Seven Psychopaths

Movie, 2012, R

Premise - A screenwriter is working on a new film "Seven Psychopaths." While he has the title in mind, he needs to find seven real-life psychopaths to inspire the actual plot of his film. This becomes much easier than anticipated when he starts to realize that his own friends are actual psychopaths, and their own chaotic and dangerous story develops alongside a parallel universe that is his film script.

Review - The first time I saw this film hardly counted, but I at least knew what I saw was brilliant. It was hard to absorb the film at an appropriate intellectual capacity when watching it in a large group of friends on a small screen. Nevertheless, I loved it enough that I promised myself I would rewatch someday in a scenario that did it justice. And luckily I did!

The film is directed by one of my faves, Martin McDonagh. I have been intrigued by his work ever since Daniel Radcliffe starred in a play he wrote, The Cripple of Inishmaan. An Irish staple, McDonagh can make the weirdest black comedies with smart dialogue, unique characters, and crazy plot twists. The A-list cast is stellar (Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson), and many of them are actors that McDonagh regularly casts in his work. The shots are incredibly aesthetically pleasing, which is odd for me to say considering the level of gore and violence. Somehow heavy blood content was made hauntingly beautiful. I can't think of anything to complain about in this film.

Each of the different psychopaths manage to be funny, scary, but ultimately fascinating. Moreover, the psychopaths have diverse motivations, characteristics, and aesthetics, and each one of their stories could have been a stand-alone film. Yet somehow, this film manages to link them all under a single plot (Minus the Vietnamese psychopath? He kind of existed in a dream sequence, but that was cool too). The events that are real within the movie, the events that are fabricated from the screenplay, and the concept of this film as a piece of fiction itself all intertwine in a brilliant, meta-cinematic way. And I love it. (98/100)

Quote -

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, I believe that wholeheartedly."

"No it doesn't. There'll be one guy left with one eye. Hows the last blind guy gonna take out the eye of the last guy left, who's still got one eye! All that guy has to do is run away and hide behind a bush. Gandhi was wrong, it's just that nobody's got the balls to come right out and say it."

OR

"You can't let the animals die in a movie. Only the women."

What to watch for - I mean the dog Bonnie is pretty cute...

If you liked this film, I'd recommend In Bruges!

Directed by Martin McDonagh
Distributed by CBS Films