Review! Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths (2012) Directed by Martin McDonagh. Starring: Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell. IMDB says: “A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster’s beloved Shih Tzu.”

Seven Psychopaths is a very fun film. It starts off with a lot of different stories and characters and slowly strings them all together. You can feel when you are watching the movie that a lot of thought went into the story. The cast is really great. Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, and Colin Farrell all stand out in the movie. Tom Waits, Zeljko Ivanek and a slew of other actors have smaller roles in the film but have a very big impact as well.

The movie is about a screenwriter (Farrell) who is trying to figure out his next movie. All he has is a title and a vague idea of what message he wants to send. He’s friends with a petty criminal (Rockwell) who wants to help him write his script. They get mixed up with a crime boss (Harrelson) after Rockwell and Christopher Walkens’ characters steal his dog. The plot of the movie and the discussion of the screenplay influence each other and drive the story in an intriguing way.

Seven Psychopaths feels like a movie that people had fun making and spent a lot of time creating a movie that would entertain the audience as much as possible. I would recommend this film to anyone, especially to people who are into Tarantino/Guy Ritchie-esque movies.

Seven Psychopaths is everything you’d want in a movie and more. It’s violent. It’s funny. It’s meta. It’s dramatic. It’s fantastic. The film’s plot throws a lot of information at you, but juggles it all perfectly to fit into a tight running machine that does nothing but deliver. The film is about struggling screenwriter Marty (Colin Farrell) and his inability to come up with a new story. He’s toying around with the idea of psychopaths when he begins to live his stories. He gets mixed in with his friend Billy’s (an awesome Sam Rockwell) dog kidnapping business. They get mixed up with the mob and the story takes off as it winds between tales of serial killers, revenge killers, and a Vietnamese man hell bent on killing everyone in America. Awesome right? Oh, and Tom Waits and Christopher Walken are in this movie. If that doesn’t get you to go, I don’t know what will.

There are many many perfect aspects to this film. The cast, the score, the locales, the store; pretty much everything goes off without a hitch. No plot holes, the film doesn’t drag, and it’s such an exciting film, it holds your interest and doesn’t let go. It isn’t a typical Mix-Up-With-The-Mob type movie. Those films don’t have the timing, flashbacks, storytelling, or self-referencing aspects this film does and it does it with such precise execution that it all feels new and exciting. I know I know, Nick, you’re giving this film TOO much praise. Alright, maybe that’s true. But it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a film this much to where I’ve wanted to automatically re-watch the film. To get the full effect with this, I would do a Double Feature of Seven Psychopaths and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

I can’t do anything more than praise this movie, but some might not like it. If you don’t like Guy Ritchie-esque movies or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, you probably won’t enjoy this movie. I doubt it. I’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t genuinely enjoy this movie. Go see this in theatres and then buy the BluRay or DVD when it comes out.