Now Playing in Hanover: Seven Psychopaths
By The Dartmouth Arts Staff
Published on Monday, October 15, 2012
“Seven Psychopaths” is a crazy and star-studded comedy about a struggling writer named Marty, played by Colin Farrell, looking for the inspiration to finish a screenplay. Directed by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, “Psychopaths” also features Marty’s friend Billy (Sam Rockwell), an eclectic and unsuccessful but lovable actor with a bad habit of dog theft. When Billy steals the prized shih tzu of a gang-associated maniac, Billy and Marty both get into a very bad but hysterical predicament, fueling the storyline of this sure-to-be successful black comedy. Marty gets more than enough inspiration for his screenplay, even if the situation gets him and his friends into a whole lot of trouble. —Julian Danziger
Directed by: Martin McDonagh With: Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Farrell 110 minutes Rated R
“Seven Psychopaths” provides even more blood, guts and dark, un-PC humor than its predecessor, “In Bruges” (2008). What the film lacks is the same theatrical tautness that elevated “In Bruges” from a broad exercise in gallows humor to a meditative, human dramedy. — Gordon Reed
Bursting with the originality that made McDonagh’s previous film, “In Bruges,” so captivating, “Seven Psychopaths” is a hilarious, yet at times seriously dark, look at a bunch of misfits doing their best not to get killed by the strange characters they meet. Rockwell shines here in an Oscar-worthy role as the craziest psychopath of them all.
— Varun Bhuchar
What a profoundly strange, strangely profound movie. Combining the absurd meta-narrative of “Seinfeld,” the biting black humor of “Pulp Fiction” (1994), the deep emotional heft of “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) and the cartoonish gore of “The Boondock Saints” (1999), McDonagh crafts a unique and superbly entertaining film that is fleshed out by fantastic acting across the board. — Kyle McGoey