| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 12/13/2012 : 02:33:43
Although the plots are oceans apart, the film reminded me a bit of Charlie Kaufman's fascinations. Both he and writer/director Martin McDonagh [In Bruges] want to know why people do what they do. They want to know, but, in the end, they realize they can't quite nail it.
But it's the journey that makes the film. The journey of Seven Psychopaths fuses the thoughts of a writer struggling with a screenplay, with the reality of his frustration, and how trying to be loyal to some dubious friends lands him in truths stranger than fiction.
There's plenty of gun-on-gun action, you betcha, but it's there because it's gotta be, and not quite what it seems in any case.
McDonagh's take on matters of life and death incorporates some potent and often hilarious post-modernist existential questions. The film's structure as well as its themes provides a huge challenge to the lead actors.
And they certainly rise to it. Colin Farrell as the writer - projects exactly the degree of innocence and world-weariness to convince us he's open to new ideas while discarding the same old/same old. Sam Rockwell has really perfected baby-faced danger - as befitting a true psychopath his moments both of lucidity and brutality come as suprises. Christopher Walken [Rockwell's partner in a dog-napping scam] provides the wisdom and pain of a man who's chosen Zen acceptance in the light of extraordinary disappointment. And Woody Harrelson as the lowlife whose beloved and adorable pooch has been duly dog-napped by the former parlays the intensity of his performance in Rampart to more subtle heights.
It's a very self-aware film - not quite Brechtian, but mighty fine, nonetheless.
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| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| randall |
Posted - 01/06/2013 : 16:03:07
Nice one, Beany!
MUCH LATER: I just saw it and loved, for many of the reasons stated above. We've been big fans of the director's stage work: it's gruesome but funny too, just like this. Tarantino territory. I loved the confusion between fantasy and reality, between movie cliches and the movie you're watching. Lots of blood, but almost cartoony, obviously effects, usually laughable. Sam Rockwell has never been funnier. Think Baffy let a slight spoiler through up there, but it only ruins one of many, many surprises. |
| Beanmimo |
Posted - 01/05/2013 : 23:46:00
I agree, anyone who enjoyed the struggling writer aspect of "Adaptation" or "Barton Fink" will enjoy "Seven Psychopaths".
Equally bloody and witty.
Great script and well handled by the cast.
I rate it higher than McDonaghs "In Bruges".
It sort of shouldn't work but it does.
Here is my fuller blog review if you like.
http://wp.me/p1MbTJ-hN |
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