by Joseph Tiberia

Marty (Farrell) is a struggling writer who dreams of finishing his screenplay, “Seven Psychopaths”. Billy (Sam Rockwell) is Marty’s best friend, an unemployed actor and part-time dog thief, who wants to help Marty by any means necessary. All he needs is a little focus and inspiration.

Hans (Christopher Walken) is Billy’s partner in crime: a religious man with a violent past. Charlie (Woody Harrelson) is the gangster whose beloved dog Billy and Hans have just stolen. Charlie is unpredictable and extremely violent and wouldn’t think twice about killing anyone or destroying anything associated with the theft. Marty is going to get all the focus and inspiration he needs, just as long as he lives to tell the tale.

Martin McDonagh creates another soon-to-be virtually loved film as a follow up to his universally loved directorial debut, In Bruges. This time, however, the chew is a little bit more than expected, due to the quirkiness that McDonagh approached to the film, making it about a writer trying to get a movie written weaving a screwball gangster black comedy within the fabric of the film.

The film’s structure goes by each of the seven psychopaths like chapters – each killer has their own story to tell as well as assist the overall story. I love that it’s a study of Hollywood from a screenwriter’s perspective who is also a director. Essentially the main character is pressured by the studio to give them his next big script after having his last film so successful.

The storyline gets interesting when Farrell, his actor friend (Rockwell) and retired gangster friend (Walken) all go out to the desert and talk about how they hate action movies. Ironically the first half of the film is all action and the second half is nothing but talk (which is exactly what happens in the film!) until the very end.

I didn’t fully appreciate most of the film until much later; it’s one of those movies that gets better when  you watch it a second time.

Joseph S. Tiberia is a recent graduate of Adelphi University with a major inVideo/Film Production. He has interned for Half Yard Production and NYC’s Face-Off comedy troupe. He specializes in cinematography freelance work. Joseph is also a movie reviewer for Totalfilmnerd.com. His favorite film of all time is A BitterSweet Life.