VENICE – MISSION. We wrote in our note from Venice yesterday for a film by Romain Gavras, one of the best we have seen at this 79th Film Festival. However, last weekend’s follow-up wasn’t quite up to par – as a rule, there are a lot of mediocre or just good films in this year’s competition. So it took us until Monday morning to watch the next high quality movie, and luckily it was Martin McDonagh who made up for it with the very special Banshee of Inisherin. It takes us to an isolated island near Ireland where two friends suddenly find themselves estranged from each other when one of them decides to stop talking to the other. The rivalry between them will set off a chain reaction in the small community.

Colin Farrell meets Brendan Gleeson in a film with a really nice script that we’ll easily see when Mostra wins the award. In theory, this is a drama and really as heavy as the Irish sky, which is nevertheless interspersed with so many small comic vignettes that it can easily “deceive” the viewer. In addition, McDonagh captures the wild, almost alien landscape of the island with precision, placing his main characters in it as if they were on stage. The strange, almost mysterious connections that link them add even more charm to the film, which was very popular, earning the most hearty applause (over 13 minutes) at Mostra.

Applause, of course, is different, but the real … hysteria, which was caused on Monday afternoon by the appearance of Harry Styles on the red carpet of the Palazzo del Cinema. The former leader of pop phenomenon One Direction is now also pursuing a film career when he came to Venice as a co-star in Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling. The film itself by the American actress and director is a psychological thriller with dazzling photography, which, however, is not entirely original. On the other hand, Styles, along with the equally popular Florence Pugh, caused a normal stir among hundreds of fans who camped on the edges of the red carpet in the morning.

As for us, in all these days that we have been in the halls and outside them, we have seen many remarkable things. First, some very good female roles: the amazing Trace Lisetti as Monica, a trans woman trying to reunite with her estranged family, in Andrea Palaoro’s film of the same name; Penélope Cruz in another top notch veiled performance… 70s in Emmanuelle Crialese family drama L’Immensita and Tilda Swinton comfortably playing the dual role of mother and daughter in Joanna Hogg’s slightly offbeat vintage thriller The Eternal Daughter. However, we insist that the award for female performance without hesitation goes to Cate Blanchett, who was simply incredible in Tar, the first film we saw at Mostra this year.

The Banshee of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh takes us to an isolated island where two friends are suddenly separated.

The second element to look out for is the availability of Netflix. The online platform still maintains a cold relationship with the Cannes Film Festival, so it sends its most ambitious films directly to the “hospitable” Venice. More than ever this year with first films (White Noise by Noah Baubach) as well as Gavras’ breathtaking Athena and Alejandro G. Iñarritu’s rather disappointing Bardo, with the highly anticipated premiere biographies of Marilyn Monroe “Blonde” Andrew Dominic.

Unexpected Role

Finally, Darren Aronofsky should be mentioned. The American filmmaker came to Venice this year with The Whale, a project he had been wanting to do for ten years but couldn’t find the right protagonist, he said at a press conference. Ultimately, Brendan Fraser was cast as a terribly fat man with a sensitive heart and great spiritual development who tries to reconnect with his daughter while his health is rapidly declining.

Aronofsky limits his frame to a square, and the development of the entire film takes place inside the home of the hero, who is effectively trapped due to his physical condition. Suffice it to say that at the end of the press screening, few people’s eyes were dry, and Fraser is already considered the first favorite for the best male performance.

That “K” votes for the Golden Lion?

Packing our bags for our return from Venice, and as the festival enters its final stages, we highlight five films that have made the most impression on us and deserve the Golden Lion and other prizes that will be awarded next Saturday by the film festival. Presidential Committee Julianne Moore. Intense and frantic rhythm “Athena” by Romain Gavras. Luca Guantanino is very daring and strangely pleasant despite his harsh imagery, Bones and All. Just a delightful mixture of drama and comedy “The Banshee of Inisherin” by Martin McDonough. A deeply touching Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” that, like its protagonist, hides more than meets the eye. Finally, Todd Field’s Pitch, a film based primarily on Cate Blanchett’s performance that still has a few other cinematic virtues nonetheless.