Starring: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken
Overall Rating: 89.9
In his second feature film, director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), reaffirms himself as a dialogue driven, dry humor style of filmmaker. The one factor that McDonagh seems to be struggling with is his marketing team. With "In Bruges", the film was tag-lined as a hilarious romp, which it in no way was. For "Psychopaths", the main trailers were focused on the story of a group of bumbling idiot dog-nappers, which it is not.
Instead, "Psychopaths" takes the tongue-in-cheek approach to film-making, where we as the audience are watching the leading character writing the story in front of our eyes. Similar to films like "Adaptation", the leading character Marty (Farrell) is a Hollywood screenwriter with an idea for a new movie called "Seven Psychopaths". As he struggles to find his creative voice, his friend Billy (Rockwell) attempts to help him along, pitching ideas for different psychopaths for his movie. Over the course of the film, we learn that the ideas for the psychopaths end up being real characters (in the movie at least) and directly influence the writing of the screenplay we're watching on screen.
While yes, the story kicks off with Billy inadvertantly kidnapping a crime boss's (Harrelson) dog, the story that follows after is anything but predictable. Each character is introduced in a very one dimensional way, but as the film progresses, each character just gets layers and layers added to them until each has their own unique voice and personality.
"Seven Psychopaths" is one of those films that makes you wish you were an actor, as you can just tell how much fun everyone had making the film. With a smart dialogue, each actor gets their chance to just let loose and enjoy the scenes they are in, rather than spewing out forced words. The charismatic Rockwell and Walken each bring their signature styles to their performances, and Farrell even surprises with a bit of "everyman" portrayal of his screenwriter.
The supporting cast all steal their scenes, whether through Gaborey Sidibe as the dog-walker who loses boss's dog, Harry Dean Stanton as the ghost-like Quaker, or the flat out amazing performance by Tom Waits as a classifieds-answering, self-proclaimed psycho, each dominate the screen during their time on it.
"Psychopaths" is an unconventional comedy, but still a comedy. With McDonagh's smart Brit wit and the great comedic performances by the likes of Rockwell, Walken, and Harrelson, the film takes you through a myriad of environments and timelines, but entertains you every step of the way.
Individual Ratings
Enjoyment Factor:9
Dialogue: 10
Acting: 9
Direction: 9
Audio/Visual: 8
No comments:
Post a Comment