Seven Psychopaths a new black comedy from the director/writer of In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, who also wrote the screenplay and features Colin Farrell as a struggling L.A. screenwriter who gets caught up in the darkness of the criminal underworld after his friends kidnap a mob boss prized pet Shih Tzu dog.
The film is a step up from In Bruges that is both smart and witty and features some of the best dialogue of the year with some endlessly quotable lines.
Seven Psychopaths: The Good
The performances in “Seven Psychopaths” are top notch and feature a great cast including Colin Farrell as alcoholic writer Marty, who gets entangled in all the chaos thanks to his friend’s business which involves kidnapping people’s dogs in exchange for an award. Christopher Walken plays oddball Hans who is the ringleader of the scheme and this is another crazy and nutty performance from Walken, Walken offers the film’s best lines one in particular near the end standoff scene.
The standout of the movie is Sam Rockwell as Billy, who is Marty’s best friend, Billy is often misunderstood and you never know what the character is going to do next as he shitfs from being stable to unstable. Woody Harrelson stars as crazed mob boss Charlie, in this role Harrelson brings the same comedy that he showed in indie comedy/horror, Zombieland as well as the menace he demonstrated in Rampart.
The other highlight of Seven Psychopaths is the intelligent screenplay written by McDonagh and features some of the best dialogue of the year which is infectious and boasts of some of the best quotable lines which you will find yourself repeating to your friends.
Seven-PsychopathsThe film is stylishly shot too, with a lot of atmospheric shots of L.A. including the iconic shot of the famous Hollywood sign, as well as great choreographed action scenes which showcase McDonagh’s talents. Based on this movie McDonagh could be a action director in the making and move on to big budget movies and Hollywood blockbusters.
Seven Psychopaths: The bad
Seven Psychopaths may feature a star studded cast with some of the best acting talent working today, the script is intelligently written but it isn’t perfect and has its flaws, with such a darkly comic story line which questions whether you should actually be laughing at some scenes. You come out of the cinema with an empty feeling and not knowing what to take from the experience.
Conclusion:
Overall, Seven Psychopaths, is an enjoyable darkly comic thriller that features a top-notch cast at the top of their game. It features a script that is witty, smart and intelligent with killer one-liners that you will be unable to resist and find yourself quoting relentlessly for the rest of the year.