By Rex Reed 10/09/12 7:56pm

movies

Harrelson and Walken in Seven Psychopaths.

Going to the Dogs: With Seven Psychopaths, The Once-Masterful McDonagh Stays Bent on an Ill-Advised Hiatus from Theater

Garbage comes in all sizes, and every one of them seems to fit into a load of violent, hateful and incomprehensible trash called Seven Psychopaths. Written by talented Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, who shocked Broadway audiences with dark, funny, gothic creepshows like The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan and A Behanding in Spokane,this movie is proof that moving to Hollywood is poisonous Kool-Aid to the creative process. Kneeling at the trough of Hollywood pop psychobabble that has come to symbolize the New Cinema, Mr. McDonagh seems to have taken leave (temporarily, I hope) of his senses. He proved in 2008, with a brooding job called In Bruges, about hit men on holiday in Belgium, that he cannot stretch his bristling ideas into one full-length feature. Unfortunately, he also thinks he’s a director—a job for which he shows no patience, aptitude or proficiency. The result is a twitching convulsion of vicious drivel passing itself off as a movie, which can be best appreciated by the kind of people who dig Showgirls, the Saw franchise and Spike Jonze-Charlie Kaufman flicks.

For starters, the title means nothing. Read More

By Jesse Oxfeld 3/10/10 1:26am

Raindrops Keep Falling on Their Heads

When the Rain Stops Falling, the intriguing, confusing and ultimately moving new play by Andrew Bovell that opened at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater Monday night, opens with a fish falling from the sky during a torrential downpour. The rain continues for the duration of the often-inscrutable play, and all of the characters either Read More

By Sara Vilkomerson 2/05/08 4:52pm

Bruges Brothers

A few days before the opening of their movie In Bruges, actor Colin Farrell and writer-director Martin McDonagh sat comfortably beside one another at the Regency Hotel. The film, which co-stars Brendan Gleeson, is about two hit men holed up in Bruges—a perfectly preserved medieval city in Belgium—after a job gone horribly awry. “I was Read More

By John Heilpern 3/20/06 12:00am

Martin McDonagh’s Lieutenant: Best Bloody Play I Ever Saw

It’s great news that Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore is to transfer to Broadway. Not only is Wilson Milam’s production of the dark comedy for the Atlantic Theater Company perfect, but Mr. McDonagh has written the most laughably staggering play I have ever seen.

Now, it could well be that there are better Read More

By John Heilpern 3/20/06 12:00am

Martin McDonagh’s Lieutenant: Best Bloody Play I Ever Saw

It’s great news that Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore is to transfer to Broadway. Not only is Wilson Milam’s production of the dark comedy for the Atlantic Theater Company perfect, but Mr. McDonagh has written the most laughably staggering play I have ever seen.

Now, it could well be that there are better Read More

By John Heilpern 4/18/05 12:00am

Uh-Oh, Here It Comes …McDonagh’s Masterly Nightmare

The four most promising words in any language are “Once upon a time …. ” Unless, that is, we use just two, “One day …. ” And this much I know. One day, Martin McDonagh sat down someplace and wrote a fantastic play that’s all about telling stories, and I’ve never quite experienced anything like Read More

By John Heilpern 1/22/01 12:00am

The Bloody Brilliant Debut of a Baby Bard From Dublin

You must see Howie the Rookie by the Irish dramatist Mark O’Rowe, who’s only 30 years old. The piece represents an original voice and a staggering achievement. I can think of no more vital theater in years than this savage story that bursts with blood-and-gutter poetry and such awesome young talent.

Directed by Mike Bradwell, Read More

By John Heilpern 5/31/99 12:00am

Waving or Drowning In the Irish New Wave?

Well, now. They’re back! Though the Irish never really went away. It’s been said for generations: Where would English drama be without the Irish? But where would American drama be? Here we have two more plays by Ireland’s favorite exports-namely, Martin McDonagh of that Tony Award-winning spectral piece of grand old blarney, The Beauty Queen Read More

By Eamon Lynch 5/11/98 12:00am

City’s Irish Exiles Aren’t Thrilled

A ceramic portrait of Irish hunger-striker Bobby Sands hangs in the upstairs window of Hugh O’Lunney’s bar on West 43rd Street, his wan smile and political legacy looming large over the room in which some of New York’s Irish activists gathered to discuss the Belfast agreement announced in mid-April.

Sitting directly beneath the portrait of Read More

By John Heilpern 3/16/98 12:00am

How to Murder Your Mother the Old-Fashioned Way

I must offer a minority opinion about Martin McDonagh’s raved-over The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and it’s a shame. The sold-out production at the Atlantic Theater Company is soon to transfer to Broadway; the all-Irish cast of four from Galway could scarcely be better; the accomplished director, Garry Hynes, first produced the play at the Read More