Dream cast
Writer-director Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths is one of the best films since the Coen brothers’ Barton Fink about the art of writing or, more precisely, not being able to write a movie screenplay.
This is an ingenious, wildly engaging movie from the man who brought us the brilliant In Bruges (my personal pick for the year’s best movie in 2008). Like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson, McDonagh creates movies that transcend genres. While I can compare him to other directors, I can only compare him to the unique ones who make movies that are decidedly theirs and theirs alone. McDonagh makes movies like no other.
Colin Farrell gets the second best role of his career—the best being the starring role in In Bruges—as Martin, a character obviously modeled after the director himself. Martin is trying to write a screenplay called Seven Psychopaths, and he’s wracking his brain for seven characters with distinctive killing methods. The way these characters appear to him is very much part of this film’s unending fun.
He’s friends with a true nutball named Billy, and when your nutball is played by the magical Sam Rockwell, you just know it’s going to be good. And it is.
Billy wants to help his buddy write his screenplay. He’s a struggling actor making money on the side kidnapping dogs with Hans (Christopher Walken—oh, this cast is just a dream). They swipe the pups, and turn them in for rewards.
They make a big mistake when they grab an adorable Shih Tzu owned by the psychopathic Charlie (Woody Harrelson—do I hear best cast of the year?). Terrible behavior and violence ensues, and nobody is safe in McDonagh’s crazed world.
When Martin describes the Seven Psychopaths, the movie depicts them in an almost fairytale fashion. Anybody familiar with McDonagh’s body of work will see similarities to his Tony Award-winning play The Pillowman. There are other elements similar to the play in this film, and I won’t give them away. I will tell you that a prominent member of the Broadway cast makes an awesome cameo.
The movie doesn’t skimp on the violence, which is often delivered during stylized depictions of the seven psychopaths and their killing ways. This could almost be a children’s movie, if everybody wasn’t getting their heads shot off in it.
Farrell is at his best when his Irish accent is in full force and he’s allowed to show his comic edge. Martin’s constant drinking helps fuel a Farrell performance that isn’t stereotypically drunk, just obviously impaired. And I love the almost immature, childlike attitude that Farrell injects into his work when McDonagh is around. Perhaps he should just make movies with McDonagh from here on out.
Rockwell and Walken are basically playing the character types they excel at. They are stereotypical Rockwell and Walken, and what’s better than that? Rockwell is constantly delivering his lines with a wide-eyed, big-assed grin and Walken delivers his in that, well, unmistakably Walken way. These roles seem tailor-made for these actors.
And if you think their presence isn’t enough, here comes Tom Waits holding a white bunny rabbit and regaling you with tall tales about executing serial killers. And there’s Gabourey Sidibe as a teary-eyed former dog sitter who’s about to get fired in a most unfortunate way.
Ultimately, the film is about the struggle to create, presented in a very creative way. I mentioned the Coens’ immortal Barton Fink up above because it was a brilliant take on writer’s block written when Joel and Ethan actually had writer’s block.
McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths is about making something artistic and respectable out of trashy themes. Martin is trying for depth and beauty, while Billy screams for shootouts. Both characters get their wishes in hugely entertaining ways.