Director: Martin McDonagh
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 1.0
A hack screenwriter (Colin Farrell) can't finish his script, so he gets help from a lunatic buddy (Sam Rockwell, typecast and flailing) who not only advertises for 'psychopaths' in the L.A. Weekly to share their stories about being nuts but also kidnaps the beloved pooch of a local loon (Woody Harrelson) just to 'spice things up,' I guess. McDonagh has been compared to Tarantino but lacks the richness, vast knowledge of movie history or storytelling acumen, and his meta-approach turns on itself (amateurishly, I might add), leaving him to blow away his characters when it's apparent he has no clue what to do with them on a creative level: he's basically Guy Ritchie. He cuts and pastes various ideas into the movie - like the Vietnamese priest with a grudge or Tom Waits with a head full of narratives and a bunny under his arm - but they don't gel. Or maybe you have to be a psychopath to appreciate it. Either way, the old adage about writing drunk and editing sober should have been employed ... only McDonagh neglected the sobriety part.
