At the Toronto Fest: 'Seven Psychopaths'...plus one

September 10 was Psychopath Day at the Toronto International Film Festival—or at least that’s the way this fest-goer’s viewing selections coalesced. The day began at 8:30 a.m. with a screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s eagerly anticipated The Master, in which Joaquin Phoenix’s ex-World War II sailor character has major anger issues, to say the least. Erica Abeel will be writing in more detail about this film which just won the Best Director prize in Venice, but I can safely predict that the volatile Phoenix and especially the masterful Philip Seymour Hoffman as a messianic L. Ron Hubbard type will be strong contenders for end-of-the-year acting prizes. I haven’t fully embraced an Anderson film since Boogie Nights (and found Magnolia especially bloated), but The Master’s portrait of a religious cult with uncanny echoes of Scientology is pretty mesmerizing, despite its many self-indulgent passages.

The undisputed psychopaths appeared in Ariel Vromen’s The Iceman, the true story of a notorious
New Jersey contract killer, and (naturally) Martin McDonagh’s new black comedy, Seven Psychopaths. In the former, Michael Shannon of “Boardwalk Empire” and Take Shelter is dynamic and dangerous as Richard Kuklinski, a Polish hit man for the mob who tallied at least 100 killings during his three-decade crime career. What sets this story apart from similar tales is the cold-blooded assassin’s devotion to his wife (played by Winona Ryder) and two young daughters, who know nothing of his lethal lifestyle. Kuklinski is a terrible, terrible man, yet the audience is compelled to root against his exposure because his family is so innocent and vulnerable. A jarring personal aside: This infamous psycho lived for years in suburban Dumont, New Jersey—the very town where yours truly grew up.

On a perversely lighter note, Seven Psychopaths is an alternately hilarious and horrifying comedy
from the poison pen of Martin McDonagh, his second feature after the irresistible In Bruges. (McDonagh is also the prize-winning author of darkly funny stage hits like The Lieutenant of Inishmore and A Behanding in Spokane.) His new film is set in Los Angeles and centers on a struggling screenwriter named Marty played by Colin Farrell, which gives McDonagh free rein to go all meta and comment on the tropes of violent movies and our expectations about the very movie we’re watching. The graphic content, witty dialogue digressions and playful structure are reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino, with the added bonus that McDonagh is not just movie-literate.

Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken, who co-starred on Broadway in Behanding in Spokane, have juicy roles here as conspirators in a dognapping scheme: Marty’s impulsive, out-of-control pal Billy and his elderly partner Hans. Big trouble erupts when Billy abducts the beloved Shi Tzu of a ruthless gangster played by Woody Harrelson.

Those unaccustomed to McDonagh’s shock tactics may be deeply offended by the politically incorrect language, the over-the-top violence, and the movie’s treatment of women (which is noted numerous times in debates between pacifist-leaning Farrell and pure-id Billy). But go with the satiric intent, and you’ll be laughing out loud at the movie’s notions of a vengeful Quaker, an interracial couple that gets medieval on serial killers, deconstructions of pop-movie clichés, and a hapless screenwriter who sets out to make a meaningful social statement out of a project titled Seven Psychopaths. This CBS Films release won’t be for everyone, but a certain kind of avid moviegoer will eat it up.