John Michael McDonagh has been quiet since 2003’s Ned Kelly, but he’s back now, with The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham and Mark Strong.
Gleeson starred alongside Colin Farrell in the brilliant 2008 black comedy In Bruges (written and directed by Martin McDonagh, John Michael’s brother), and he’s in fine form here, too, as “an unorthodox Irish policeman with a confrontational personality [who is] teamed up with an uptight FBI agent (Cheadle) to investigate an international drug-smuggling ring.”
There’s a similarly, but slightly more upbeat tone to In Bruges, which is fine by me. The Guard features a score by the indie rock (or alt country, if you insist) band Calexico and premiered at Sundance back in January, so you can find some of the film’s enthusiastic early reviews online if you want to. It’s out next month in the UK. There is no US release set.