Seven Psychopaths
Sometimes a string of bad movies makes me get bored of watching movies in general. It happened a few times, and sometimes even as low as two bad films could produce such a phase. This time, I completely stopped watching films ever since we came back from Singapore because so many things were going on (and because “Mad Men” and “Game of Thrones” continued airing). However, it had nothing to do with bad films and everything to do with how films didn’t really fit into my life anymore. It wasn’t that I was so busy (though this has happened in the past too) but rather that something totally crushed my ability to blog. Maybe around this time in life, I was writing so much (chatting, e-mails etc.) that it made me not want to write anything anymore. But then again I had other phases in life in which lots of typing on the computer occurred. I don’t know.
Case in point, my backlog is full of really enjoyable films, and “Seven Psychopaths” might have been the most enjoyable of all. I have been eyeing the film for a long time, but Loris told me he thought the film was so-so. I can kind of see where he is coming from, as this one is lacking the immensely sympathetic and interesting characters of the other McDonagh films whereas the protagonist here is rather bland. But to me, there was much to love in this film: I like the general premise of a screenwriter with a writer’s block (obviously I can relate to that), I totally loved the story of that monk, the way it started out completely absurdly and ended in a beautiful fashion, I really liked the ending which turned aforementioned bland protagonist into someone a little more interesting, and I ultimately enjoyed how the story was told very much. I have a thing for these gangster stories with many characters and absurd twists, and “Seven Psychopaths” was brilliant at it.
By the way, is every movie with Woody Harrelson a good one? I wonder about that. It surely makes me look forward to the second season of “True Detective”, even though Harrelson won’t be in it anymore. Conveniently, Colin Farrell will be in it (but I am not actually a fan of this guy despite all the great films he was in).
“The McDonaghs can do not wrong” is what Pixelmatsch said after we saw this film. So far, I get the impression that this is absolutely true. If my main criteria for a film to appear in my top 30 is whether it says something poignant about humanity, then every McDonagh film is a strong contender for it.