Rendering: Adam Pardee/STAFF.

I just watched “The Banshees of Inisherin” on one of 79 streaming services for which I pay too much every month and was kind of stumped. No pun intended. 

You have to see it to get that one. 

I loved the first two-thirds … it’s funny, the scenery is stunning, and the acting is first rate. I’ve heard people complain it was slow, but it’s supposed to be slow. That’s the mild fastball down the middle of the plate the filmmakers threw themselves to crush it out of the park in the last third of the film.

But … it got weird. Weird is frequently great. But I’m still trying to mold a solid opinion on it. I definitely liked it. I realize underlying points were being made about loneliness, challenging oneself, art, human achievement, conflict, the value of miniature farm animals…

But it’s OK to occasionally come out and say “No, really … what the hell was that person thinking?”

That’s kind of nice. I used to review movies for a newspaper, which meant I had to stack opinions nice and neat on deadline and fit them into a 600-word space for the next day’s paper. I’ve come to regret some of those reviews, because I just didn’t have time to properly digest the movie.

With time and perspective, opinions change. Have you listened to a 1970s Rod Stewart song lately? I don’t think I can even legally describe here what he’s basically doing to all those women. I used to like those songs. Now I want to shield my daughters and punch him in the face every time I hear one. 

This isn’t a list of how badly some movies have aged because there aren’t phonebooths anymore, or another rant about Mickey Rooney playing an Asian guy in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (always a bad movie even without Rooney’s human cringe). I just think it’s noteworthy that first impressions aren’t always best impressions.  

Ragging on “Star Wars” is also old news. But the very good “Andor” and its vibe continuation of the even-better “Rogue One” doesn’t get Disney off the hook for making Luke Skywalker a bitter old prick and resurrecting the emperor with a secret fleet of 45 million star destroyers.  

Yes, many old Disney movies are horribly racist, but this is my childhood hero-worship with which they screwed. The last “Star Wars” film trilogy should be erased. I only reviewed the first one, a good review by which I (mostly) stand. Even if I see more flaws now, which I didn’t see in 2015 because I had no idea the next two films would be bad and so bad. The last one, probably ruined Star Wars films forever.

“Raging Bull” was another big U-turn for me. Being a snob, I used to praise this up and down as one of the greatest films ever made. And technically, that may be true. But I watched it for the first time in a couple decades and almost turned it off, it was so depressing. At some point, give us a character we can like.   

Even more recent things haven’t turned out how I thought. “Yellowstone” was fun the first couple seasons, like “The Godfather” with cowboy hats. Once John Dutton became governor and started crying about it every three seconds – and his daughter lost her last molecule of humanity and became someone slightly meaner than hungover Satan after a break-up – I couldn’t watch it anymore.  

It’s not just the depressing/mean side of life that’s changing my mind on these former works of art. I’m all for evil. I voted for a Clinton three times. I’m just saying give evil a chance to air itself out every now and again, respect the fans, and don’t feel compelled to throw away happy endings because they’re cliché. 

But as far as creative art that gets better with age – have you watched a “Muppets” movie lately? You should.  

I changed my mind on Netflix’s woman-as-a-Russian-plant cliché “In From the Cold,” after giving up after three episodes when it debuted in 2022. About a year later I gave it another shot and it suddenly picked up speed and became really good (loved the ending, even if they telegraphed it). Same for Netflix’s “Another Life,” which just needed a little more patience. Speaking of Katee Sackoff, I refused to go near the second coming of “Battlestar Galactica,” only to find it was one of the best shows ever made. And when I first tried “Stranger Things,” I thought it was a clumsy, nonsensical mess. Then I remembered what the ’80s were really like (a clumsy, nonsensical mess) and suddenly it became one of the great shows of its time.

I used to dislike Pearl Jam because … I’m not sure. Probably because it was too easy to like Pearl Jam and I thought Eddie Vedder’s occasional soapbox was posing. Now I understand it’s an all-time great rock band. I used to think ZZ Top was boring because they beat the theme to death in the ’80s because it was like printing money. Now I listen to their older records and realize how absolutely brilliant they were. 

I’ve even come around on Ethan Hawke, who I disliked because I believed he tried too hard. Now I realize he’s really a great actor who gets it (I forgive him for that Marvel Moonbeam show, or whatever it was, which was staggeringly forgettable, despite a great cast). 

It sounds like I’m arguing for second chances. It’s a very uncritic-like notion. But the fact is – as many, many women would tell you – I’ve been wrong a lot. 

Unfortunately, I already know what happens in “The Banshees of Inisherin.” But maybe it’s worth another look. Many things are. 

Follow music critic Tony Hicks at Twitter.com/TonyBaloney1967.