Small Things Like These · reception & legacy

How Small Things Like These has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Opened the 2024 Berlinale to warm reviews as Cillian Murphy's first lead after Oppenheimer, then slipped through cinemas so quietly that it's since become a 'why did nobody see this?' cause — championed as one of 2024's most underseen films and a notable awards-season snub.

What's debated

The perennial split: is its extreme restraint quietly devastating or just too slight — with Claire Keegan devotees insisting the novella's interiority can't fully survive the screen.

Its footprint

It's become part of Ireland's ongoing public reckoning with the Magdalene laundries, regularly discussed alongside The Magdalene Sisters and Philomena as cinema doing the remembering a country long avoided.

Where it stands

A quiet Letterboxd favourite and 'trust me on this one' recommendation — the underseen gem of Murphy's post-Oppenheimer run.