Most people I know list the Irish as the nicest people on the planet. The last decade or so of movies have shown that underneath that sweet exterior is an infinite well of pain and suffering. And, frankly, stubborn blinded pride. Banshees of Inisherin knows this, fingers and all. And now, Bring Them Down adds some sheep legs to the depression platter that is day to day Irish living. Make sure to give those Irish friends/relatives a hug y’all. They won’t say they need one, but they definitely will.
It’s been a really miserable existence for Michael O’Shea (Christopher Abbott) for a while now. He’s solely responsible for the family herd of sheep, also dealing with an even more miserable cuss of a father Ray (played by the aptly named actor Colm Meaney). Things get worse when the neighbor Gary (Paul Ready) and his son Jack (Barry Keoghan) show up at the market with Michael’s “dead” rams, not ideal. One, because he’s now got to fulfill dad’s wishes and avenge like an alpha male of the flock and two, because Gary happens to be now dating Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), Michael’s ex whom he hasn’t seen in years.
In general, the world is more than not a better place if people treated each other the way the Irish treat others. The big downside is Bring Them Down’s situation: being nice or quiet to “not cause a fuss.” As such, Michael and Jack choose to bury feelings instead of just asking questions to the right person instead of the mean one. As we learn more about the escalating conflict between the two families, the inciting spark is so hilariously innocuous, but the tinderbox was ready to spread like fire, and each growing indignity only makes the anger and hurt deepen and harden. Too bad, since any attempt at understanding and listening would have caused either side to wake up and move on before things get too bad. But assumptions and bad choices build upon one another, to the point that the wrong conclusions get made depending on which side of the story you’re looking at.
Which is why Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan could not be more of a perfect casting. Depending on how you film either one, you could be looking at an unbearably despondent individual whose life is falling apart, or a demon spawn of evil hell bent on bringing the devil to Earth. Writer/director Christopher Andrews uses that dichotomy to his advantage when he shoots, as we see things that use both actors’ bipolarity to great movie effect. You’ll be more than a little terrified with each tense encounter, worried which one of the crazy men will snap first…and more scarily, how will that snap manifest, with all the horrible things that happen in Bring Them Down?
Not too long ago, one of my Irish relatives decided it was time to sell our old family farm. The American group text batted around the idea of maybe buying it from them and trying to make it raising animals in Ireland. After watching Bring Them Down, I’m more content than ever that I was the first hard veto in that chat, with the dreamers unhappy I sat on their dreams, but probably ended up saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars and probably multiple horrific animal deaths along the way.