Brilliant! That’s how I felt about Martin McDonagh’s written and directed movie Seven Psychopaths when it was over and the credits were rolling. This intelligent, dark-comedy was just damn brilliant. From the overall story to the story-within-a-story, Seven Psychopaths delivered an interesting look at Hollywood and managed to deliver a solid heist/revenge flick.

Marty (Colin Farrell) is a struggling Hollywood screen writer, has a mixed relationship with his alcoholism and his girlfriend Kaya (Abbie Cornish), and is trying to balance both along with his career and friendship with Billy. His best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) is a struggling actor. Billy has another friend names Hans (Christopher Walken) and the two of them have a con-game where they “borrow” (really steal but they call it borrowing) a dog from their target and then return the dog to the owner in hopes of collecting the cash reward. It’s a means to an end as Billy hopes to make it big in Hollywood and Hans is doing this to help pay for his wife’s cancer treatments. However, when Billy steals a small Shih Tzu that belongs to Charlie (Woody Harrelson), one of the biggest mob bosses in Los Angeles, things start to unravel for Marty, Billy, and Hans.

This isn’t a movie where major action pieces with gun fights is the key product with smidgens of comedy mixed in. Yes there is comedy but it’s not slapstick, it’s just natural in progression and not forced. It’s just there and by “there” I mean that the dialogue is witty and fresh and allows for the psychopaths to be unique.  Yes there is action and some of the most graphically killings on screen that are just to this side of anything from Saw. The overall feel of the movie is much like Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers and just like in Killers, there is a natural progression of story in the movie, with beginning, middle, and end. And this progression is lateral in story telling with the comedy coming from Rockwell’s character as he is what bridges the action with the comedy.

With a great cast and an interesting story… rated R for drugs, drinking, language, violence, and brief nudity…Seven Psychopaths is a movie that will get mixed reviews but really is a work of brilliance that hasn’t been seen in a while.

Review Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.