THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN ****

 A legend in the theatre, Martin McDonagh's film career has been patchy at best; close to sublime with "In Brughes" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and almost irredeemably bad with "Seven Psychopaths". At least until now, since McDonagh's new film isn't just the best thing he's done on screen but very possibly the best thing he's ever done.

On the surface, "The Banshees of Inisherin" is a very simple affair with a plot that could have been written on the back of an envelope. The setting is the ficticious island of Inisherin off the mainland of Ireland. The year is 1922 and the Irish Civil War is raging. Padraic, (Colin Farrell) and Colm, (Brendan Gleeson) are seemingly best friends until one day Colm tells Padraic he no longer wants to be his friend, that he finds him 'boring', and so what begins as a dark comedy worthy of Beckett or indeed the McDonagh who gave us "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" turns slowly but inexorably into a tragedy worthy of Ibsen and dealing with such themes as loneliness, depression, masculinity and friendship and with an ending as sad as any I've seen in the cinema, (though others may see it differently).

Of course, it all could just as easily have fallen on its slightly absurdist face. Here is a scenario that could have gone any which way; McDonagh is hardly known for his subtlety and yet he never puts a foot wrong. By the time we get to the last act you could hear a pin drop in a packed cinema.

It's also magnificently acted both by Farrell and Gleeson in career-best performaces, both underplaying to the extent that they totally disappear inside their characters and there is a third magnificent performance from Barry Keoghan, (please, just give him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar now), as Dominic, ostensibly the village idiot he may just be the most intelligent person on the island and that is his tragedy; such intelligence can't be contained especially when it goes unrecognized. A masterpiece.

JOHNNY NOBODY *

 There's a terrific idea at the heart of this Irish-set thriller, particularly if you're a Catholic. A drunken Irish-American atheist stands outside a Roman Catholic Church in a small Irish village and defies God to strike him dead when out of nowhere a stranger appears and does just that in front of the local priest and the whole village. Since the killer doesn't appear to have a past or an identity, he becomes known as "Johnny Nobody", hence the film's title.

So far so good; unfortunately we get the denouement about two-thirds of the way through and it's not a very good one. From here on things get progressively more far-fetched, like a cross between a poor man's "The 39 Steps" and "Witness for the Prosecution".

Actor Nigel Patrick both directs and plays the sceptical priest, Aldo Ray is the killer and a really rather good William Bendix, the victim. Others in the cast include a miscast Yvonne Mitchell, Cyril Cusack and Niall Macginnis as well as the usual stock company of Irish players. On its level it's entertaining matinee fare but it could have been so much better.

CONVICTED **

 "Convicted" is based on the play 'Criminal Code', previoulsy filmed by Howard Hawks in 1931 and as remakes go this one is very good indeed. Glenn Ford is the guy serving up to 10 years in prison for killing someone in a barroom brawl. Broderick Crawford is the D. A. who sent him down but believed the sentence to have been too harsh and who then finds himself the warden of the prison Ford ended up in.

It's a good story and, like the earlier version, is well cast. Both Ford and Crawford are excellent and a very fine supporting cast includes Millard Mitchell, Will Geer, Dorothy Malone, Frank Faylen, Ed Begley and Carl Benton Reid as a sadistic guard. The director was Henry Levin, normally associated with much lighter fare than this, but this is one of his finest films. It's largely disappeared but this tough, intelligent picture is certainly worth seeking out.