#Banshee/Curse

[thebroccolination]

I think where I’m at right now with Thai BL is that the fandom as a whole has gotten so immensely mean-spirited and calculating that I find myself missing the fandom environment back during lockdown. So many of my friends from that time have since moved on and most of them point not to the actors or the series but to the malicious attitude of fans.

This whole place needs to lighten the fuck up.

We’re the Gay Hallmark fandom for fucking out loud.

[multi-fandomdisaster]

Good news! Siren's Curse is a woman! Feminism win!!!

[nfcomics]

BETTIE PAGE & THE CURSE OF THE BANSHEE no.1 • cover art • Jae Lee [June 2021]

[thechosenanubis]

In S1 in House of Identity/House of Emergency (ep. 26 & 27) towards the end of the episode, there is a piece of dialogue which hurts so much more in hindsight:

Nina: it’s my fault that Alfie’s in the hospital. Fabian: No, no it’s not. Patricia should never have left that bottle in her bag. Nina: Don’t you understand? I’m like some curse. I was the one who was given the locket. I found the cylinders. I wish I could just go back in time and turn down the scholarship. [cut to S3 where Nina doesn't come back.]

[siphisket]

Genuinely funny that I got into JJK right before the game release. Very on-theme lol. (Cursed speech cursed speech cursed speech cursed speech cursed speech aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

Bonus:

[goldilust]

Day 3 - Prompt: Cursed Relic

I decided to go with a weapon cursed with a banshee, you must do your vows with her to be able to use it, and once you do, you can never separate.

[minimorgana]

no one:

me: spiraling thinking about how if they'd never called the aglaeca nace wouldn't have gotten cursed

[thatratgo]

Another Cos Meme ;)

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

I was in a silly goofy mood, so here’s a Bad End/Goons Dragon’s Lair AU +drawings c:

(Body horror, blood, rotting flesh, +kinda sad tw ig)

Idk, this may be set up like partially disorganized DND stats

Hollow:

Alrightly, so the first one we're talking about is more of a remake/redesign on an established character in the franchise. 'Hollow' is a character from the possibly non-canon 3D game, and is like the evil Dirk or something (idk-I tried to look into it, but looking at this game for too long makes me cringe)

Yeah, this guy.

But instead of just being a recolor and a copy of whatever Space Ace did that one time, in my version he's just Dirk from an alternate timeline.

So basically, in this timeline either a. this follows one of the deaths where it doesn't fully show him die/just shows him fail and get stuck somewhere, or b. a timeline where Mordroc and his goons take another route and attack him all at once when he first enters

Anyways, Mordroc (with intention of getting another servant to his castle) gets to Dirk and places an amulet over his neck, explaining he just gave him the 'gift' of immortality; confusing Dirk, wondering why he just did that in the first place. In a turn of events Mordroc stands back and allows his goons to tear Dirk's eyes out and throw him in a random room.

With the amulet, the victim cannot remove it themselves- but have to rely one someone else taking it off for them. You can gain fatal injuries with the amulet and not die, but the injury will likely never heal (other than maybe bleeding stopping), and the one who wears the amulet will never have the pain ease.

'Hollow', as the inhabitants of the Dragon's Lair have come to name him, isn't inherently evil; nor has any forced villainy caused by the amulet, and is still just normal Dirk- but cannot hear or see, and is thriving off of desperation to leave the castle without adding anything else to his anguish. Having a good intuition at first, he has forced himself to concentrate enough so his instincts can help him 'survive'. But no matter who you may be, good or bad, Hollow takes no chances and swings first.

To survive, remember to be smooth and agile in your movements if you see freshly killed goons/knights, smell old blood and rotting flesh approaching, or hear a man crying, screaming in anguish, or calling out 'Daphne' or help. Remember that harming him only makes him more desperate and hostile. If you have his well being in mind, avoid harming him at all costs and just sneak and dodge- and barricade the nearest door if possible.

If you don't care and just need to get closer to saving the princess, just disarm him by cutting off his arms and/or legs but that's pretty cruel. It's actually frowned upon to do that and should only be the last resort.

You can actually befriend Hollow, and it's one of the most recommended routes (other than taking the amulet off yourself). To do this, you need to dodge his attacks, and reassure through some way of touch or presence to show you are a friend or to reassure that he's safe. Show though grabbing his hand or arm that you're going to be guiding him, and just stay in literal touch or out of range when enemies are near-and he should take care of the issue. If you are able to lead him out, let him know he's safe and comfortable before paying your debt by taking the amulet off.

It's unclear if you can save Hollow, as taking off the amulet will just let his fatal wounds catch up to him and instantly kill him (Aka the amulet keeps him alive). Asking most guides, they would just tell you that yanking the amulet off is the best you can do, as he's 'cheating' death and won't suffer any longer- but there may be a 1% in reversing it. That is, to begin the route; take Hollow out and find the best healing mange you can. It's hard to say if healing magic or medical attention can actually 100% help him out, as there's plenty of issues causing him anguish, and either magic or medical care can miss that. And that being said, it's likely difficult to find a good mange in the kingdom, and an even better mange to cure full blown missing eyeballs and other organs- and he might still live with difficulty. This isn't the most recommended route to deal with Hollow, but taking the chance is by no means frowned upon.

Any time Hollow gets close to the exit, a goon is sent to pull him back to another room to screw him up again. It's unknown if they would do this if he got close to the gold room. They've lost a few goons while doing this, but Mordroc insists in keeping him as a guard and a good selection to his 'collection' of knights.

Anyways, ignore the quality of my horrible colored pencil drawings

The Banshee Princess:

After Dirk's 'failure' to save her, Daphne officially became another new 'toy' to Mordroc's collection. Mordroc basically went through the same ritual as seen in the second game, and casted the Banshee curse on her through marriage. The Banshee curse itself forms out of loss and grief, and being that Daphne was in a slightly different position of grief (Aka, no children or husband to lose-but rather just a whole kingdom and boyfriend((?)) ) her form composed into a different and lesser variation.

After she was let out of the bubble, she claimed Singe's room-even to the point of becoming to agitated with him to the point that she killed him by eating him from the inside-out while he was sleeping.

This rendition of the banshee is smaller and more agile like a lizard; and can be found mostly at the back end of the castle. She can crawl on walls, and uses that to her advantage to sneak on her prey. While she can attack goons, she mainly aims for and lives off of knights (as Mordroc won't announce her change to the kingdom and also won't bother to come close enough to feed her).

Her scream is loud and shrill enough that it instantly paralyzes her victims- however she only does this at a very close perimeter.

Look for signs of the Banshee once you enter this area. Keep alert if you feel like your eyes are making up something crawling on the wall beside you. Don't follow if you hear a woman's voice crying out anything like 'help me!', 'save me!', 'mom!' or 'Dirk!'.

Unlike Hollow, there's more of a chance to save Daphne from this fate (albeit she will revert back due to fatal injuries). The one and only cure is a kiss of true love (maybe where befriending Hollow comes in,, but you can try if you wanted to ig)- but the issue with that would be in getting her to remember who she was before so she could stop attacking. Memories are quite rare to get, but it's at least worth the try. Memories are also quite temporary, and she'll just quickly revert back to her animalistic instinct if you're not quick enough to communicate to her.

The ring is no longer there, and the deadline for the ring to enact the curse is long past due. She ripped it off herself while she still had a little bit of control at some point.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the random angst

:3

[ellatholmes]

but I liked my writing yesterday, like

[daincrediblegg]

no one told me how sweet crozier talking about his childhood in ireland was going to be you lying bastards

[thatwritererinoriordan]

Bettie Page: Curse of the Banshee Paperback

[frosteee-variation]

posting this here because I'm proud of it but!! I blame the blaseblr discord for getting me so invested in this curse(d?) ghost pirate skeleton that I've only had for like, five seconds.

anyways this is drafty shipshape and I've yet to draw them in uniform

[banshee-circus]

ITS SPIDER BANSHEE AGAIN

although it's wearing a different style this time. five guesses what bases THAT off.

basically, the green haired ones called Poly so this being referenced here...

in hindsight I should posted Poly and Mono pics first but eh.

Poly had a beatlejuice voice so sometimes I dress it up in the outfit.

as for this pic? just Spider Banshee wearing a green wig this time.

[lydyova]

Sylfeal

by my old ego

[grigori77]

2022 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30.  THOR: LOVE & THUNDER – All right, STRAIGHT AWAY I’m gonna address the elephant in the room – this year’s big-screen MCU offerings have been somewhat underwhelming compared to previous years’ track record, which certainly points to a worrying continuing trend (especially after 2021’s subjective misfire Eternals) of the previously CONSISTENTLY ON-FORM movie-making behemoth starting to slack off some.  Could it be true?  Well the latest offerings are still entertaining cinema, but there’s no denying some of the shine seems to be coming off the product after COVID, especially with all the other shit we’re having to put up with in the real world right now … still, even on an off-day, writer-director Taika Waititi is still capable of delivering something special, and while this never reaches the rewarding heights of Thor: Ragnarok, his second tour of duty for Marvel is still a lot of fun. As with its predecessor, there are certainly times where it’s clear that plot was never a major concern with this movie, but at least there’s enough to keep the film from devolving into a two hour string of admittedly frequently hilarious fan-service skits … Gor the God Butcher (Christian Bale) has embarked on an intergalactic crusade to rid the Universe of gods with his deadly Necrosword and an army of nightmarish shadow demons, prompting Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to get over his post-Endgame funk and MAN UP again in order to save the day with the help of his faithful companions Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg the Kronan (Waititi himself), as well as his ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who’s now been gifted the powers of Thor by the reconstituted hammer Mjolnir (I shit you not), which is also helping her fight the terminal cancer ravaging her body. Got all that?  Good, because that’s all we really NEED to know as Waititi and co lead us on a merry romp through a series of visually stunning cosmic adventures, rousing larger-than-life primary-coloured superhero battles and a riotous cavalcade of impressively well-pitched jokes that display an impressively consistent hit rate.  Hemsworth once again proves that funny Thor is the best Thor, but there’s enough emotional heavy-lifting involved in the story that he gets to exercise his dramatic muscles too, while it’s nice to finally see Portman finally return to a role she’s been absent from for far too long, and this time she’s clearly having a fine old time finally getting to play on an equal footing with the big boys as Jane’s new superpowered alter ego; Thompson and Waititi, meanwhile, both get to do a lot with significantly expanded roles this time round, while the brief first act appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy is a welcome whetting of our appetites as we wait for Volume 3. Then there’s the newcomers, of course – the sojourn to Omnipotence City, the galactic Home of The Gods, is one of the film’s undeniable highlights, especially with the introduction of a delightfully hammy Russell Crowe as the mighty Zeus, while Christian Bale brings a welcome touch of old school professional gravitas and method intensity to the role of Gor, who, despite his despicable methods, ultimately proves to be one of the MCU’s most sympathetic villains.  This is one of those movies that’s definitely less about the destination than the journey, as the real pleasure here’s just submerging ourselves in the spectacle, the characters and the endless rich humour and going with the flow, and it’s this kind of filmmaking that Waititi excels at like few others – ultimately it doesn’t hold up to some of the greats that came before, but it’s still worth giving a chance.  Let’s just hope Marvel can do better in the future, yeah?

29.  THE 355 – my cinematic year kicked off in what I thought was thoroughly fine style with a rip-roaring, star-studded spy thriller which was clearly intended to start a franchise which I’d totally be up for since it’s everything I love to watch – hard-hitting, visceral action pinned to a genuinely compelling plot powered by a quintet of strong women who take on a patriarchal establishment and beat it at its own game.  Clearly it wanted to shake-up the status quo and as far as I’m concerned it pulled it off in fine style  … NO WONDER, then, that it’s been (largely) roundly reviled by critics and tanked at the box office, much as previous attempts at similar ends such as the intended Ghostbusters and Charlie’s Angels reboots did a few years back. I thought we’d gotten past this, guys! Come on … it’s a criminal shame, because this is SUCH great movie.  Jessica Chastain heads the cast as tough-as-nails CIA operative “Mace” Browne, out for blood after a botched operation in Paris to acquire a potentially devastating piece of terrorist-tech results in the death of her partner and friend Nick Fowler (Sebastian Stan).  Given a second chance at tracking down the device, things get complicated when a clandestine conspiracy is revealed and Mace is forced to team up with retired MI6 officer Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong’o), rival German BND operative Marie Schmidt (Dianna Kruger), Colombian DNI analyst and psychologist Graciela Rivera (Penelope Cruz) and Chinese MSS agent Lin Mi Sheng (X-Men: Days of Future Past’s Fan Bingbing) to beat the bad guys and clear their names after they’re all framed as terrorists themselves.  All five of the film’s badass leading ladies have been given impressively memorable and thoroughly well-written characters with plenty of potential for growth and character development not only throughout this film but in what now looks like an extremely unlikely franchise future (even Fan who, despite coming into the action quite late, immediately makes QUITE the impression and builds on that groundwork admirably throughout the latter half of the film); similarly, Stan once again proves what a mighty screen talent he is, while there’s an enjoyably reptilian turn from Jason Flemyng as the film’s Big Bad, international crime boss Elijah Clarke.  While this was advertised as a relentlessly-paced, breakneck thrill ride, the action quota is actually somewhat more restrained here than on some of its more established peer franchises (like Bond and Mission: Impossible, anyway), but what IS on offer is, correctly, very much in service to the intelligently written story, and the film certainly doesn’t scrimp on the thrills when it DOES decide to get our adrenaline pumping, delivering some suitably robust set-pieces that punctuate rather than drive the agreeably pacy plot.  Former X-Men writer Simon Kinberg acquits himself admirably here, but like his previous crack at directing it really is starting to look like Hollywood just has it in for him, since Dark Phoenix ALSO got a critical and release-debacle-based financial mauling it really DIDN’T deserve.  This is a cracking spy thriller with a killer premise and exceptional cast of characters which deserves far more respect than it's received – altogether this is a film which needs a SERIOUS reappraisal.  Give it a chance, guys, it REALLY needs it …

28.  NIGHTMARE ALLEY – Guillermo del Toro is one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, and one of the things I love most about him is his innate understanding of the inherent truths about the cinematic monsters he frequently portrays in his works.  Some of his most interesting thematic material comes when he examines the horrors that his NON-supernatural characters are capable of, but until now the only time he’s genuinely FOCUSED on inherently human monsters was in 2015’s Crimson Peak – sure, it had proper ghosts in it, but the actual threat was very much from the film’s living, breathing flesh-and-blood characters. His latest offering has embraced this principle to a far greater degree as he adapts William Lindsay Gresham’s none-more-dark novel about morally grey grifters and carnival sideshow charlatans in World War II America, Bradley Cooper delivering what might be a career best turn as voraciously ambitious and inherently talented con-artist Stan Carlisle, who rises through the ranks working the sideshow acts in a lowly travelling carnival before finally striking it big when he goes it alone in a one-man psychic act in Buffalo, New York, with the increasingly reluctant help of his disillusioned girlfriend Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara).  When he comes to the attention of influential high-society psychologist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), she opens the door to a business opportunity which has the potential for MASSIVE financial rewards, but also a truly ruinous fall from grace if Carlisle doesn’t play it JUST RIGHT … del Toro’s always has some pretty palpable darkness in his movies, but he’s never tackled subject matter so genuinely jet black in its pitch before, the film wallowing in some seriously murky waters as we follow an already morally questionable protagonist as he digs down into the most thoroughly reprehensible depths of his own meagre soul, as well as the heart of an uncaring society as irredeemable corrupt as he’s in danger of becoming.  This is NOT an easy film to watch, several times testing the resolve of even the strongest viewers, but the rewards on offer for sticking with it are vast – this is another gold-plated work of art from an immensely talented filmmaker at the very height of his game, and it deserves all of the Oscar buzz it got, even if it ultimately missed out on that coveted Best Picture gong (much as del Toro was snubbed for a directing nomination this time round).  Cooper is a genuine revelation here, suitably seductive but still thoroughly slimy as an already shady guy who becomes progressively worse as his success grows, while Mara’s definitely the only true bright light in the cast as the sweet innocent he takes for a ride who ultimately gets wise just a little too late; Willem Dafoe once again piles on the creepiness as suitably unpleasant geek show barker Clem, while Toni Collette and David Strathairn are both excellent as Zeena and Pete Krumbein, the fading psychic sideshow act that teach Carlisle his craft, and Del Toro’s The Shape of Water star Richard Jenkins is far more complex than he first seems as Ezra Grindle, the potentially lethal mark he underestimates to such dangerous degrees.  The REAL standout star of the film, however, is Blanchett, who captivates and repulses in equal measure as an ice-cold psychopath who deserves to go down as one of the all-time great femme fatales of cinema. This was DEFINITELY the year’s darkest film, but it’s also an immensely rewarding viewing experience, incredibly intelligent, breathlessly edgy and unbelievably tense from its creepy opening to its ruinous ending, and every inch as surprisingly seductive as its untrustworthy lead character, the truest film noir to come along in a very long time indeed …

27.  AMBULANCE – Michael Bay’s cinematic output in the last ten years in particular has been very interesting. It’s like he’s going through phases as he’s trying to work out how he wants to go forward as his style “matures” – 2013’s Pain & Gain was, like all his previous output, big, loud and definitely flashy in the most indulgent way, but it also had something somewhat serious to say, given its origins as an (admittedly genuinely BONKERS) actual TRUE STORY.  Then came the fourth Transformers film, Age of Extinction, widely regarded as THE VERY WORST of the bunch, and rightly so.  But then he turned right round and did something COMPLETELY SERIOUS when he tackled a much less OTT but far more emotionally charged and potent true story in 13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which is a genuinely masterful piece of work which I personally regard as his VERY BEST FILM. Then he went and did ANOTHER Transformers movie with The Last Knight, which was more of the same – juvenile, disjointed in plot and narrative and pure over-the-top indulgence – and yet, somehow, it was just a little bit BETTER than much of what had come before all the same (actually getting close to the quality of his first, still BEST, instalment).  Most recently he went to Netflix to create something which was clearly always INTENDED to be over-the-top and indulgent but this time saw him actually getting the recipe RIGHT (like he did on The Rock) with 6 Underground, a thoroughly enjoyable action-packed escapist romp with Ryan Reynolds effortlessly holding court like he always does.  Anyway … Bay’s latest feels like something else entirely, somehow managing to sit VERY comfortably in the middle ground – once again, it’s big, loud, flashy and DEFINITELY indulgent, but it’s also one of those rare things for a Michael Bay film, because it’s anything but dumb.  Sure, it’s got a REALLY simple premise – veteran marine Will Sharp (Candyman and The Matrix Resurrections’ Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his dangerous livewire adoptive brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), the sons of a notorious LA bank robber, pull off a spectacular high-stakes daylight heist but are then forced to hijack an ambulance and its inhabitants, skilled but jaded EMT Cam Thompson (From Dusk Till Dawn’s Eiza Gonzalez) and her patient Zach (Mrs Fletcher’s Jackson White), an LAPD patrolman wounded during the robbery, which leads to a crazy cat-and-mouse chase through the streets of Los Angeles – but there’s clearly some real intelligence behind the script.  The plot is surprisingly smart despite its clichéd nature, the characters all impressively written and skilfully developed over the course of the film, and the twists are rewardingly effective when they come.  Sure, Bay keeps throwing the camera around like a lunatic, sometimes chucking in some genuine vertigo-inducing drone shots PURELY because he can, I think, but this time it just seems to ramp up the excitement factor as he does one of the few things he’s always really excelled at – crafting properly BLINDING action sequences – over and over again.  Certainly the second unit and stunt teams really earned the big bucks on this one, every car crash, crazy jump and desperate manoeuvre executed with astonishing precision made all the more impressive because it’s immediately obvious there’s NO CGI AT ALL being used to pull any of this stuff off. Refreshingly, though, Bay doesn’t scrimp on the character work at all here, screenwriter Chris Fedak doing a lot of the heavy-lifting so the uniformly excellent cast can just concentrate on BEING their characters for 2+ hours – Gyllenhaal is a ferocious, tightly-wound force of nature who’s both antihero and antagonist throughout the film, while Abdul-Mateen II is, as usual, electric in every second of his screen time, investing Will with wounded intensity and conflicted complexity as a desperate everyman stuck in this impossible situation because he’s just trying to help his family, and Gonzalez holds her own against these two craft-MASTERS with incredible skill and determination as a world-weary, disillusioned blue collar worker who finally rediscovers the passion she once had for her work under the most extreme circumstances; Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead) and Keir O’Donnell (American Sniper), meanwhile, both shine as a winningly spiky odd-couple as LAPD SIS Captain Monroe and FBI special Agent Anson Clark, the polar-opposite cops thrust together in the race to hunt the Sharp Brothers down, and The Walking Dead’s Olivia Stambouliah frequently steals entire scenes with a single withering putdown or quirky aside as LAPD surveillance wizard Lieutenant Dhazghig.  Sure, this ain’t a perfect movie, Bay still not FULLY jettisoning his off-the-wall and rather off-colour sense of humour, which still surfaces in a few scenes, and it’s still VERY overblown, but these are small quibbles when a film is THIS enjoyable, visually impressive, pulse-pumping exciting and truly unforgettable.  Definitely settling into the camp of Bay’s more worthy films, this is another cracker that again proves he’s a director who really can DELIVER when he actually TRIES.

26.  THE CURSED – some of my favourite horror movies are films that snuck in under the radar to become cult hits, or simply stuck to the shadows to become secret weapons of the genre, uncut gems known to a lucky few who always recommend them to likeminded genre fans when they get the chance.  This impressive indie horror from writer-director Sean Ellis (The Broken, Anthropoid) is another great example of this particular phenomenon, and I’m sure it’s destined for some small cult status somewhere down the line. The plot is … STRANGE, but in a very good way, and there’s a lot here that I really shouldn’t give away because it’s better to let you just ease in and discover it on your own - suffice to say, this is an intriguingly offbeat take on the classic werewolf trope, set in late 19th Century France (albeit with a mysterious coda set during World War I’s Battle of the Somme) but shot in England with a largely British cast and thoroughly OOZING with a genuinely palpable doom-laden atmosphere of pregnant dread teeming with hazy mists and overcast skies.  Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook pulls off a surprisingly decent English accent as he smoulders with restrained, broody intensity as John McBride, a haunted pathologist who goes to an isolated French village to investigate a succession of animalistic killings which may be the result of a curse laid upon the community after the brutal eradication of a group of Roma travellers some years before.  There are allusions made to the legendary Beast of Gevaudan throughout, which formed the inspiration for the enjoyably oddball cult classic Brotherhood of the Wolf, but this is a very different breed of horror cinema – moody, understated and deliberately slowburn, parcelling out its scares and impressively visceral violence with cool restraint throughout while building to a feverish climax that brilliantly pays off the groundwork meticulously laid through its two hours, while the inventive use of some very icky physical effects has crafted something pretty unique to this particular sub-genre.   Holdbrook makes for a tragically fallible hero here, while Kelly Reilly brings restrained, wounded classiness to the film as Isabelle, the wife of complicated, brutish landowner Seamus Laurent (a restrained but potent turn from Rogue One’s Alistair Petrie), whose pig-headed short-sightedness seems to have doomed his community, and Amelia Crouch (Kate, The Last Dragonslayer) thoroughly impresses as the Laurents’ daughter Charlotte, whose younger brother Edward (Rocketman’s Max Mackintosh) was the first bitten and therefore first cursed.  Ellis has crafted a magnificently subtle masterpiece of the genre, playing an understated long game that pays off magnificently, and the results are one of the best indie horror movies I’ve come across in years.  I look forward to whatever he does next.

25.  THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – British-Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh has been drumming up a hell of a fuss with his darkly comic indie cinema for a good while now, exploding on the scene with the delightfully malevolent In Bruges before becoming THE award-season darling when he unleashed the astounding Three Billboards In Ebbing, Missouri on an unsuspecting world. His latest snuck into cinemas with a good deal less fanfare than either of those, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of consideration in the same sentence as those two masterpieces, and it’s certainly due for some major cult classic status since it’s clearly being overlooked.  McDonagh reunites his In Bruges leading double act here, with Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell playing Colm and Padraic, two salt-of-the-earth working men living in the isolated Irish island community of Inisherin in 1923.  For much of their lives, these two have been thick-as-thieves, but then one day Colm inexplicably decides he just doesn’t want to be friends anymore, much to Padraic’s dismay and confusion.  As the latter attempts to find out why and repair whatever the damage actually is, a well of resentment and deep feelings is dug up and brought to light which threatens to turn into pure chaos as the former friends seem set on a path to becoming bitter enemies … as you’d expect from their sheer levels of acting talent, both men are BREATHTAKINGLY exceptional in their roles, their spiky antagonistic chemistry sparking a wealth of potent performance-based fireworks, while McDonagh’s brilliantly acerbic script pops and crackles with pleasing intensity with each increasingly bitter exchange – Gleeson is stoic and gravelly, largely keeping his volcanic eruptions under strict control but you’re always aware that it’s bubbling away just below the surface, while this might be the best performance I’ve EVER seen Farrell deliver, a masterclass in wounded pride and confused bluster as a fussy, fastidious and deeply ordered man whose perfect little world has suddenly been blown apart and he’s thoroughly incapable of piecing it back together.  There’s also excellent support from Better Call Saul’s Kerry Condon as Padraic’s long-suffering sister Siobhan, Dunkirk’s Barry Keoghan as flighty local likely lad Dominic, Gary Lydon as his father, brutish local copper Peadar Kearney, and Garage’s Pat Shortt as Jonjo, the local innkeeper caught in the middle trying to keep the peace.  McDonagh’s crafted another delectable slice of black comedy here, not quite as emotionally weighty as Three Billboards but just as capable at stirring us with its rich character-based turmoil, and he’s once again proved that, with the possible exception of his brother, The Guard and Calvary writer-director John Michael McDonagh, there’s nobody else out there who can deliver low-key indie comedy drama quite like this …

24.  WHITE NOISE – Sneaking in just before the close of the year, this blissfully anarchic social satire-as-subtle screwball comedy from writer-director Noah Baumbach, based on the award-winning breakout novel by Don DeLillo, came as a welcome surprise final salvo at the end of the year just as I was ready to call it a day for my cinematic adventure for 2022.  Once again teaming up with his frequent collaborator and wife Greta Gerwig, Baumbach presents the tale of professor Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), who teaches Hitler Studies at College-On-the-Hill in 1984.  Regarded as something of a mythic rock star by his students and fellow teachers, he’s a subtly charismatic and deeply intellectual man with a fascinating way of speaking, but underneath the visage he’s actually riddled with deep-seated neuroses, hopelessly dependent on the emotional support of his fifth wife Babette (Gerwig), herself on her fourth marriage, who helps him raise their four-strong gaggle of kids born through their various marriages.  He’s on the verge of a particularly significant academic milestone when their collective lives are thrown into utter upheaval after a nearby freight-train crash leads to a dangerous “airborne toxic event” which has everyone in their small town scrambling away in a massive chaotic evacuation, which not only exposes the Gladney family as a whole to the inherently mad nature of humanity in a crisis but also polarises previously unresolved feelings between Jack and Babette as a startling hidden truth is laid bare.  Baumbach’s always been a delicately mischievous filmmaker, crafting subtly observant cinema about oddball people stretched far beyond their comfort zone in the likes of The Squid & the Whale, Frances Ha and Greenberg, but this really feels like the first time he’s really let his own inherently satirical grasp of the absurd have free rein outside his co-writing collaborations with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr Fox, and as a result this is definitely a film I myself can get into much more easily (really, I liked his previous stuff, but THIS is the first one where I’ve genuinely FALLEN IN LOVE with his work). He’s certainly helped on his way by a uniformly game cast, Driver dominating the film as a wonderfully puffed-up self-important self-promoter who thinks he’s a legend and is gradually informed by the events of the story that he is, in fact, just as insignificant as the rest of us, while Gerwig is about as on-fire as I’ve ever seen her, investing “Baba” with a slightly scattered deer-in-the-headlights sense of well-hidden desperation that adds in intriguing edge to her interactions with Driver; Tomorrowland and The Killing of a Sacred Deer’s Raffey Cassidy, meanwhile, is an understated GEM as Babette’s unshakably determined daughter Denise, as is Sam Nivola as Jack’s precociously intelligent son Heinrich, Don Cheadle is quietly masterful as Jack’s fellow professor and best friend Murray Siskind, who teaches about “living idols” through his courses on American culture, and High Life’s Lars Eidinger shines as a seriously baked intellectual drug dealer who drops some bizarre wisdom in the final act.  This is a wonderfully off-the-wall piece of highly nostalgic social satire which is as nourishing to the mind as it is to the funny bone, and Baumbach deserves to be proud of his achievements here.  Ignore the clueless critics – this is a GREAT MOVIE! I’m certainly intrigued to see what he and Gerwig deliver next Barbie arrives …

23.  BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER – It’s a telling state of affairs for the MCU that, while the first standalone vehicle for the late Chadwick Boseman’s most famous role was a triumphant milestone not only for the franchise but for cinema in general, and a genuinely GREAT superhero movie in its own right too, this follow-up, while entertaining enough to warrant its place on this list, is an ultimately comparatively underwhelming piece of work which seems far too concerned about being WOKE to truly deliver on the franchise’s long-running inherent promise of escapist superhero blockbuster thrills.  Granted, the film had a tough uphill battle to fight even before it was started, since the death of Boseman left Marvel in a very tricky position with a genuine cinematic Sophie’s Choice to make – recast the role and run the risk of appearing unsympathetic over the star’s loss, or simply kill off the character of King T’Challa and then work out how to address his absence in the subsequent story.  In the end Kevin Feige and the others chose the latter, and in a way this is the right call, but it still gave them a hell of a tricky hurdle to navigate going forward, and while the film does an admittedly beautiful job of laying both T’Challa and Boseman to rest with dignity, it also creates a tricky tightrope trick that the film only PARTIALLY manages to pull off.  Like many of the other MCU movies, the less actually given away about the plot the better, but there are points that need to be addressed here, so I’ll try my best to do it concisely and with respect.  First of all, the gap Boseman left behind just CAN’T be filled, and where they ultimately went trying was probably NOT the right one, even if it did make the most narrative sense – Letitia Wright’s Shuri was an absolute SWEETHEART in the original film, it was the best thing about her, and while she’s a phenomenal actress the character just DOESN’T WORK spending most of the film ANGRY.  Personally, I think Danai Gurira’s magnificent Okoye or, even better, Lupita Nyong’o’s frustratingly underused Nakia would have been better choices to ultimately succeed T’Challa as the new Black Panther, but in the end you can KIND OF see why they went there; as a result, the introduction of a particular new possibility in the mid-credits cutscene was a particularly frustrating move since it essentially undermines all the work the filmmakers did to convince you beforehand.  And then there’s the villain ��� oh boy.  Okay, Namor is a pretty fascinating character, and the way he’s introduced and portrayed is BRILLIANT, Tenoch Huerta Mejia (The Forever Purge, Narcos: Mexico) is phenomenal and intense and chilling as the superhuman mutant warrior protecting his aquatic Mayan civilisation of Talokan, but in the end he’s just TOO sympathetic, coming across as a bit of a retread of Kilmonger when the story really calls for a more straightforward BOO HISS Big Bad to give Shuri’s struggles more weight than just one anti-coloniser nation inexplicably being turned against another that’s a little too much like itself. Granted, I understand that this was KIND OF THE POINT here and that it sets things up for darker developments later on in the franchise narrative, but maybe this wasn’t really the right time and place.  Worst of all, though, is the introduction of Riri Williams (Judas & the Black Messiah’s Dominique Thorne) – yeah, I get that Marvel wanted to introduce Ironheart ahead of Armor Wars, and she’s a good character played very well, but she really doesn’t bring ANYTHING to the film beyond a convenient plot point that could have been more effectively brought home with a story-specific character.  So yeah, the film has its flaws, and don’t get me started on that frustrating damp squib of an attempt at a big all-action climax … but when it works it’s still REALLY GOOD, very much the well-oiled, precision-crafted top-notch work we’ve come to expect from the MCU.  Thankfully it works OFTEN ENOUGH to be worthy of it’s place here – the rest of the action is THRILLING, especially a pulse-pounding city chase to rival the first movie’s Busan sequence and the fight that follows when the Submariners are first properly revealed in all their creepy glory, the emotional heavy lifting is executed with respect and delivered with suitable power and gravitas, and the cast are very much ON FORM, particularly Wright, Gurira, Mejia, Winston Duke, once again returning as deserved fan-favourite M’Baku, and the always magnificent Angela Bassett as Wakanda’s grieving, embattled queen Ramonda. Once again Ryan Coogler shows he’s a director of impressive vision and commanding attention to detail, and he’s certainly got a strong grasp on the characters, who are still as well-rounded and convincing as they were in his previous outing … it’s just a shame he couldn’t quite pull off the sheer, unfettered level of GENIUS he managed with the first Black Panther.  Ultimately it’s another sign the franchise is starting to flounder, and while they’re still delivering good product they really need to get back on course before the whole thing comes off the rails entirely …

22.  BELLE – Yeah!  Finally!  After one long-arse wait, I FINALLY got to see the latest from one of my favourite anime directors, Mamoru Hosoda, creator of such gems as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Boy & the Beast and Mirai, which have come DAMN CLOSE INDEED to equalling the dizzying heights of Studio Ghibli and the godfather of anime himself, Hayao Miyazaki.  This is another solid gold feather in his cap, a stone-cold masterpiece of the art form that has also, interestingly, forged some intriguing new ground for anime in general, specifically through the integration of fascinating new design ideas and sensibilities from up-and-coming Disney animator and character designer Jin Kim (Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Over the Moon, Raya & the Last Dragon, Encanto) in the creation of the film’s spellbinding virtual online metaverse of U (an intriguingly magnificent improvement on Summer Wars’ already impressive OZ).  The story revolves around Suzu (Kaho Nakamura in the original Japanese version and Kylie McNeill in the English dub), a timid, stage-fright-riddled teenage girl who nonetheless has a beautiful singing voice and a wildly imaginative talent for writing songs, who finally finds a means to unleash her talents anonymously through her online persona of Belle, who becomes a massive international sensation in U.  Then the emergence of a strange, incredibly disruptive beastly monster, the Dragon (Kamen Rider Den-O and Rurouni Kenshin’s Takeru Satoh and Paul Castro Jr), throws a major spanner in the works, but Suzu slowly realises there’s more to this misanthropic persona than meets the eye, and as she tries to get to the heart of his mystery she’s led to face some hard truths about herself and finally find a reason to grow up and come out of her shell once and for all … this is one of the most beautiful, compelling and EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING animated features I have EVER SEEN, Hosoda once again proving he’s an undeniable master at tugging our heartstrings to thoroughly ruinous effect even as he’s effortlessly lifting our spirits, and the story here is one that seems precision-crafted to hit us all RIGHT IN THE FEELS while saying intriguing things about the paradoxical nature of fame in a world of all-encompassing social media.  Then of course there’s the soundtrack … OH MY FUCKING GOD what a soundtrack, the music is ASTOUNDING, Suzu/Belle’s songs just fire a flaming arrow RIGHT THROUGH YOUR HEART every time she starts singing, but ESPECIALLY in the film’s powerful climax.  Okay, so since I saw the English dub I ONLY actually know that version, as performed by newcomer Kylie McNeill, but if the Japanese is ANYTHING LIKE as beautiful (which I’m sure it is) then it’s gotta be something truly special.  Once again Hosoda has proven he really is one of the best filmmaking talents operating in anime today, and that if ANYONE could someday succeed the mighty Miyazaki as the new godfather then it’s GOTTA be him …

21.  THE GRAY MAN – Netflix ALWAYS seems happy to give us something heavyweight and undeniably fun to enjoy in the summer blockbuster season, and this is certainly one of their most ambitious offerings to date.  Seriously, they genuinely went ALL OUT with this one, poaching the Russo Brothers from the MCU after their ASTOUNDING tours of duty on two Captain America pictures AND the Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame double feature, as well as their 2020 gig writing and producing Netflix’ similarly impressive Chris Hemsworth action-vehicle Extraction.  Certainly you can see a lot of their strong connective tissue from those previous efforts to this hefty piece of work, which is an action cinema fan’s WET DREAM, but available to stream instead of showing on the big screen where it REALLY belongs … anyway, the Brothers have ONCE AGAIN teamed up with their favourite leading man Chris Evans, who this time gets to flex his frustratingly rarely-exercised BAD GUY muscles as gleefully narcissistic psychopath-for-hire Lloyd Hansen, the flamboyantly reptilian ex-CIA operative brought back into the fold to hunt down the film’s titular hero, a former convict-turned-CIA assassin known simply as Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) who’s jumped the reservation after being tricked by corrupt Agency honcho Carmichael (Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page) into taking out his contemporary, Sierra Four (Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Callan Mulvey).  Hansen immediately abducts Six’ retired handler and friend Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) and his ailing daughter Claire (Once Upon a Time In Hollywood’s Julia Butters), the only two people in the world Six has left that he cares about, prompting the rogue agent to go on the warpath, leading Six and Hansen into a headlong clash of wills set to bury half of Europe in chaos.  This movie is EXACTLY what you’d expect from the Russos and Netflix – over two hours of blisteringly explosive and highly imaginative action and breathless plotting, dynamically shot by cinematographer Stephen F. Windon (Justin Lin’s regular collaborator on most of the Fast & Furious movies AND Star Trek Beyond) and scripted to within an inch of its life by Joe Russo and his regular co-writers Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely with an equal eye on overblown spectacle and sly humour that perfectly fits the film’s inherent ridiculousness.  The cast are certainly equal to the task – Thornton hasn’t had a role this great is AGES, he’s clearly having a blast in every one of his scenes, while Butters is incredibly endearing, and there’s further strong female presence in Gosling’s Blade Runner 2049 co-star Ana Di Armas as Dani Miranda, the operative that circumstance forces Six to team up with, and Iron Fist’s Jessica Henwick as Suzanne Brewer, Carmichael’s colleague who’s sent to try (and spectacularly fail) to keep Hansen under control, as well as a typically strong turn from Alfre Woodard as retired CIA bigshot Margaret Cahill, and Page makes for an enjoyably slimy, self-important Big Bad behind the scenes; of course the film really belongs to its two heavyweight leads – Gosling is an understated joy, bringing his laconic subtlety to bear to great effect as he matches Evans scene-for-scene while the ubiquitous former Marvel veteran has a whale of a time cutting loose without restraint in a blissfully unhinged turn that’s about as far removed from Steve Rogers as he could possibly get (I suspect he’s been waiting YEARS for a role where he could just UNLEASH like this, he’s clearly just having TOO MUCH fun).  Altogether this is about as perfect an action-fest as you could ask for in the summer blockbuster months, the Russo Brothers again proving they’re two undeniable MASTERS of the genre; thrilling, spectacular and unapologetically SILLY, and my one and only gripe about it would be that it really was a shame I didn’t get to enjoy it on the big screen.  WHERE IT REALLY BELONGS …