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Member Picks: In Bruges (2008)

Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be. (R, 107 min.)

Showtimes

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

7:00 PM

Member Picks showcases the movies that inspired the Moxie’s biggest supporters.
Every month, one member picks a film that impacted their lives and we put it up on the big screen.
May's pick was made by Moxie members Ysabel & Jeremy Hill.

All movies from this series are Free For Members.

Synopsis: Very much out of place amidst the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray's often profanely funny exploits, finds his mind and soul being expanded by the beauty and serenity of the city. But the longer they stay waiting for Harry's call, the more surreal their experience becomes, as they find themselves in weird encounters with locals, tourists, violent medieval art, a dwarf American actor shooting a European art film, Dutch prostitutes, and a potential romance for Ray in the form of Chloe, who may have some dark secrets of her own. And when the call from Harry does finally come, Ken and Ray's vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences. [Focus Features]

Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds
Director: Martin McDonagh
Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Crime


*CW
A thorough, spoiler-filled content guide can be found here.

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"A rude and riotous laugher."

— Peter Howell, Toronto Star

"Dark, hilarious and oddly moving."

— Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

"In Bruges is a haunting and hypnotic movie, just the thing to get lost in"

— Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"An endlessly surprising, very dark, human comedy, with a plot that cannot be foreseen but only relished."

— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"When it's funny, it's hilarious; when it's serious, it's powerful; and either way, it's an endless pleasant surprise."

— Tasha Robinson, The A.V. Club

"Tightly scripted and intricately plotted, the buddy film manages the neat two-step of being simultaneously profane and engaging."

— Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun

"Farrell has brought his A-game to this cracking little comedy-noir written and directed by Martin McDonagh. He is absolutely superb."

— Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

"The revelation is Farrell, whose natural petulance as an actor has never chimed so well with his deeper reserves of childlike vulnerability."

— Tim Robey Daily, Telegraph (UK)

"A film that's so bloody wonderful (in both meanings of the word) that all other movies this year might as well go straight to video. [2008]"

— Amy Nicholsonm I.E. Weekly

"A kind of eccentric, wisecracking Waiting for Godot that shifts gears into a bloody, unpredictable action spectacle that never loses its heart."

— Mark Rahner, Seattle Times

"This dark comedy shifts effortlessly between silly and sobering, and it finally gives Colin Farrell the chance to be as funny as we've long suspected he could be."

— Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

"It's hard to mix dark wit with real tragedy, but that's what writer-director Martin McDonagh pulls off with In Bruges, a wonderfully realized examination of unintended and deadly consequences."

— Tom Long, Detroit News

"Just when you think you've seen every possible variation on the hit-man genre, Irish playwright Martin McDonagh in his feature debut has fashioned an audacious combination of Old World grace and modern ultraviolence."

— James Greenberg, Hollywood Reporter

"Not entertainment for the faint-hearted and mindlessly censorious, and in this particularly chaotic period, it seems right in tune with the times. It goes almost without saying that the acting of the three leads is, in a word, splendid."

— Andrew Sarris, Observer

"After I killed him, I dropped the gun in the Thames' -- so begins In Bruges, an insanely clever thug's tale so rife with obscenity that those 11 words form one of the longest complete sentences that can be repeated safely here."

— Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

"Those who know McDonagh's work know a vein of darkness will run deeply through the comedy. It has seldom been darker. Or funnier. He has made a hit-man movie in which you don't know what will happen and can't wait to find out. Every movie should be so cliched."

— John Anderson, Washington Post

"The movie gradually deepens from odd-couple comedy into Catholic-themed drama, but it remains marvelously funny throughout. Instead of hitting the easy notes of black humor, McDonagh skillfully modulates between broad character laughs and the men's piercing anguish as the story nears its bloody conclusion."

— J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader