Seven Psychopaths

Most helpful review Seven Psychopaths

• DID YOU KNOW THIS IS A UK FILM?

   

  By britpicdick (41 reviews) , 09 Dec 2012

  [Highly rated reviewer]

  Fans of In Bruges, the four year wait is over. I’d say it was worth the wait for as arch and all knowing as Seven Psychopaths is, it’s still blo0dy entertaining. Colin Farrell (THE NEW WORLD) plays a Los Angeles screenwriter called Marty who has a severe case of block. He’s trying to write a film called ‘Seven Psychopaths’. His best friend Billy (SAM ROCKWELL – MOON) kidnaps Beverly Hills dogs for a living with his pal, Hans (CHRISTOPHER WALKEN – KING OF NEW YORK). Billy inadvertently steals an unhinged gangster’s (WOODY HARRELSON – RAMPART) Sh*tzu and sets off a string of inspirational events that may get Marty writing again, such is Billy dedication to the cause. Meanwhile, there is a serial killer roaming LA, offing mobsters called *sh*t! I forgot*. This film is packed to the gills with ‘famous face’ cameos and it’s a real treat to see a return to the type of gangster flicks that came out in the wake of Pulp Fiction because there were hardly any good ones. This is a “great” one. Seven Psychopaths reminds me in particular of Gary Fleder’s Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead in that it has a glorious gallery of grotesques to get to know. I kept on expecting Steve Buscemi to show up but he never did, you do,however, get to see two of his Boardwalk Empire co-stars though, Michael Pitt (THE DREAMERS) and Michael Stuhlbarg (A SERIOUS MAN) for a bit. Elsewhere we have the illustrious Tom Waits (THE FISHER KING) who turns up with one impressive story to tell and Harry Dean Stanton (PARIS TEXAS) in a silent but haunting walk-on role. In the main the women are short-changed apart from Linda Bright Gray (ORIGINAL GANGSTAZ) as Hans’, cancer suffering wife, Myra. In a different type of movie, she would have stolen the show. But, this is Christopher Walken‘s show, although he’s got competition from a cracking Sam Rockwell and a puzzlingly dark yet funny and conflicted Woody Harrelson. I’ve missed Christopher Walken, who I don’t think I’ve seen onscreen since the late Tony Scott’s Domino, there’s no other Hollywood star like him. He’s effortlessly weird yet when called up he can unsettle you to the core, for instance there is a muted face off, in Seven Psychopaths, between himself and Harrelson which is electric in light of what’s just occurred in the story. I think it’s this scene that elevates the whole movie above a silly p*ss about in the desert. Which is essentially what this movie is. As obsessed as Billy is with getting Marty inspired, strangely enough Marty begins to chronicle events, with Billy constantly arguing about how the film should conclude. So in effect the whole film is a bit “meta”. Martin McDonagh‘s dialogue is sharp and witty but it’s also very arch. All of the characters seem to be on the same hip level of being able to answer each others sarcastic quips with equally lighting quick retorts. This betrays the writer in that all players have the same brain, the same vocabulary. Two mobsters in an early scene riff off one another just like Marty and Billy do later on. There does seem to be a precious quality to the script, which I doubt was deviated from in the slightest, but like I said the performances and the wit is so good this is just a minor quibble. Unusually for a British film, it features no British actors at all and I only learnt it was a Britpic from finding out it was co-financed by FilmFour and the BFI. It’s completely set in California and walks and talks like an American movie. I actually prefer this type of Britpic to the ‘made for USA’ crap like Tamara Drewe, because it’s story wouldn’t work in the UK. 8 out of 10 – I really enjoyed Seven Psychopaths as much as I did In Bruges. If you didn’t like the former you certainly won’t appreciate this. But it’s really entertaining. The meta-schtik doesn’t get too annoying and the cast are just amazing. Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell all put in very memorable caricatures and deliver amazing performances. It’s a fun guns and bullets movie and I haven’t even begun to talk about the best bits. I’ll leave it you to discover them. britpic word press . com

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