Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh, 2012)

There must be something in the water in Galway for one family to have produced to excellent directors, Martin and John Michael McDonagh (if you haven’t seen The Guard stop reading and go watch it). Whatever the family secret Martin, who previously directed In Bruges, delivers another winner in this fun and surreal take on one writers attempt to write a new film. He hasn’t got much, only a title, but his quest to discover the perfect plot (via real stories, from real psychopaths) takes us on a fun ride that pokes fun at various Hollywood cliches without becoming smug or self-satisfied. Colin Farrell stars, as he did In Bruges, and again shows his value is higher in quirkier fair. Hollywood will keep trying to put him in mainstream action films, such as the soulless Total Recall re-make, but he works best in more thoughtful pieces that run against the Hollywood grain. Kudos goes to Sam Rockwell (almost uniformly excellent in everything) a touching performance from Christopher Walken and a nice cameo from Tom Waits.

Absurd, fun, and clever.

Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

Starring: Sam Rockwell (Sam Bell), Kevin Spacey (Gerty)

Rarely do you watch a film that actually surprises you. Most films run down an expected narrative & generic path. I know the hero will win and get the girl. There’s nothing wrong with that – I like it. It’s good to have you expectations indulged and satisfied. However I also crave something new every now and then; a film where I don’t know how it’s going to end. Moon is such a movie.

I don’t want to write much because keeping a review spoiler free is hard enough, but more so with a film that’s as sparse as this. To reveal anything may spoil or prejudice your view of the film. Suffice to say it’s an intelligent, well-crafted piece of science fiction that wears its ethical and moral debates lightly, while providing entertainment and tension. Sam Rockwell is amazing. He is, for the most part, the only person on the screen, playing a lunar worker on a three year contract. He communicates the frustrations and confusion well, and manages to invest Sam Bell with a real sense of humanity. Well done to Kevin Spacey for playing with the sinister computer voice we all know from 2001 (the addition of creepy emoticons playing across a screen on the computer’s mobile module is a good contemporary touch).

Visually the film is fun – it’s clearly derivative in some ways, but these familiarities are worked with rather than being lazy or some post-modernish attempt at cleverness, and I love the model work. Well directed, well acted, well done.