Special Exhibit: SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS

Year: 2012

Duration: 110 minutes.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime.

I really enjoy Martin McDonagh's dark comedies. His Oscar-winning short film Six Shooter was a regular presentation in my classes and his feature debut, In Bruges, is delightful. Then there's his most recent -and far more famous- effort, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which should have won the Academy Award that year (The Shape of Water, and their fellow nominees didn't do much for me).

But wedged in between his two feature films, there's a lesser known one, Seven Psychopaths, which is also worthy of a watch, even though I'd agree it's not as memorable as his other ones.

The picture stars three of  McDonagh's frequent collaborators: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson, all in great comedic form as usual. Farrell plays the main character, a screenwriter who is blocked, and Rockwell is his best friend, a dog-kidnaper. As usual in the genre, both get involved in an ill-advised scheme and end up kidnapping the dog of the dangerous gangster portrayed by Harrelson.

As the title signals, colorful and unpredictable characters abound, including one played by Professional Psychopath Performer Christopher Walken. We also get Harry Dean Stanton, Abbie Cornish, Olga Kurylenko, Gabourey Sidibe and Michael Stuhlbarg in the cast.

Just as in every Martin McDonagh film, the dialogue really pops (he's also an accomplished stage writer), and the verbal confrontations are all really fun and absurdist, but what makes this film stand apart from similar efforts by the filmmaker is that this one is much more meta-textual than his other two movies. Farrell's screenwriting character in particular makes for many witty winks at the audience. Also, though the violence is quite graphic, it's never jarring for those who are in on the joke: it's purposely over the top.

That said, it's not a film for everybody due to it's tonal particularities, And, as I commented earlier, it's probably the weakest one in the author's filmography, as it's much less focused than the rest. Of course, being "the worst" among such masterpieces is far from being a dishonor. If anything, if McDonagh's low point is as good as this is, it's a real pity that he doesn't make films more often.