Everything You Need to Know About Polarizing British-Irish Filmmaker Martin McDonagh
Why Do People Love Him? Why Do People Hate Him? Does He Have a Famous Girlfriend?
With Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin recently becoming the most nominated Irish film in Oscars history (its nine nods pushing In the Name of the Father and Belfast into joint-second place), now feels like the right time for a quick primer on what the polarizing British-Irish filmmaker is all about.
As a near-completist, and the site’s only resident Irishman, the task of elucidation falls to me, so here goes:
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Who is he?
The one-time enfant terrible of the London theater scene rose to prominence in the mid 90s when, as a twentysomething with no theater background, he rattled off six critically-lauded, award-winning plays in as many years—five tragicomic grotesqueries set in and around the west of Ireland (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore) and one dystopian fable set in a Kafka-esque police state (The Pillowman).
He then won an Oscar for his creepy 2004 short film Six Shooter (which you can watch in its entirety on YouTube), before going on cement his place in Hollywood with feature films In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017), the last of which was a surprise box office smash and something of an awards juggernaut with Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell picking up every major Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor trophy that year. His latest, The Banshees of Inisheerin, looks set to repeat its predecessor’s awards performance (if not its box office).
What’s his style?
His style has long been described as Quentin Tarantino meets (turn-of-the-century Irish playwright and folklorist) John Millington Synge. It’s a by-now tired description, and one he probably hates, but it remains reasonably accurate.
What do people like about his work?
The “Guinness-black” humor. The soulfully venomous dialogue. The moral ambiguity. The blending of the tender and the grotesque. The performances of his casts.
What do people dislike about his work?
Well, that depends on who you ask. Some people dislike what they see as the hollow glibness that pervades his work. Others (especially in Ireland) are turned off by his depictions of Ireland and Irishness. Back in 2010, The New Yorker’s Hilton Als called out McDonagh’s first America-set play, A Behanding in Spokane, for being racially insensitive—a charge that would reemerge seven years later as Three Billboards began to pick up a head of steam.
What are his essentials?
The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Pillowman, In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin. (I haven’t seen his 2015 play Hangmen, but it received rapturous reviews and was nominated for a Tony Award).
How full is his trophy cabinet?
An Academy Award, six BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, three Olivier Awards, and nominations for five Tony Awards (which, I suppose, don’t take up any room).
Is he dating anyone famous?
Yep. Since 2018 McDonagh has been in a relationship with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Together they form perhaps the most powerful screenwriting couple in the biz.
Any notable relations?
His older brother, John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary, The Forgiven), is also a successful screenwriter and director who has cast Brendan Gleeson in multiple pitch-black tragicomedies.
Did he ever tell Sean Connery to “fuck off” at an awards ceremony?
Yes, once.
