site banner
PaperclipPerfector  13hr ago (text post)   615 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 24, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

This seems as good a time as any to talk about my favourite Irish narrative films:

  • Intermission: a very dark comedy-drama from the 2000s. Using the "hyperlink cinema" style popularised by Tarantino, it follows a diverse cast of Dubliners whose lives intersect in surprising ways. Features a young Cillian Murphy (of Oppenheimer fame) and Colin Farrell, among many others.
  • A Date for Mad Mary: a present-day comedy-drama. The titular character is released from prison and returns to her hometown, where she must scramble to locate a date to bring with her to her best friend's wedding. Seána Kerslake's starring turn is mercurial and mesmerising. Probably my favourite Irish film after Intermission above.
  • The Wind that Shakes the Barley: excellent war film depicting the Irish war of independence and ensuing civil war. Makes no effort to portray the former conflict in remotely even-handed terms (the atrocities committed by British soldiers are depicted gruesomely, approaching torture porn; while every Brit shot by the Irish goes down without a drop of blood spilled). The director, outspoken English socialist Ken Loach, does not disguise his thesis statement (that Irish independence was a missed opportunity to establish a socialist utopia, instead of just exchanging English landlords for Irish), which I disagree with. Still a cracking and powerful film for all that. Also starring a young Cillian Murphy, along with several actors you might recognise from their later turns in Game of Thrones.
  • Michael Collins: a film depicting the same events as TWtStB, but following the mastermind of Ireland's guerrilla warfare campaign, the titular Michael Collins, portrayed by Liam Neeson (Schindler's List). An invigorating and blood-pumping war film, whose only significant weakness is the decision to cast Julia Roberts as Collins's love interest, when she neither looks Irish nor is equipped to do a persuasive Irish accent. (One day I'd like to do a fan edit which cuts her out entirely: I genuinely think it would improve the film substantially.) Aidan Gillen just about manages, and Alan Rickman's turn as Eamonn deValera is surprisingly convincing, aided by his striking resemblance to the genuine article.
  • An Cailín Ciúin (also released as The Quiet Girl, a literal translation of its Irish title): a period drama set in the 1980s, adapted from the novella Foster by Claire Keegan. It follows a young girl sent to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer, as her parents aren't really capable of looking after her (or themselves, for that matter). Patient, carefully observed, quietly devastating: you will be shedding tears. Notable for the majority of the dialogue being in the Irish language.
  • Black '47: a film about the Great Famine that hit Ireland in the 1840s. But this is no depressing period drama where nothing happens and then everyone dies, no – this is a Western, with six shooters and love-to-hate villains and horseback riding! Tremendous fun. When I saw it in the cinema, I remember thinking that this was the best way to get modern audiences interested in an overlooked part of history: meet them halfway, with a legitimately entertaining crowd-pleaser that incorporates history organically into its story. Bit strange that they cast an Australian actor to play the Irish protagonist, but sure look. Also features Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith, Elrond) and Barry Keoghan; I'd honestly forgotten the latter was in it, which shows what kind of impression it made.
  • In Bruges: A crime comedy-drama set in the titular Belgian city, starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. From the trailers I was expecting a Tarantino-esque black comedy with brutal violence played for laughs. It's kind of that, but also a surprisingly dark film depicting its protagonist processing guilt in a psychologically realistic way. The tonal shifts from wacky humour to morbid pathos might come off as a little jarring, but on the whole I'd still say the movie works. Also notable for featuring the best discussion of the logistics of the imminent race war I've ever seen outside of – well, this site, I suppose.
  • Adam and Paul: a Brechtian comedy-drama depicting one day in the life of two heroin addicts in Dublin. The debut by director Lenny Abrahamson, who later went on to direct Room starring Brie Larson. Years since I've seen it, but it made a big impression on me, especially the ending.

Honourable mentions:

  • Man About Dog: if you want to watch an extremely silly, juvenile, vulgar comedy film in the vein of American Pie or There's Something About Mary, this is the one for you.
  • The General: a perfectly passable crime biopic depicting the Irish gangster Martin Cahill, portrayed by Brendan Gleeson.
  • The Commitments: a charming, good-natured and intermittently funny musical comedy which practically every Irish person over the age of thirty has seen at one point or another. The title of the very first post on my blog is a paraphrased quote from it, which features at the very beginning of the article.
  • Small Things Like These: another recent adaptation of a Claire Keegan novella. While well-acted and presented, it didn't quite work from me, and something about it felt too self-congratulatory in the same way that Mad Men was sometimes accused of during its run (as Mark Greif put it, "an unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better"). Yes, the Magdalene laundries treated young women terribly: there were theatrically released studio films making that point more than twenty years before this one came out. We get it.
  • In America: a shamelessly sentimental tear-jerker, it's a semi-autobiographical depiction of an Irish family who migrate to the US in the 1980s following the death of one of their children.
  • The Butcher Boy: an utterly bonkers black comedy, based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe. Go into it blind. Nothing I say can prepare you for it.

Now on to the bad:

  • Halal Daddy: the single worst Irish film I've ever watched from start to finish. A waste of a talented cast. While watching it, you feel like the screenwriter didn't even want to write the screenplay, and just assembled a Jenga tower of clichés to pad out the running time.
  • Dollhouse: if Halal Daddy didn't clinch it, this would be the worst Irish film I've ever watched in full. Jim Sheridan (In America, above) has made many successful films; his daughter Kirsten attempted to ride his coattails to nepo baby-dom, to appalling results. This largely improvised (hence directionless and unmotivated) film features actors who later went on to bigger and better things: Seána Kerslake, mentioned above, and Jack Reynor, who appeared in the Transformers films. It's an utter waste of their talents. Nothing in the film is earned, none of the actors playing working-class Dubs are remotely convincing, and at the end you just feel annoyed and cheated. It comes as little surprise to me that, in the nearly fifteen years since this one came out, Kirsten Sheridan has yet to direct another film.
  • The Guard: So bad that not even Don Cheadle could make me stick around. I left after the first twenty minutes.
  • Perrier's Bounty: Likewise.
  • Seven Psychopaths: A marginal example given its primarily American cast and setting, but I'm including it as it was written and directed by Martin McDonagh (who wrote and directed In Bruges, above) and stars Colin Farrell. What a tiresome tryhard movie, trying to do the meta self-referential thing in a way that's even more annoying than usual. I understand that even McDonagh has more or less disowned it, and he was right to do so.
  • The Banshees of Inisherin: The fourth feature-length by Martin McDonagh, adapted from his play of the same name, this one reunites Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson from In Bruges. It's a period drama set on the titular island amidst the civil war of the 1920s. I have absolutely no idea what the point of it was supposed to be, none of the characters' motivations make a lick of sense* and McDonagh's attempts to draw parallels between the civil war and the principal characters' deteriorating relationship (absent from the original play) are sophomoric, historically dubious, and irrelevant. Truthfully, I don't even know what kind of emotional reaction it was aiming for: when I saw it in the cinema, there were a few polite chuckles in the first half, while the entire audience was dead silent for the second half, and it didn't even feel like the film was trying to be funny. But my sister saw it in the cinema, and told me that the entire audience was howling with laughter throughout, which seems insane to me. Also features Barry Keoghan in a supporting role in which he is entirely unconvincing. For McDonagh, that's two Ls and one W – unless Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri turns out to be amazing, I'm comfortable saying In Bruges was a fluke.
  • Sing Street: I've heard director John Carney's film Once is really quite good, but have yet to get around to seeing it, perhaps in protest of how inescapable its promotional single "Falling Slowly" was in the two or three years following its release. But having seen two of his other films (this one and Begin Again), I'm unpersuaded. While watching both films, I experienced this horrible uncanny valley feeling that Carney has never actually met another human being, and that everything he knows about the human condition, he gleaned from watching films by other, more talented directors. (See also: Nolan, Christopher.) This one's an exercise in escapist nostalgia, following a teenaged boy in 1980s Dublin who starts a band in an effort to impress a girl he's crushing on. On paper, I should like it: starting a band as a teenager to impress a girl is something I literally did several times; I've walked past the secondary school from which the film derives its title a hundred times and recognise a dozen other shooting locations; I love the 80s new wave and synth-pop songs which inspired the film's original compositions. But it doesn't quite hang together, it's impossible to care about any of the characters, and the ending just feels wholly disconnected from everything that came before it that it can't help but feel like a disappointment.

*Near the start of the film, Colm (Brendan Gleeson) says he doesn't want to waste any more time listening to Pádraic's (Colin Farrell) inane stories, and would rather spend his remaining years focusing on his fiddle playing, which gives him a sense of purpose and satisfaction. Cool, makes sense. But then when Pádraic refuses to leave Colm alone, to illustrate the extent to which he doesn't want to be bothered, Colm decides to chop off several fingers from one of his hands and throw them at Pádraic's house. How exactly does this illustrate his desire to be left alone? If playing the fiddle is the only thing that gives his life meaning and purpose, why did he just maim himself in such a way that he will never be able to do so ever again? Apologists will say "that's the point, the characters are irrational and self-defeating!" I don't think the characters are irrational: I think the screenplay is badly written.

The Commitments

"It's roid, Sally, roid, not roy-id, Sally, roy-id!"

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats