SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (2012)

A screenwriter (Colin Farrell) is having troubles with his drinking, his relationship with his girlfriend and coming up for an idea for his next script.  His best friend (Sam Rockwell) is an unhinged douchebag who (along with Christopher Walken) make money by kidnapping dogs and then collecting the reward.  What an asshole.  Anyway, so one day Rockwell kidnaps the prized dog of a local gangster (Woody Harrelson) who will stop at nothing to get his dog back.  That's not the strongest setup ever, but it does have potential to lead up to some awesomely over-the-top stuff going on...but no.  Instead, we have Rockwell talking nonstop while being self-destructive and crazed and for some unknown reason Farrell just sticks with him throughout it all.  Doesn't this guy have any normal, non-crazy friends?

With a title like SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS my mind was exploding with all kinds of awesome possibilities, but instead we get stuff like a serial killer that hunts serial killers.  Wow.  That's deep.  I too am a fan of Dexter.  Or a guy who hates somebody so much he follows him into Hell.  Amazing.  That's deep.  I enjoyed WHAT DREAMS MAY COME also.

Maybe if you've only seen three movies in your entire life, SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS will come off as original and clever, but as a grumpy old coot that's seen a lot of goddamn movies (example: the Vietnamese psycho's story reminded me of a 8-minute Australian horror short film I saw back in the early 1990's.) SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS started out promising enough for the first few minutes, but by the halfway point I was beginning to daydream hard.

Mild violence, lots of talking, miscasting, mild nudity, Shiner Bock beer, gangster with big shiny gun and old Cadillac convertible, more talking.  Worth a watch, I guess.  Or not.

ANNIE HALL (1977)

ANNIE HALL was a turning point for Allen. The films before were more joke driven with almost nonstop jokes and gags, but with ANNIE HALL the emphasis is less on the jokes and more on the characters...and it works wonderfully.

Allen talking to the audience while in character is nothing new, he ended his last film LOVE AND DEATH by doing so, but there's something about how he does it at the beginning of ANNIE HALL that's much more personal and intimate. Maybe it's the modern time period or just the subject matter, but within a few seconds of the film starting Allen has already masterfully engaged the audience. After his brief introduction, where he (Alvy Singer) talks about his outlook on life and his relationship with Annie, the audience is granted entrance into Alvy's world and allowed to watch Alvy's life from his childhood days up to his different sexual adventures as an adult, but mainly ANNIE HALL is about his lurve, his loave and his luff for the beautiful Annie.

I wasn't around in 1977 to see ANNIE HALL upon it's initial release, but I can only imagine how fresh and modern it must have felt with Allen talking directly to the audience, the split screens (one of which wasn't a real split screen, but instead just a wall between duel performances), the animation, the conversing with strangers on the street, the literary feel to the whole thing, etc. I watched it again last night (for about the hundredth time) and I was mesmerized. Even thought I know the script by heart I still find myself lost in the story and smiling at the beautiful photography. I really cannot recommend ANNIE HALL enough. It's been copied a million times, but it's still a landmark of Cinema and one of my favorite movies. But don't listen to me, just enjoy and discover it for yourself.

One thing that I like to do whenever I watch ANNIE HALL is to immediately follow it up with MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY and imagine that Alvy Singer and Annie got back together, married and that's them 16 years later!  It's like ANNIE HALL 2 that way!

Great inside joke since that is the real Truman Capote.

FACE TO FACE (1976)