The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

I might as well tell you up front how to pronounce the last word of the title: "in-uh-SHARE-in." I won't provide similar guidance for the character names, because you're not likely to say them until after you've watched.

On a tiny ficitious isle in 1923, Pádraic (Colin Farrell) suddenly finds that his drinking buddy Colm (Brendan Gleeson) wants nothing more to do with him. Colm eventually explains that he'd rather pursue a legacy as a composer for the fiddle than listen to Pádraic's unenriching blabber. Pádraic won't give up on him that easily, thinking he's just going through a depressive phase. Colm threatens self-mutilation if Pádraic won't stop talking to him. Things get uglier from there.

Calvary (2014)

I don't recall learning about this one before. Maybe Netflix recommended it based on my interest in vaguely similar rentals. Maybe I wanted another Catholic priest story, even if they're as hit-or-miss as anything. I doubt it was a desire to learn about director John Michael McDonagh.

In a small Irish town, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) hears an unseen man in a confessional booth promise to kill him, albeit with the courtesy of a week to set his affairs in order. With no seal of confession on a threat, James tells the bishop (David McSavage) but not the police. Nor does he flee. Indeed, for the next week, he barely says a word about it, instead dealing with various locals' troubles.

Paddington 2 (2018)

Until a few months ago, I had never read a Paddington Bear book in my life, so I brought no nostalgia to this viewing. Ordinarily, I'm leery of live-action adaptations of kiddie books with CG animal stars (Christopher Robin being an exception because Disney already had practice with the franchise), but this one didn't get a Stuart Little 2 reception. Indeed, it was astoundingly successful. Would I be about the only reviewer not to love it?

The possibly adolescent cub (Ben Whishaw) has been living with his adoptive human family, the Browns (Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, and Julie Walters as the housekeeper), in London for some time now, but he hasn't forgotten his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) back in Peru. He hopes to earn enough for a unique antique book for her birthday present. Alas, he spills its whereabouts to neighbor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), who secretly knows its value as a treasure map and has the skills to steal it and get away via disguise and stage magic. What's worse, Paddington, in his attempt to stop the unidentified thief, ends up taking the fall and going to prison. The Browns do what they can to find the real thief, while Paddington makes do with a different sector of humanity for company.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

My second favorite medium is video games. This rarely has the slightest bearing on my choices for my favorite medium; I've never seen all of any movie adapted from a game (Wreck-It Ralph doesn't count). But when I learned the premise of this sci-fi feature, I thought, "Huh, so the hero has a save point and infinite lives. Intriguing." To put it in more cinematic terms, it sounded like Groundhog Day, only substituting action for comedy. Oh, and it's not a 24-hour cycle: Only death serves for a reset.

I had not realized just how much emphasis would be on the sci-fi in other regards. A montage in the beginning establishes a war on Earth against aliens, in which humans have won only one battle so far. A handful of humans know why the invaders are so effective: innate time travel properties, combined with a hive mind. Whenever an elite "Alpha" dies, the "Omega" turns back the clock to a set point, retaining memories that the humans don't -- unless the Alpha's blood covers a human, thereby granting him the sole power of automatic resets, along with occasional telepathic connections with the Omega, for as long as he has the right blood in his body. That's what happens to protagonist Major Bill Cage (Tom Cruise, still quite watchable), but even demonstrating "foreknowledge" doesn't reliably convince others of his ability, apart from Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who used to be like him. Together, they hope to minimize if not prevent a disastrous ambush and, if possible, kill the Omega.