Belfast (2021) review

A little boy named Buddy (Jude Hill) grows up in tumultuous Belfast in the late 1960's right when The Troubles were happening, he hangs around and gets some great advice from his grandparents (Ciarán Hinds and Dame Judi), gets a crush on a girl, hears his parents (Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan) fighting over money, is busted for shoplifting and then eventually leaves Ireland for Reading, England.  This is clearly coming from a deeply personal place for Branagh, who based it on his own life: yes, there's violence and heartache, but he also fills the movie with many blissful moments, and it's no accident that the movies and the play that Buddy watches are in color, since these are the mediums in real life that Sir Ken would find his own artistic salvation.  It's tempting to read into this our own current political state in America - i.e., the "war" between the "progressives" and the "conservatives" - and while that may have been in the back of his mind, I really do think it's just a simple ode to the place that helped define him.