Right. So...I can't really pinpoint any one thing to talk about in this critical review-analysis-thingy. This movie is just so very all over the place story and character-wise. What's it even about? Violence? Peace? Writing screenplays? Dog-napping? Really all I can say, and again this is only my opinion (and not a very concrete opinion at that), is that none of it matters.
This movie is wonderfully devoid of a single subject matter or theme that it just meanders in this gloriously semi-improvised, stream of consciousness manner. It's so unpredictable, and not in a Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master kind of way. It's literally impossible to know what's coming next. And what's so surprising is that it works.
I don't think Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is all that great of a movie. I know I'm in the minority here, and I know plenty of people think of it as one of the most underrated and cleverest dark comedies of recent years. But really, it's not. And here's my main problem with it- there is no actual justification for the meta-tone taken by Shane Black with RDJ's narration. His constant overly-precious voice overkills everything in the film. The rewriting of events and the "oh, I forgot to tell you this..." jokes are without purpose. What do they serve for the sake of the story? Is RDJ's character even smart enough to make these kinds of self-referential quips and jibes? I don't think so. The movie is fun and not much else. Does it make any interesting points about anything? Not really. It's just a weird series of darkly comic events, which for me, would normally be enough, but like I said, that narration murders most of the humor and re-emphasizes the fact that the film is devoid of anything thematically unique.
Now. That's not to say that Seven Psychopaths is any better in terms of having a so-called message or theme or point (or for that matter actual story.) Except that's merely a surface level examination of the film. What's on the screen lends itself to the opinion that the movie is also devoid of thematic interest. BUT, there are these moments in the movie (like in In Bruges, but more so in that film than in this one) where the dark comedy screeches to a halt, and a character will say something rather profound about violence and how violence can be used and our expectations of violence (our titillation and exploitation by and of it). These moments usually occur with Walken (especially in his last scene where he narrates his take on the Vietnamese psychopath, but also with his confrontation with Harrelson over the death of his wife or his lack of confrontation thereof- that scene specifically sells me on how much of a ridiculously good actor Walken can be when given good material and when he's not mugging for the camera) but also occur in this fascinating sequence involving Tom Waits' narration over his past life as a psychopath, his flashback is so well executed in terms of writing and direction and acting it's not even funny. These moments define what makes Seven Psychopaths so more fascinating and so more brilliant than the awkwardly styled and toned KKBB.
What's more important about Seven Psychopaths in regards to KKBB is the fact that it really justifies its self referential qualities. Marty is Martin McDonagh, a writer in the movie who is sort of really the writer of the actual movie itself. Make sense? Not really. And the movie and the movie within the movie and the character(s) within the movie and the character(s) within the movie within the movie are all more or less aware of this. Think back on Sam Rockwell's constant references to the fact that he's trying to "help" Marty by killing people. Isn't the whole film this bizarre cycle of violence and what it means to the people who write about violence and what the violence means to them and how it could have literal repercussions?
Imagine how many real-life/true-crime movies there have been. Imagine (and this is re-iterated in the last scene with Waits) how many criminals (or for that matter innocent people) are involved in those movies? How would these madmen or these already suffering people react to a depiction of the violence that has already plagued their troubled lives?
But really, you know what I love most about this movie? The fact that there aren't any answers. Like In Bruges, virtually all of the emotional arcs are internal and kept that way. The men in these films are all afraid to show their true feelings because of their darker natures and because of what could happen if they changed their ways (think of Farrell in In Bruges or Clooney in The American). These guys can't be honest about what they think or feel about life and so the movie responds accordingly by not providing full and overly honest and obvious scenes of melodrama. The arcs are there, but they're hidden in layers of wonderful subtext.
And yet, like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the movie is also just plain fun. The casting is excellent and everyone turns in their expected performances of mild insanity and weirdness. Everyone can turn that comic charm off in an instant and switch into genuine dramatic acting, and in a movie like this, when scenes are so unpredictable and hard to follow from a plot and character perspective, this is especially hard to do.
This is definitely one of the best movies of the year. Smart, fun, funny, dramatic, exciting, and silly, but always with something interesting (and in some cases pretty profound) to say.
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