The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

 Pros: From the rustic setting to the excellent performances, this simple film is impossible to look away from as you don't know where it's headed. Padraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson) used to be best friends, something necessary in the tiny island village but seemingly out of nowhere, Colm stops speaking to Padraic, finding him too boring and needing the energy to focus on composer and the lengths he goes through to get Padraic to avoid him is incredibly extreme. Still, the two leads deliver excellent turns though I found Kerry Condon as Padraic's sister, Siobhan, to be better as the sole normal character in the film and Barry Keoghan delivers as the village observant dim-wit, Dominic.

Cons: Honestly, it is hard to find a true negative fragment in this film, though I suppose the careers of the main characters could have been better defined.

Recommend: Yes

Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-For someone who wants to focus on his fiddle-playing, it seems quite foolish that he would cut all his fingers on his fiddle-playing hand.

-Despite using garden shears, Colm develops no infection from his amputation.

-Siobhan and Padraic still sleep in their childhood twin beds, in the same bedroom no less.  

-Poor Dominic, he deserved better than what he got. Ditto for Jenny. 

-In the end, by turning mean and vengeful, Padraic finally becomes interesting again.

-The elderly Mrs. McCormick (Sheila Fitton), who sees, observes and hears everything is the titular banshee of the film.

-The island doesn't have any electricity, or least it didn't have any in 1993 when the film is set. 

-The shop keeper is beyond nosy. 

My Left Foot (1989)

 Pros: Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a remarkable performance as the Irish Christy Brown, growing up poor with a severe disability, cerebral palsy, in a time when his family and country were ill-quipped to help him. He is brilliant, as only one of his limbs works and he inhabits the character, with all the facial expressions and detailed paintings (holding the brush in the toes of his left foot), Day-Lewis fully deserved his first Oscar for this role and he's not alone, Brenda Fricker is great as his mother, Bridget Brown, who delivered twenty-three children, though tragically, nine died as infants. She is brilliant and fearless as his biggest supporter, pushing her own wishes, whatever they might have been, aside to let him thrive. Ray McAnally is also great as the firm and tender patriarch. 

Cons: Despite the immense pity you have for Christy Brown and rough life he certainly has, he's a bit of an ass, especially when it comes to his love life. At a benefit concert, he meets his temporary nurse, Mary (Ruth McCabe), he somehow forms an attraction with her and is livid when he finds out that she already has a boyfriend and can't understand why she sees him if she doesn't love him, when it is actually none of his business especially since they just met. He's equally as cruel to his doctor, Eileen Cole (Fiona Shaw) when she gets engaged.

Recommend: Yes

Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-Hugh O'Conor also gives an exceptional performance as the young Christy, banished to a mat under the staircase, his mother struggling to care him, her body burdened by pregnancy upon pregnancy, but the love between them is fierce.

-One of the best scenes is when Christy surprises his mother with the vast amount of funds he receives from publishing his memoir. 

-Though it could not have been easy for them, Christy's siblings adore and support him and he is especially upset when his sister leaves to get married. 

-It is unclear exactly how Christy learns to read, though he is read to by the neighbors who don't think him capable of anything. Boy, does he prove them wrong. 

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Pros: This is an overall superb film, portraying an elicit love affair between wannabe rancher Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and rodeoer Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) who take a summer job in the mountains camping and guarding sheep though that goes sideways, at least as far as the sheep are concerned. Instead, they form a tender relationship which rapidly becomes the most important in their lives despite them both eventually marrying others and starting a family. The acting is just utterly incredible, you don't question or even believe that Ledger and Gyllenhaal ever acted in anything else, but their past becomes what their characters have done. The supporting cast is also top-notch though the strength of the roles vary. Even the setting and attention to detail in the set decoration and score are incredible.

Cons: Probably my only con is that the first love scene between the two men is that it is not exactly consensual. Neither says no but consent is never asked or given and that is a problem. Consent is sexy.

Recommend: Yes

Grade: A

Side Notes:

-The women in the lives in Ennis and Jake include Anne Hathaway as the wealthy Lureen who Jack marries, Linda Cardellini's Cassie as a waitress who tries to date Ennis after his divorce, Anna Faris as the perky blonde with whom Jack states he has an affair with and the best of them all, Michelle Williams as Alma, Ennis's wife, who is likely the only one who figures out her husband's secret and she punishes him strongly for it.

-Though Cardellini and Faris get the billing over Hathaway and Williams, Faris's role is little more than a cameo and Cardellini's role is also relatively tiny.

-Williams fully deserved her supporting actress Oscar-nomination.

-Kate Mara also delivers a great turn as Ennis's teenage daughter though his second daughter oddly disappear.

-The reason for the ending of Ennis's and Alma's marriage is great, she refuses to have any more children with him until he can support them better. The $250 per month he's ordered to pay in child support must be crippling to him. 

The Woman King (2022)

 Pros: Viola Davis heads a fabulous cast in a film that depicts African culture toward the end of the slave trade. Part of the Dahomey are the women warriors led by Davis's Nanisca who holds her own personal vendetta against the Oyo tribe not to mention the slavers who take the prisoners and sell them into slavery which is shown. The costumes and set make the film all the more real and worth watching.

Cons: Honestly, it is hard to find a true bad thing about this film though it is always hard to have a film which is filled with violence (though it is done tastefully) and implied rape, as those have been done time and time again.

Recommend: Yes

Grade: B+

Side Notes:

-The supporting cast is largely unknown though they deliver brilliant and realistic performances.

-John Boyega is great as the king who does an abrupt about face with Nanisca, first forbidding her from fighting both the Oyo and slavers but she disobeys him and after she manages an unlikely defeat, her reward remains intact.

-It takes Nanisca the entire film to forgive her daughter and herself for her brutal rape.

-It is unclear how many wives John Boyega actually has, though one is far more vocal than the rest. 

-There is a love story as one of the subplots and it ends differently with Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) remaining a warrior.

-Nanisca ultimately fulfills the title by being appointed the woman king.