Watch: ‘In Bruges’ Is a Morality Play Plus Carnage

Martin McDonagh’s ‘In Bruges‘ would be an easy film to miss for many viewers: it’s dialogue-heavy and personality-driven, and its action, though it comes, is neither dialed high enough to prove enticing nor handled in a way that would make it palatable. (A child gets shot, while praying, for example.) Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson turn in remarkable performances, but neither actor is showboating, really. That said, the film is a jewel, a personal, wrenching story, and it deserves a broader following: to that end, Evan Puschak, aka "Nerdwriter" on YouTube, has constructed a remarkable video essay on the axis of morality it examines, and the extent to which the questions its characters face are vast ones, not only intended the affect the shape of the story, but to expand viewers’ moral sensitivities as well. Watch, and think a little–and then watch the film, if you haven’t!