This film by Martin McDonough (writer-director of "In Bruges") has been called similar to the work of Quentin Tarantino. And that's true, but I liked it almost as much as I liked "Django Unchained," which means that I thought it was one of the best films of the year. But many people won't agree, because both the plot and the dialogue will be too quirky for them. Take as an example of the latter an early exchange between a guy named Marty writing a screenplay and his buddy Billy:
Billy: How's the Seven Psychopaths coming, Marty? Marty: Slow, slow. I've got the title, y'know...just haven't been able to come up with all the psychopaths yet. Billy: How many you got? Marty: One. And he ain't really much of a psychopath. He's more of a...kind of a Buddhist. Billy: A Buddhist? Marty: Yeah, I'm sick of all these stereotypical Hollywood murderer scumbag type psychopath movies. I don't want it to be one more film about guys with guns in their hands. I want it...overall...to be about love...and peace. But it still has to be about these seven psychopaths, so this Buddhist psychopath, he...he doesn't believe in violence. I don't know what the fuck he's going to do in the movie. Marty later changes his mind, and turns the Buddhist psychopath into a Quaker psychopath, but the movie winds up having a Buddhist in it anyway. Don't ask me to explain how. This is a very quirky movie written by a guy named Marty about a guy named Marty writing a movie, and as such is kind of a cinematic moebius strip. It's also got (to say the least) a great cast, including Sam Rockwell, Colin Farrell, Abbie Cornish, Christopher Walken, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Waits, and Woody Harrelson. I liked it, but it's WAY too convoluted for me to try to explain to you why, so I'll let Roger Ebert explain why he liked it. He gave it 3-1/2 stars (out of four); I would have gone for four. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121010/REVIE\ WS/121019997/0/wikipedia <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121010/REVI\ EWS/121019997/0/wikipedia>
