News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Thursday May 16th 2024
Movie Corner
The Banshees of Inisherin
★★★★★
Searchlight Pictures 2022
Drama/Comedy
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II
The opening scene in The Banshees of Inisherin is an aerial view of the (fictional) title Irish island, a beautiful green expanse of ground and a deep cerulean sky. The year is 1923, just shortly after Ireland (except six of the most northern counties of Ireland that remain to this day with the United Kingdom) got its independence from England.
From the beginning in The Banshees it seems that a once strong relationship between Colm (Brendan Gleeson) and Pádraic (Colin Farrell) has been severed by Colm. A hint from Siobhán, Pádraic’s sister, showing light on what is to follow through the film replies, “Maybe he just don’t like you no more.”
Colm’s reason for severing the friendship with Pádraic is because he finds him to be dull. Colm sees Pádraic’s friendship to be a hindrance to his writing music and playing the violin. The only problem is Pádraic doesn’t necessarily take the hint. Pádraic tries to talk to Colm at the local pub, on the country road, and even going to his home. Colm always makes the conversation short if at all. Another character, Dominic Kearney, played by Barry Keoghan (‘ 71 [2014], The Killing of a Sacred Deer [2017]), an offbeat young man with an innocence, pals along with Pádraic at times.… Read the rest “Movie Corner”
RETURNING
CHAPTER 26: PROMISES KEPT, PROMISES BROKEN
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL
Rules may be made to be broken, but breaking promises leads to generational devastation. The promises made to the Dakota that were broken by the U.S. and the subsequent environmental and human disaster ring down through the generations. We are part of a bigger web, one based on getting: getting as much land, money, power as is possible. That is what motivates Brian Fleming, his “associates” and the powers that have permitted him to cause such damage. He did not get here on his own. He is the descendent of greed writ large.
Promises kept can have a rippling effect as well. The promises Luz and Angel make to each other each day in their marriage—to sustain, love and protect each other and their children—also did not appear all of a sudden. They are the legacy of promises made and kept by generations of ancestors. Promises to sustain, love and protect—in spite of economic hardship, oppression, family breakup. Their blood lines reach back to the native Nahuatl people who resisted the Spanish invasion. Even those forced to submit kept this promise: No matter what, I will survive, so that my children and my children’s children may one day thrive.… Read the rest “RETURNING ”
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Raise Your Voice
Vikings Fans Against the Bills
By PETER MOLENAAR
The emotional roller coaster ride might be stimulating, but one wishes our team would just blow them out of the water (so to speak) and be done with it. Evidently though, the magnitude and intensity of our collective prayer does manifest a material force on the field of play. In the end, the ‘blue wave’ prevailed against all manner of falsehood.
Get this: EVERY HOUSE REPUBLICAN VOTED AGAINST ENDING BIG OIL PRICE GOUGING. Who then is responsible for inflation?
Closer to home, General Mills hiked its prices five times since June of 2021, and the company saw its net earnings climb 32% in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Excuse us for not believing that Governor Walz was responsible! However, while canvasing in Blaine under the banner of Teamsters Local 120, I did encounter a couple who insisted that Democrats foster pedophilia. Hopefully, repetition of a ‘big lie’ to the “master race” is not as effective as it once was.
In point of fact, congressional Democrats have introduced several bills that would help curb corporate price gouging. Some examples include the Price Gouging Prevention Act, the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act, the Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act, the Emergency Price Stabilization Act, and my favorite: the Ending Corporate Greed Act (Bernie Sanders).… Read the rest “Raise Your Voice”