, and he's like looking at the book Let and we were have you were like create a kid, and I was just like fuck it Let's go watch Goonies because I was like I don't want I don't want to have to deal I don't want to have to deal with and I don't understand any of this
JVL00:20:02I don't none of this makes any sense you didn't mean a character you didn't roll for your dexterity roll feel so I mean
Sonny00:20:08This is the problem. I feel like you need you need somebody to like Usher you into the world of Dungeons and Dragons You can't just have two people who have never played Dungeons and Dragons Oh right down to play hundred percent engines and dragons that doesn't make any sense so like Instead of like going to a an existing game where we could somebody could initiate us into the mystery
JVL00:20:28Yeah, it's like sex. You can't just like both be first-timers at it, right?
Sonny00:20:32You need to be guided around the curves that doesn't work so uh so instead I I like the first time I sat down to play it I was like what what the fuck is this shit, and then just got out of there I was like I'm never doing this again. This is that's it for me
JVL00:20:45I I do not know this for sure, but I feel reasonably confident that this movie is gonna have zero to do With the actual game of Dungeons dragons Because that would limit its appeal I think it's just gonna be a sword and sorcery movie that makes nods to the source. It's like battles. It's like that makes But way better because it is Hugh Grant in it and Chris born the best Chris or a way worse because it doesn't
Mike00:21:12Really is not in it. That's
JVL00:21:15That's a problem one of the two it's a problem for me, but we're looking forward to it. Oh, it looks so good We got good stuff. We got the the Amazing Mario Brothers movie problematic huge hit Mario Brothers movie. Oh
Mike00:21:27How's it problematic because uh the other Chris Chris Pratt, he's Chris he's not Italian He's not doing an Italian accent. This was if were you are you unaware of this sunny? Wouldn't it be wouldn't it be more? No
Sonny00:21:39Why I know I know people are complaining that it's not like the guy who voiced Mario as a kid
Mike00:21:44He has a cameo in it was a cameo in the movie
Sonny00:21:47but but no, I I feel like it would actually be more problematic for him to affect a Italian accent if he was like Mario
Mike00:21:57Princess I think what happened is a couple of things so Chris Pratt was announced as the voice of Mario So automatically that like like people are sort of like on a knife's edge on the internet, right? Because Chris Pat Pratt is bad right Chris Pratt is is is there's a there's a odd. I mean, I love this On the internet is a vocal anti-pratt
Sonny00:22:17Contingent out there and I I've never understood it. I don't tell you why because
JVL00:22:22He is an annoying screen presence who has gotten worse as time goes by and not that he's the best Chris
Sonny00:22:27He's the best Chris wrong. You're wrong He's he isn't Chris number. He's Chris number one my heart and yours. That's
Mike00:22:34No, but regardless so but there is the anti-pratt contingent So they like they were ready for and and what I think happened was they wanted to see What the movie would be like before they determined what they were going to be angry about About Chris Pratt being Mario in this so I think there was this is he going? To do an Italian accent is he not going to do an Italian accent? So once it was determined he was just gonna use his regular Chris Pratt frat boy voice Then it became you know, this is an affront to to Italians, but if he had been Italian accent, I'd be a bit it's a me a Mario would have been like cultural proper
Sonny00:23:08I was just like that would have been honestly that would have been a million times better I had done if he had done that if he had been like Luigi let's go fix the pipes. It would have been it would have been so much better I feel like I feel like that would be a much more entertaining thing Bob Hoskins accent Are we I feel like we're I think we're allowed to make fun of Italian. I'm Part Italian. Yes, you can. I'm sure I've got some I'm part Italian a part Irish
Mike00:23:36So like we like let her rip as far as I'm concerned on these speaking of being part Irish
Sonny00:23:43This week we're talking about the Banshees of in Asheron, which is 100% Irish. Although there was there was a big piece in slate By a critic who was like, you know, Martin McDonagh is not Irish enough for these Irish movies that he's making He's fake Irish Which was very which was a very which is in terms of like dumb things that have happened in the discourse recently That was number number one or one a in dumb dumb discourse things but a Banshees of in Asheron nominated for Best Picture Has done has done not that much box-office off business, but some It's on HBO max now if you if you haven't watched it, you should go I went to
Mike00:24:21I went to a theater to see it if you can believe it. You saw me in a theater Is it in the theater now? It was in a theater near me Which theater did you go? So I have never been to this theater. It is a one at porno dance I've been there Sonny. Let's let's let's not
Sonny00:24:43Playing playing the banshees of in Asheron, but it just turned out it was just bang cheese It was it was weirdly was on the island And it was on the island of Lesbos not the island of Ireland. I couldn't figure out what was going on in Asheron
Mike00:24:56I barely know her So no Rockers of Freddie doing his Irish accent So no this it's so it's CMX. Are you familiar with CMX? theaters Sonny no, I had never heard of him they are a Alamo Drafthouse wannabe or or sort of a you know, they're sort of copying that format. Maybe not as sort of you know, A fascistic about the rules, but you know, that's okay, but it's at Tyson's to
JVL00:25:28It's not okay, but it's tolerable. It's tolerable. It's tolerable this or this is a Tyson's to it Tyson's Galleria
Mike00:25:36Which they've sort of revamped over the last like couple of years, I guess since kovat and so it's this, you know They got the bar the restaurant You know, they bring it to your table. Although it's the cert table service is cut off 30 minutes before showtime Or no, no not cut off. You can't order after 30 minutes before showtime. So You have to go out and get your concessions if you want it 30 minutes before showtime. Oh, that's dumb. I that's dumb
Sonny00:26:04That's that's the worst possible way to do a draft house type
Mike00:26:08Yeah
Sonny00:26:09Well, I didn't make the rules because the whole point of the draft house is you you never have to get up from your seat
Mike00:26:13They come to you. This is supposed to be a little more like have dinner in a movie here Like dinner first. Gotcha And then your movie I went in the middle of an afternoon and I was the only person in my theater and it was fan tastic
Sonny00:26:28Isn't that just the best? Can do you what type wait? What what actual time was the show? What was the the what was?
Mike00:26:36What was in the afternoon?
Sonny00:26:38two o'clock, so I I swear I D So it near me in in Dallas where I live basically the only time they have show times before Like 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Now are on Saturdays and Sundays And Thursdays and Fridays if there's a big movie coming out So like I the Ant-Man is coming out and there are show times from like 3 o'clock on on Thursday and then like noon on on on Friday, so whatever but usually like I the the the disappearance of the like Noon or earlier screening at my draft house has been a real pain in the ass for me because It means that like I can't go until Like 10 o'clock at night because that's when the kids go to bed
Mike00:27:25yeah, the middle of the day, I mean when I was at the Weekly Standard like that was a Like JVL you and I saw the Dark Knight Rises like it like 1 o'clock in the afternoon. They really did Fantastic. It's like it's like playing hooky, you know We walked down to the East Street cinema. No, no, no. No, no, no, you remember we went to the IMAX at the Air and Space Museum
JVL00:27:47Yes, yes It was great
Mike00:27:51But no, I agree with you something it was so it was weird and I was also sort of like treated like royalty because This is a brand new place as far as I can tell and again. Nobody was at my at my movie I don't think there were many other movies big playing at the time. And so everyone's just like hi, how are you? Good to see you. Thanks for coming in so
Sonny00:28:12Wait, so let me let me ask I'm curious about this this the setup of this place So you have to order your food before you go sit down
Mike00:28:19I believe so, and then they will bring it to you
Sonny00:28:23And then they bring it to you But like if you want like if you want a soda refill or something you have to get up from your chair
Mike00:28:29And you have to go out there is no way of there's no not the cards like at the Alamo Drafthouse
Sonny00:28:33There's no there's no cards. There's no like buzzer So like so it so in in Dallas there we have our Drafthouse, which is you know with the card the card system You have a card with orders, whatever But we also have studio movie grill and studio movie grill is kind of interesting because it's like the Drafthouse thing And they serve through the whole the whole meal, but they have like they have call buttons on Their on their chair So if you want the waiter to come you press the call button and somebody comes over and like takes your orders Which I don't like I don't like that I it like it it creates a level of interaction that I don't care for during much
JVL00:29:07Would you have to speak to them or can you just hand them your order slip? No you you like tell them what? Seems like optimal here is combining Alamo with that where you get the call button and then hand them the slips you don't have to speak to them
Sonny00:29:19Yeah, that that is that does you'll have to recognize them as people Well, that's my nightmare is having to treat the help like a like a you know normal person Yes, I just want I want they're not sending my kids off to the Boarding school and bring me my popcorn without Interacting with them directly. Those are the two things I want. Anyway, should we do a sunny? How about a big-boy review? So the Banshees have been a Sharon as directed by Martin McDonough who folks will probably remember best as the director of in Bruges also made seven psychopaths and three of billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri He is is reteaming with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in this movie Colin Farrell plays a not-quite-village idiot who is friends with the the town's fiddler is played by Brendan Gleeson and the Town's fiddler and their names are God say their names Brendan Brendan Gleeson Brendan Gleeson the characters home. Mm-hmm What is Colin Farrell's character Colin Farrell's name is Padre Patrick Patrick Sullivan Patrick Sullivan, I don't know I
Mike00:30:38That's that's his name is Patrick right, but it's a drink, but but but it's Patrick Sullivan Padre. Oh Did I lose you guys? Oh
Sonny00:30:49Did we lose my eyes? We may have lost him. We may have lost him. Oh, I'm gonna see if he comes back Let's give him let's give him 30 seconds here. Sorry guys Hey, he's back. All right So Colm Colm doesn't want to be friends with Patrick anymore and he tells him this and As the movie progresses Colm tells him tells Patrick That if he does not stop bothering him a calm that he's going to start cutting off his fingers and sending them to him Cutting on his own fingers not his own fingers, right? So this is all set up in the trailers I you know, whatever. Um, I I find this movie. I I I kind of love this movie. I I really It is it is both unsettling and Sad and funny and like darkly funny and it has like four of The best performances in the year. I have not mentioned yet What's his name Barry Kian Kian Barry Kian Barry Kian who who plays the actual village idiot with this kind of really entertaining twitchy Awfulness and Carrie Condon who plays the sister of Padraig who is fantastic in this I've loved her ever since Rome She was she was in Rome. She was Augustus's older sister in Rome And she she is everything she's ever been in and I've always liked her but I think this is rustic quadrants in Rome Did she did early early? Quadrant crusher that whole show crust crushed every clock that was it was But uh, but I I like this movie a lot it's very it's very funny. It's very dark and it it there It there there is something There's something Very sad about it, you know, obviously it's it's a movie about a friendship that kind of comes apart But like it's the way in which the friendship comes apart. That is so interesting to me It's not like these two have had a falling out. There's no Coleman. Are you around get into are you around? Yeah, right? They don't they don't nobody can understand why it is that column doesn't want to be around them anymore Patrick is is lost there's this just this really wonderful scene where Patrick gets into a fight with a cop cop knocks him down Column picks him up and this is after they have split up. This is their you know, they're they're they're rowing if you will but call him picks him up and drives him home on his cart and and lets him off and and Patrick just kind of breaks down in the cart because Like Colm doesn't hate Patrick He doesn't There's there. It's not as if they've had a falling out over a woman Or a job or whatever He just doesn't want to be around him anymore and Patrick can't quite understand that and just loses it and Colin Farrell is so good in this role just just Absolutely wonderful. He just sells the confused despair As well as that role possibly I could sell it and look the movie So the movie is set during the Irish Civil War, which is kind of an interesting little little background tidbit I don't know enough about the Irish Civil War to discuss The you know particulars of whatever the the metaphor That is that is working There I don't I don't know it well enough, but I will say that it and I wrote I wrote this in my review You know four months ago Five months ago when it came out is that it it's it's a very good movie that kind of Pulls apart the silliness of some of the national divorce talk that we hear in this country from time to time from particularly people on the right There is no such thing as national divorce like no hard feelings We're just gonna go our separate ways like that does not exist what what exists is civil war and self-mutilation and Deformant because people we like we are people are interconnected We are communities and you can't just be like we're not gonna do that anymore. That's not how it works And I think that this movie is kind of a timely reminder of that to Bring a little depth to it. So I love I love this movie a lot. I thought it was great
JVL00:35:20I want to push back on something as a way of throwing this conversation to Mike and I'm very very excited that we have Mike here Especially for this movie. So My sense is that the entire movie is a metaphor for the Irish Civil War That it's not like a writerly coincidence. The entire thing is about the Irish Civil War and I wish I knew enough about it but the you know from the You know the commentary about you know, I'm again it I'm again the war and then the you know The cop who is happy to go over to help out be a little extra muscle for some mass executions and he is like You know column says to him who are they executing? He's like, I think the IRAs are Executing the other one or maybe it's the other way around. I don't know it was all easier to keep track of when we were all the IRA and Just the the idiotic nihilism of Civil War and especially the Irish one and where they had just fought a war of independence, right? And then the same, you know, literally four years after the War of Independence the same people split apart And fight this murderous and more Irishman died during the Civil War than during the War of Independence, right? I mean just sort of think of that for a moment, right? You go through all this bloodshed to to cut free of the English and then you kill more of each other than the English did Yeah And I loved Basically everything about about it. It's because it's it's a metaphor. It works on that level It works just as a story. It's almost it almost feels like a road movie, you know in in this But even though we're sort of all in one place, it's beautiful this is what movies that are made for a screen and not for a streaming service look like and You can tell even when you're just watching it through a streaming service on your TV I say the performances are great and it it manages to be as you say sunny Touching and dark and sad and also laugh out loud funny There is the the scene in the confessional where so so calm goes to confession and the priest He and the priest have this scene together It's one of the funniest things I've seen I emailed father Anthony and father Harrison our text father Anthony father Harrison as soon as I'd finished watching just that scene I was like guys you got to put drop whatever you're doing drop whatever you're doing and watch this and they both just laughed because the the priest says to To to call him as he's trying to understand why Coleman Patrick aren't aren't friends anymore He says are you having impure thoughts about him and columns like what are you having impure thoughts about men and? Priest gets very upset. Well, how dare you say that? He said well, you said that about me first throws him out of the confessional and says It's screaming vulgarities and you're not absolved from anything not until next week Calm says well if I die this week, then I'm pure fact aren't I and it's your pre effect It's so funny. It's so it's funny on like, you know, four different levels and I I Just thought it was an extraordinary movie. Yeah, extraordinary And anyway, so I wanted to throw this to you Mike and just ask about the Irish Civil War stuff Because you are as somebody who is half you what an immense disappointment to both sides of your ancestors to have the Irish Marrying the Italians yikes. Oh, it's don't even get me started
Mike00:38:56Like that's it's on it's on the grandparents my maternal grandparents and it's like it it it existed Even like decades later like the divide. Oh, I bet they're from Philly - I mean this it's like it's like the Irish anyway So, okay. So I guess I'll start at the support. Well, actually, let me back up a little bit like both Both JVL and Sonny you both said that it's you know It's sad and maybe you said melancholic or and funny all these things it is which is like to say It's an Irish story, right? I mean, it's it is Irish and it is it the the the movie is so Sort of imbued with Irishness that I mean you did have commentators saying it was playing too much into Irish stereotypes My problem is having been to Ireland knowing Irish people like the problem is the Stereotypes are like generally true. So yes Yes, literally down to the the running joke of the donkey coming into the house I mean when I went I wrote about this my visit to my cousins in Ireland in the Weekly Standard years ago and Literally, we're sitting in their house in rural Ireland talking about the family tree and showing, you know Figuring out where we are connected and the door of this house opens and in walks the donkey and my like third cousin once removed
Guest00:40:15It's like get the fuck out of here get the fuck out of here. I'm like, so when it's happened in the movie
Mike00:40:20I'm like, oh, yeah. Yeah, that's that's real. That's reality I also love by the way
Sonny00:40:25Can I just say can I can I just say one thing one thing that did jump out to me while I was watching it? was that like this feels the setting of this movie feels like it's like It could just as easily be like the early 1800s. Yes as The the 1900s and like or the early 2000s or like like my understanding is it like It's actually not that I mean, obviously people have cars and you know TVs and stuff But like it's it's still not that different in in parts of particularly the Irish countryside
Mike00:40:56Well, I would say the the Irish the Ireland of now, right? This was a hundred years ago is what it took place It would be demonstrably different just because everything is flat like the world is all flatter and that happened in Ireland It happened in Ireland later. It happened in the late 80s and early 90s but I mean that Is it? Lasted longer. I wouldn't say Ireland was a very third world country But it was like a second world country in the in the country for a really long time for a place You know that in the in the West in the European Union or whatever So a couple of other quick thoughts. I mean I have been to One of the islands where they filmed part of this movie so there was the scene where where where Patrick and the and the and Barry Keoghan's character His name's escaped me at the moment the the half Danny was a Danny Yeah, where they're sitting like on it looks sort of like these These gray stones that are stacked on each other and they're kind of looking out over the cliff I know exactly where that is. I've been there. It is on in a Sharon Which is kind of the stand-in where this fake in a Sharon? I mean the names sound similar where this where this is supposed to be and it really is The movie captures that just the majesty of those landscapes in it. It does look like that now I mean they filmed it there it for a reason it looks just like it probably did in 1923 and some parts it looks like it did like BC because that that actual structure is is older than than Christ so I Loved that aspect of it so on the the Irish Civil War the Without going too deep into what was going on essentially what you had was the War of Independence The the conclusion of the War of Independence from the UK was essentially to make Ireland the free state of Ireland Which would have given it a status not unlike You know Australia or New Zealand a place in the Commonwealth Independent of its of the government in the UK, but still subservient and so this was the divide, right? You had the free staters and the what became, you know, the IRA Sort of fighting it out. You had people saying this is good enough This is what we were fighting for and the other half saying no, this is not good enough. This is not We're no we're no more independent than we were beforehand and so it's like you said, I mean this is the Kind of hopelessness and the the self mutilation that a civil war is I mean is really I mean the metaphor is almost a little too heavy-handed except for the fact that Probably American audiences don't know enough about the Civil War to do to follow it. But also yeah, but also it's It's Iran. It's Irish. It's Ireland I kept thinking about this, you know, because the the actual plot of this movie sort of the big plot device of of Of calm cutting off his fingers, which is like horrifying and and like grotesque and in fitting with with the directors, you know, kind of Love of the of the like funny in the grotesque like mixing those two together It's it's a little outrageous like if you step out of it for a second if you step out of the story and think about it like It's so out of You the suspension of disbelief that you have to do to sort of like follow the story after afterward. It's it's a little difficult, but I was thinking about how It has the quality of the way people in Ireland and maybe other places but my Experience in Ireland sort of tell stories about what happened You know I think about when I went to visit my cousins, and then I I met their cousins Who were younger and a little more aware of like their son was in was in the United States? So they sort of talked to us Americans a little more They weren't as sort of backwards And we we ended up spending a lot of time with them and they were telling old stories about my cousins when they were young and the stories Were absolutely exaggerated You know about screaming at their mother when the first time they got drunk and walking through it would have all this stuff And I kept thinking this story is like a perfect Irish story The real story if this were to be a real story might be that you know he cut He cut you know he cut into his finger, but not cut his finger off and that the story kind of grew into this Kind of grotesque modeling over-the-top story because that's the way Irish people Tell stories and so I you know in the way that like it wasn't magical realism, but sort of like exaggerated realism I think just really captured the the the the culture and the The way that Ireland and Ireland sort of talks about itself talks about its struggles over over the centuries it just it just it felt so in a way that three billboards out of outside Ebbing, Missouri was sort of a caricature of Middle America this felt so True and it's probably because the writer director is much closer to it
Sonny00:46:24Well, can we can we talk a little bit about McDonagh and his other movies because I don't know how you guys feel about in Bruges, but it's one of my favorite ones of the 2000s. I Love that movie It's great. And every what he had made since then had frankly not been as good. I mean seven psychopaths I don't know if you guys have seen seven psychopaths. I have not but seven psychopaths is interesting because It's his second feature film and it is it immediately devolves into like weird meta navel gazing it's about a screenwriter who's played by Colin Farrell who is has writer's block and he's trying to come up with a screenplay about clever hitmen and It's just like okay, you're you're like he's he's like already wrapped him. He's wrapped around his own axle There and then three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. I like it's funny. I was one of the first critics to write a negative Review of it. It got raves coming out of Out of the festivals, you know, it wasn't it was a huge Oscar favorite and I watched it I was just like what are you people watching? This is not this like this is a nonsense movie. It's not it's not very good It's overwrought. It's you know It's it's Just it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't work as a comment on whatever it's trying to comment I just the whole thing didn't work But this is I mean, this is a as Mike says, I think it's I think it helps that he is, you know Regardless of what Slate has to say he is he's he is an Irishman. I mean, this is an Irish It's a very Irish movie. It deals with a topic that is very near and dear to him and Farrell and Gleason are both just Magnificent in this I mean, it's just as a it's amazing
JVL00:48:10So here's what I what I admire so much about it is today and the reason I think the movie just works at multiple Levels. I suspect that this is a gigantic hit in Ireland That Irish audiences love it Maybe I'm wrong about that. But I suspect this played very well in Ireland so you can be a native Irish person or somebody knows a lot about Ireland and appreciate it at the level of National epic in that way and you can know nothing about it You could just just sort of see it as the story about these, you know Like a tale about these two friends and about our friendships in a small place work and That works great. It works as a You know, I think there's a big one of the things that pay drags keeps saying is over and over he's like, but I'm nice Right, you know and what people say to calm when they say why you know, why aren't you aren't your friends with pay drag? No more and it's like, you know, well, that's not nice And the difference between what is niceness overrated as as a quality and is is nice to different than good as Steven Sondheim asks and into the woods and I I Just love that stuff. I think there's actually it's I think you can mind that and have like long interesting conversations about it and you know, there's this scene where they're in the bar and And one of the things that drives pay drag nuts is that calm has only cut him out of his life He still hangs out with all these other idiots, right? So he is hanging out with this corrupt policeman who sexually abuses his son who is himself an idiot and calm hasn't cut him out of his life, right, you know only pay drag and You know Peter is sitting and talking to him and he says in calm is explained to him his rationale And which is that like look I'm gonna die and I want to create something, you know, I'm a musician and an artist I want to create something beautiful that will that will last something that you know, 200 years from now people will be People will remember and pay drag says, well, you know, my mother and father were nice and I remember them and this Which like this is a very very large human question right about about the creative impulse and about family and the nature of legacy and all that and the movie has a lot to say about both and In ways which are incredibly dexterous I think and subtle and not oh, you know hit you over there
Mike00:50:43I just that that scene JV L was was in a in a movie full of fantastic scenes I thought was the best to see because it it distilled it down right to like what what this what this Debate was about and you know in it and it spun out into interesting ways Where does? Again, is it Danny? Is that Barry Keoghan's character? Where is it where the breakdown between Patrick and Danny is it's it's when when Danny realizes that Patrick wasn't nice right When when when because because Patrick said that that poor music student home for that which by the way that scene where they're talking About the bread truck was I was laughing out loud But the the the you know, it's that moment where he just he describes what he's done and Danny the half wit says Well, that's not very nice. It's the last time that they that they that they have this friendship Which of course is one of you know, the ending of that, you know It was sort of a part of Patrick's the breakdown of Patrick's relationships You know, it sort of said had something to say about What was you know, what was important for Patrick in his life? It was that he was a nice guy that he was a nice person that he had these relationships that he fostered and that that's what he should be focusing on and It's not necessarily what what Colm should be focusing on I mean, it doesn't really the movie doesn't quite take sides in that debate. It just presents it as these these things are not Easy, you know these there's not an easy answer to this and it was it Laid it out in such a it's such a beautiful way
JVL00:52:18Colin Farrell is so good. Has he ever fantastic? I am sure Colin Farrell has given bad performances But I can't remember any time I've ever seen him on screen and not thought that he was sensational even in terror Even as bullseye in the daredevil movie
Sonny00:52:34He said he's doing something interesting in that best thing in the whole movie I mean, it's like it's it's funny, you know, he had that he had that stretch in the early aughts where He was gonna be kind of generic leaning man Action star right like he's in SWAT
JVL00:52:52Yeah, that's right SWAT with Michelle Rodriguez, right?
Sonny00:52:55He's in he's in he's in a bunch of stuff like that and it didn't quite take and I think we're all better off for that Just in terms of God. What was that? What was the Al Pacino movie that he's in? Is it the recruit? He's great He's like it's terrible. He's good at it. He's good at it, but it's a bad movie, but it's it but it was like generically Leading man sort of stuff like he's you know, he's great
JVL00:53:18What is that we watched a streaming action movie that he has a tertiary part in not all that long ago a year and a half ago, I forget what it's about but it's on one of these like there's a hitman who's gone rogue and he's the boss of the hitman organization and oh
Sonny00:53:35The was that the one with John Malkovich and Ava was it maybe his Ava? Maybe that's what it was
JVL00:53:42I or what but the point is He said he's the best thing and he's the best thing in everything. He's in he's the best thing in Alexander Which is actually a reasonably interesting movie. He's he's the best thing in Miami Vice, which is a really good movie He's the best thing in The Gentleman, which is a really great movie. I
Mike00:54:01Man, he's just awesome And he plays he plays idiots. Well, he plays, you know action style. He's always doing something interesting and In this movie, you know it so much of it is in his eyes and frankly his eyebrow You know the way he moves them to express the internal Anguish that he's feeling is terrific connect. It's like confusion. Yes fusion as much as anguish
Sonny00:54:27I like he's like and that is that is the heart of this movie. Is it like it is confusing? Sometimes it is confusing to lose a friend sometimes we lose friends in ways that confuse us and like How do you how do you handle that how do you how do you deal with it?
JVL00:54:44You just need to switch and if you never speak to him again, Sonny, it's that easy
Sonny00:54:49Some some of us have better ways of handling this. Yeah, but but look look how both of them end up, right?
Mike00:54:54I mean they both Lose out of this. I mean that you know Colt Coleman civil war to get it. Yes, right, right It's a simple to add every size to add to the metaphor of this that I thought halfway through I started Paying closer attention to Carrie Condon who plays Siobhan this sister Patrick's sister because she's She's In the background for so much of this and then all of a sudden the movie almost seems to be about her and not about this friendship, which I thought was very interesting and The fact is at the end spoiler alert. She essentially escapes right? She goes to the mainland She leaves which is such a that's another element of the Irishness of this which to really understand the Irish Kind of mindset. It is a place That is, you know, literally in source Allure, it is isolated. It is a little bit behind the times and it's also a place where half of the people left and Never came back and that is as huge a part of the country's psyche as As the division, you know between north and south or between Catholic and Protestant or what was going on this of war It's this this idea that the people and in some ways the best people That's certainly the way they feel left the the bravest people, you know, the people who who when they did leave Ended up more successful and richer than than any of their I mean, I've seen this in my own family the story of of my family's That the ones who went to America would come back to this tiny little Western Irish village that I've been to every year to visit and The stories are that you know, they had more money than anybody There knew what to do with so one year they built a two-story house, which was unheard of at the time another another time they brought a car and when they came back the following year the car was in the exact same place that they had left it when they brought it and The reason was because the the wheel the the the axles were too wide for the roads I mean, so there's just this kind of there's this kind of Emptiness in Ireland of who's left of who's gone and the the movie just captured That element of it as well with with Siobhan leaving. I just I can't I could talk about this movie for like three hours
Sonny00:57:23Love it. Well, we're gonna have to cut it off here. Fine. You go. I'll talk to myself about it
JVL00:57:28I'm so glad we found a movie. We all loved
Sonny00:57:32Yeah, it's great it's great I like I like it a lot I'm glad I got nominated for Best Picture
JVL00:57:37I don't think it'll win. But what about the other them gets nominated for Best Actor? But yes, either Brendan Gleeson, I think I think Gleeson
Sonny00:57:44And Farrell both got nominated as did Condon. Yeah, and Keone might have as well
JVL00:57:49I think I think like I think there were there were maybe yes. So are they both nominated for Best Leading Man? No
Sonny00:57:55No, I think Gleeson and Keone are nominated for Supporting and Farrell for Leading. That's interesting Okay. Yeah, because they are very much co-leads. Yeah, they are co-leads. I would yeah
JVL00:58:07They must have made an agreement as they were pushing for the nominations to do one in either category instead of both for right because If you if they'd both been nominated for Best Actor, then neither could have won, right? Yeah, Farrell is nominated for Best Actor
Sonny00:58:26And Supporting Actress is Condon and
Mike00:58:32Supporting Actor is Gleeson and Keone. Yeah, this is Carter Burwell score as well. I think he was dominated. Yeah. Yeah, it's great
Sonny00:58:41All right, that's all the time we're giving this episode Make sure you tell friends. We're on patreon so beacon calm You'll easily find us by buy a t-shirt or something. I don't know We'll see you guys next week
Mike00:59:01So Yes, so I I was the mystery reader in my second graders classroom today. This is This is like the masked singer Yes They have it's just like a volunteer opportunity and I did it by zoom last year and I did it in person today And it was they you're not supposed to tell your kid, which I'm glad I remembered that I was like almost going to tell him that I was coming in. I was like wait I think it's a mystery and then you send the teacher three facts about yourself that maybe increasingly reveal who you are and then they have to guess who they think it is and then And then you show up and you read to them And so I I did that and I walked in and my son and me as I knew it I knew it was you and everyone like this or they all decided that it was me And then I read I read like 15 minutes of the first chapter of The Hobbit to them and it was it was it was a lot of fun, you know, and They were you know, it was funny to see Them sort of like all they had kind of a general idea that this story existed, but like the first question I got was Was was this a movie I was like, yes, it was like three movies. They were not that good, you know and it was just interesting they're at this they're at this age where they're like They they'll now like chapter books more than certainly more than my picture books and this sort of thing
JVL01:00:33So there's little kids. They're big exactly
Mike01:00:36So there's a kind of like I could tell they were like interested because it was such a thick book to them But also like, you know the very first beginning there's no dialogue And I think they were obviously they were like losing it a bit and but but but they got into it
Sonny01:00:48So it was fun. Yeah, it's definitely that that is that's the sort of book where I feel like it's kind of hard to Keep them paying attention. You need like the I don't know like the
Mike01:01:01Judy Blume books or whatever. Yeah, or that's even the Beverly Cleary, you know, yeah, we're everybody's talking about really Cleary, but but the Daryl Stein Goosebumps
Sonny01:01:12Sure, it's fine. Do goosebumps still are goosebumps still a thing
Mike01:01:14They are at the they're at the library. I saw the hundred percent. Yeah Yeah, that's good. I love the goosebumps. I'm sure it's fine
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