Seven Psychopaths

So here’s a film about filmmaking. Makes sense; that’s been going around a lot lately (see “last two Best Picture winners”). Actually, if you want to get technical, this is more of a film about script writing, but let’s not quibble. And it wants to satirize all of the the cliches of violent, shoot ‘em up movies...mostly by wallowing in those cliches. And it really really really thinks of itself as clever. Unfortunately, that’s not what the audience thinks, and it’s the audience that counts. There are good moments and some quite likeable actors here--if not likeable characters--that keep the thing moving and hold the viewer’s attention through most of the running time. But this film just isn’t what it cracks itself up to be.