Seven Psychopaths

After making a splash with his terrific debut, the comedy-noir In Bruges, playwright-turned-director Martin McDonagh presumably got the call from Hollywood. He would no doubt have been expected to write a funny, irreverently violent, Tarantino-esque film. What he did instead is make a funny, irreverently violent, Tarantino-esque film about the inherent rubbish-ness of writers.

Colin Farrell is Irish writer Marty, who’s too inebriated to knock a script out. When his dog-kidnapping buddy (Rockwell) and his partner-in-crime (Christopher Walken, never better) steal a Shih Tzu from a maniac (Woody Harrelson), the plot that has escaped Marty’s imagination bursts into his life.

McDonagh’s script pokes a satisfyingly self-aware finger in the ribs of writers, with their glock-wielding psychopathic characters and blood-spattered scripts. Seven Psychopaths is a laugh-a-minute, loopy shaggy dog’s tale – and insanely good fun.