Allan Watched "Seven Psychopaths"
Full of great performances and entertaining throughout, Seven Psychopaths is a somewhat emotionless joyride with a bunch of nut jobs, that ends up being a very fun film.
Gut Feeling
I appreciated the meta-ness of it all, a screenwriter (Colin Farrell) living through a story that will eventually be the movie he writes, but was rather unmoved when it was forced on you as often as it was. Seven Psychopaths is at its most effective when it stops hitting you over the head with its gimmick, and instead lets you enjoy the madness that is unfolding during the constant action of its final hour. It is surely a bit bizarre, but it was fun to watch.
Star Power Leads The Way
What a great cast. Farrell’s character Marty is who the story flows through, and he is fine (he plays a drunk Irish writer, so, yeah), but the ensemble around him is what makes this film so good. Sam Rockwell (Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri) owns the screen as Marty’s crazy actor friend Billy Bickle, who is trying help Marty write his newest movie. Billy has big ideas of what will make the movie great, and brings it to life in his own actions. Billy is crazy, and I loved him. The most emotional performance however, ironically enough, comes from Christopher Walken. Walken plays Hans, a dog thief with a sick wife who’s past drives the movie’s most emotional stretches. Walken has plenty of funny “Walken” moments, but his sensitivity in all the chaos works, and actually hit me pretty hard.
Woody Harrelson (White Man Can’t Jump) is a treasure, and he gives the most dynamic performance as the “villain” Charlie Costello, a career criminal who just wants his damn dog back! My favorite scene, which is probably the most powerful sequence in the movie, is when he confronts Hans’ wife Myra, beautifully played by Linda Bright Clay, in the hospital. Harrelson so wonderfully goes from charmingly funny to sinister, and his performance is another reason why he is one of my favorite actors of all time.
You (Don’t) Gotta Get A Gimmick
Listen, I’d be lying if I said I loved the concept. It’s creative, but they really hit you over the head with it. Writer-director Martin McDonagh, who wrote and directed Three Billboards starring Harrelson and Rockwell, delivers a movie with a driving plot that plows through the thickness of the shtick enough to keep me happy. There were definitely times where I was like “I get it! It’s a movie in a movie!”, but they do eventually move past it enough to have it not be as distracting. The ending is great, though, and is probably better then it should have been considering we basically were told how it ends, and overall, the characters McDonagh created is the movie’s greatest success.
Random Thoughts
This movie may win for most title drops of all time. I get that Seven Psychopaths is also the name of the movie Marty is writing, but they say it 10 times. Title drop overload. The word psychopaths is likely said 45 times throughout.
The opening scene is dope. I love the nod to Boardwalk Empire with Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg playing the wiseguys waiting to do a hit, talking about famous people who have been shot in the eye. It sets the tone that this movie is going to be a mix of funny and bloody.
Not a great movie to be a woman… There are maybe a couple dozen lines spoken by women throughout, and even though they kind of call it out in the scene where they call out the other absurdities of the movie they are in, the lack of representation beyond being cushions for bullets is a bit jarring.
Charlie’s dog is the true star. What a cute pup. Good dog.
The numbering of the psychopaths as they come through the story felt like an idea that should have been ditched early in production, but never did.
Quick Hits:
How many times have I seen this movie?
First time!
Where was I watching it?
In my office while schooling kids in Madden 19.
Did Kellye Watch it? If Yes, did she like it. If no, would she like it?
I think Kellye would have called out the meta moments, and probably would have mocked the movie throughout. And Hypothetical Kellye wouldn’t be wrong to do so.
Favorite fact I learned from Wikipedia
Mickey Rourke was supposed to play Charlie, but quit after not getting along with McDonagh and calling him a “jerk-off”. Harrelson was then picked for the role, and it was the right choice. It likely led to his role in Three Billboards, and we are all for the better because of him in that movie.
Favorite part
Walken refusing to put his hands up when guys with guns come at him in his Walken voice is one of my favorite Walken moments ever.
Least favorite part
Too much use of the homophobic f-word. It was pretty unnecessary and they tried to make it funny, and failed.
Would I recommend this movie and why?
I would. It’s not perfect, but it is a lot of fun.
So What Does Allan Give It?
One Gold Thumbs Up! Overall, a score of 72. It’s fun and the cast makes it worth it.
