Martin McDonagh has carved an enviable career as both writer and director on stage and in cinema. His In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing are two of my favorite films; and this latest, will surely stand as among his finest. Already, it’s received a lot of buzz for the current season of film awards, with both McDonagh and his excellent cast reaping several nominations. Starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleason, and superbly supported by the likes of Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan, there is so much to enjoy in terms of rich characterizations and sense of time and place, that it’s difficult to know where to begin.

In turns bleakly funny, then horrifyingly uncomfortable and ultimately heartbreaking and tragic; the magic cast by the film lies in how from such an insular, private, little wisp of a story, we’re drawn in and riveted. Set in this mythical island of Inisherin off the coast of Ireland in the mid 1920’s, while the civil war in ongoing on the mainland, you can’t help but feel McDonagh is saying something about how friends and brothers can go to war against each other for the stupidest and flimsiest of reasons and quickly forget how it all started and take the feuding and fighting deathly seriously.

Colin Farrell plays Padraic, something of a reputed simpleton, and dullard on the island, known more for being a nice guy. His best friend and daily mate at the pub is Colm, portrayed by Brendan Gleeson, a local charmer and musician. Siobhan is Padraic’s moody and more cerebral sister, a role that Kerry Condon plays to perfection; while Barry Keoghan is the local idiot, even more of a nuisance than Padraic, and the son of the island’s version of the law.

The narrative takes on a force of its own when without warning, Colm decides he no longer wants to be a friend to Padraic, stating that their friendship is an utter waste of time, and will be best dispensed with so that Colm can spend the rest of his life more gainfully. This flummoxes Padraic, and it’s etched on his face and in his efforts to correct things or understand why this end to a friendship even has to happen.

When Colm declares that each time Padraic will approach him or try and talk to him, Colm will cut off one of his fingers, the threat is seen as something obscenely extreme, and will never come to pass. Just how horrifyingly wrong this presumption will be becomes part of what makes this film so riveting, and turns us into ready voyeurs for the dark comedy and tragedy that will unfold.

Farrell turns in one his most beguiling of film portrayals, where we sympathize with him, yet practically want to scream at the screen for him to stop trying to rescue the friendship. That there is a Mrs. McCormick who acts as the local witch and sage, gives the film an ethereal, other-worldly flavor; and adds to how this film is also saying something deeper about the human condition, and how we’re so ready to do the sublime and ridiculous simultaneously.

Condon and Keoghan are crazy excellent in the roles they portray, adding to the list of how involved we’re ready to be, and how interested and/or sympathetic we are to the characters onscreen. Kudos to McDonagh for putting so much texture into all his characters, both major and minor; and for imbuing this little story with the mythical. A strong candidate for Best Picture; and you can watch the film on Disney+.