Review of Seven Psychopaths (2012) by Peter F — 20 Nov 2017

For Martin McDonagh's sophomore picture (following his fairly excellent debut feature In Bruges), the writer seems to want to say something personal. Seven Psychopaths is blatantly trying to uncover the writing process, as well as lampoon Hollywood, but unfortunately it's meshed into an uneven crime film. A shame, cause the film initially seems to really understand post-Tarantino cool, with the slickly written dialogue between it's highly eccentric cast of characters, as well as with the humorous gore. In fact, the film works incredibly well until the last act, when the script inexplicably becomes lazy and uncreative. Any message McDonagh seems to want to say goes right through the cracks, during the flat ending. It's enough to make any film nerd stand up and scream, "What happened?!?!...oh right, the studio.".

P.S. This also really irked me. Abbie Cornish and Olga Kurrlenko both have minimal roles in the movie despite what advertising would have you believe. That's right, those hot European actresses are solely on the poster for marketing purposes. Further proof that I think McDonagh needs to work with new producers for his next film.