When self-indulgence works

By Nicholas Barber

Well, wouldn't you? In 2008, Martin McDonagh made a triumphant transition from award-winning playwright to award-winning writer-director with his rollicking hitman comedy “In Bruges”, and now he has rewarded himself, it seems, by creating a movie which indulges every one of his fantasies. For starters, he's set “Seven Psychopaths” in sun-baked Los Angeles, with an I've-made-it-Ma shot of the Hollywood sign in the opening seconds. He's written roles for cooler-than-cool indie icons such as Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell; he's found room for two celebrated pin-ups, Olga Kurylenko and Abbie Cornish; and he's cast Colin Farrell as an Irish screenwriter named, yes, Marty. Farrell is struggling to finish a script about a septet of homicidal maniacs, only to get more inspiration than he bargained for when his friends (Walken and Rockwell) dog-nap a Shih Tzu belonging to a trigger-happy mob boss (Woody Harrelson). The film delivers as a riotously sick and twisted crime caper, but it's also a post-modern critique of the same: Quentin Tarantino to the power of Charlie Kaufman. If “Seven Psychopaths” teeters on the border between self-reflexive and self-indulgent, McDonagh's mischievous intelligence ensures that it's a reward for us as well as for him. ~ Nicholas Barber

Seven Psychopaths opens in Britain December 7th