Something to watch tonight: Thursday 9 November

In Bruges (McDonagh, 2008)

I saw a wee notification on social media yesterday that it is a year ago this week that Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin was released.

In the U.S. that is. As is always the way of things, New Zealand wouldn’t see it until Boxing Day.

But another film featuring McDonagh’s direction, as well as the acting talents of Brendan Gleason and Colin Farrell, does have an anniversary this week – In Bruges arrived in local theatres on November 6 back in 2008.

From my at-the-time review:

Two hitmen (Gleeson and the excellent Colin Farrell) have been sent to the sleepy Belgian town of Bruges to lie low after a job has gone wrong. Once there, they are supposed to enjoy the many historic and cultural treats of the beautifully preserved walled medieval city while waiting for further instructions. This suits Gleeson (older, wiser, worldly) but Farrell, fractious after the terrible stuff-up, wants booze, birds, drugs and trouble. And even in Bruges he finds some of all of it.

Martin McDonagh has a great sense of timing – most obviously displayed via Jon Stevens editing – and his dialogue is rich, funny and eminently speak-able. In Bruges is thoroughly entertaining and has unveiled McDonagh as a great talent for the future and the last time I thought that about a converted playwright was after watching David Mamet’s House of Games in 1987.

Also featuring that week were Jason Statham in Death Race, the Richard Gere/Diane Lane romance Nights in Rodanthe, the Don Cheadle thriller Terror, Chow Yun-Fat and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in the good but forgotten The Children of the Silk Road, Florian Habicht’s portrait of New Zealand theatre maker Warwick Broadhead, Rubbings From a Live Man, and Clark Gregg’s adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel Choke starring Sam Rockwell.

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Where to find In Bruges

Aotearoa and Australia: Streaming on Netflix

USA: Streaming on Starz

UK: Digital rental

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Further reading

For RNZ, I’ve written a piece wondering whether big brand TV is paying too much attention to the fans and not enough to the general audience. This is through the prism of the Star Wars series Ahsoka, the Star Trek spinoff Picard and Marvel’s Moon Knight.