LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER | LEXGO.COM WEEKENDER: GOING OUT FRIDAY | OCTOBER.12.2012 | 13 TOO MANY PSYCHOPATHS SPOIL THE FROTH
By Roger Moore MOVIE REVIEW McClatchy-Tribune News Service ‘Seven Psychopaths’ The writer-director of In Bruges, the playwright turned filmmaker Martin McDonagh, sells out and makes his first R for strong violence, bloody images, Hollywood film, Seven Psychopaths, pervasive language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use. CBS Films. 109 min. a commentary on selling out. Well, Fayette Mall, Hamburg, Nicholasville. that and Hollywood’s obsession with psychopaths. And his own. (Harry Dean Stanton) who follows the True to title, it’s about seven man who murdered his daughter into psychopaths and a screenwriter named hell itself. A Buddhist psychopath? What Marty writing a movie about them. would motivate him? And so on. But as a possibly psychopathic Billy and Hans (Walken) are running character tells the writer (played a little dognapping-for-reward-money by Colin Farrell), “Yo u’re the one so scam so Hans can care for his terminally fascinated by psychopaths. After a while ill wife. And they’ve nabbed the wrong they get tiresome, don’t you think?” dog, a Shih Tzu beloved by mobster Like generations of great talents Charlie (Harrelson), who is willing to “going Hollywood” before him, kill to get that dog back. McDonagh takes his shot at having it Walken gives his pop-eyed glare both ways. He hired a quartet of the CHUCK ZLOTNICK | CBS FILMS and his signature colorful line-readings coolest character actors in the business Colin Farrell, left, Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell star in Seven Psychopaths, a and eccentric pronunciations to every and revels in the presence of Farrell, dark comedy about selling out, dognapping and screenwriting. scene — “halucin-O-gens.” Farrell Chrisopher Walken, Woody Harrelson wears a pretentious swoopy L.A. and Sam Rockwell. He imitates and generate big box office. talents, is undeniable. screenwriter haircut and acts hurt every takes a blood-stained swipe at genre Psychopaths is profane, gruesome But after a while, even those time somebody criticizes his script- nerds such as Quentin Tarantino or Joe and hysterically over the top. The sheer pleasures wear thin. in- progress. Abbie Cornish, Gabourey Carnahan, and their movie lover’s style of pleasure of watching Walken work with Marty is blocked, at a loss for Sidibe and Olga Kurylenko just have bloody-minded movies. He has characters his disciples, Harrelson and Rockwell fleshing out his next script, which has glorified cameos. They’re set décor . comment on situations and scenarios as (maniacally mannered here), and only a title: Seven Psychopaths. His As long as you remember that this they “rewrite” scenes, endings and shoot- watching McDonagh’s alter-ego, Farrell, antic actor pal, Billy (Rockwell), tries is just a Smokin’ Aces for the literary- outs for the screenplay Martin is sure will in another McDonagh role worthy of his to help, with tales of a Quaker stalker minded, you’ll be fine.
‘Wallflower’ is an ode to the best and worst of high school years
By Roger Moore MOVIE REVIEW the rest of his life. Hermione of Harry Potter films and into McClatchy-Tribune News Service ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ There’s also Mary Elizabeth (Mae a young matinee idol. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is Whitman) and “Ponytail” Derek (Nicholas Chbosky isn’t above peppering his wistful, witty, romantic and sentimental, Braun). Most special of all is Patrick, the portrait with the standard ingredients of a Breakfast Club for the new PG-13 on appeal for mature thematic hard-partying, wiseacre philosopher king such coming-of-age movies — kids into millennium. It’s not high school as it material, drug and alcohol use, sexual (Ezra Miller). Patrick is actually the one “kitschy” rock ballads (reflecting the taste really was and remains today. It is high content including references, and a fight who sees potential in young Charlie and of the writer, not of any normal teenager), school as it really should be. — all involving teens. Summit. 103 min. sets out to show him the ropes. token shoplifter characters and the like. Writer-director Stephen Chbosky, Fayette Mall, Hamburg, Kentucky. These aren’t sitcom-fantasy teenagers, Where he treads new ground is in adapting his own novel, presents a they’re kids discovering their sexuality the secret problems of the kids, the version of those years that is equal parts glum diary in the form of letters to a and experimenting with the things teens Ordinary People flashbacks that tip us hopeful and cruel, with complicated, “friend,” narrating the life he leads as he experiment with. to some dark episode in Charlie’s past . fragile kids with dark secrets and great, enters high school. Paul Rudd plays that one English Wallflower has a touch of that Glee unrequited loves. But on that very first day, he sees her, teacher who cares, an essential compo- zeitgeist, the message “It gets better” Logan Lerman stars as Charlie, the a senior named Sam (Emma Watson). nent of any would-be writer’s biography. that so many kids need to hear. But shy, bookish kid the others whisper about She is “the kind of pretty that deserves Charlie pines, pines, pines for the what makes it close to a classic is the as the new year stars. Something awful to make a big deal out of itself.” The beguiling Sam, who is, of course, dating idea that even after it has gotten better, happened to him, and to those around fact that she doesn’t adds to her charm. Mr. Wrong. we’ll warm to the best moments of him. Even his family walks on eggshells Her welcome of this “wallflower” to her Sam is the epitome of approachable, our adolescent past and revel in every when Charlie’s in a brooding mood. circle of friends is an act so offhandedly winsome girl-next-door, thanks to romantic memory, and we’ll cling to Which is often, as Charlie keeps a generous that a boy would remember it Watson, who has grown out of her even the ones that scarred us.