HOM:

Giving you something to read on the toilet since 2009.

"The mistake lies in seeing debate and discussion as secondary to the recovery of meaning. Rather, we should see them as primary: art and literature do not exist to be understood or appreciated, but to be discussed and argued over, to function as a focus for social dialogue. The discourse of literary or art criticism is not to recover meaning, but to create and contest it. Our primal scene should not be the solitary figure in the dark of the cinema but the group of friends arguing afterwards in the pub."
-Don Fowler (1996) "Even Better Than The Real Thing"

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Inglourious Basterds - Intense, Must See, Fun

Tarantino movies are easy to hate. It can be really annoying to hear people talk about how much they love Tarantino movies (think of the dude in the scene of Annie Hall when they are at the theatre waiting in line and he is giving all his NYTimes-esque thoughts on film). I think this is why people hate his films - he makes it really easy for lots of people to think his movies are cool. Lots of people talk about how awesome Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are. For the most part this crowd is too cool for Rom-Coms but also too cool for indie film festivals. They kind of meddle in this gray area of their Netflix recommendations that are given to them based on their giving five stars to Cool Hand Luke, Shawshank Redemption ("dude, I know it's cliche but it's like one of the best movies ever" - a common phrase amongst this group), Tombstone and Garden State. So, Tarantino and Rodriguez are really good at making these movies that have true characters playing characters, cool kind-of retro, loud soundtracks (Rodriguez does most of his own, as in writes and performs it), and super catchy dialogue but not like Coen Brothers dialogue; it's more just about being as freaking 'cool' as possible. THUS, when dudes talk about how awesome Tarantino and Rodriguez are, it can kind of come off as them being played the fool, cause T. and R. were gunning for them and they got em' (they would not love this review because they would think it misses the point of all that is T.). It's easier to think that T. and R. are over-done and then you don't have to admit to yourself that you aren't as unique of a movie lover as you once thought. Admitting to like T. movies is similar to admitting you watch The Hills, both are sensational but you still watch it. 

With all of that said. I really liked this movie. Christopher Waltz is going to dominate some awards shows. He deserves it too, I mean he made this movie. I think it might be one of the most complex characters that has ever been written into a T. movie, which is kind of saying a lot. But Waltz just killed it. It was really refreshing too that he spoke German as a German, and French as a German, Italian as a German, and English as a German. This is admirable, not just because speaking a bunch of languages is difficult, but movies like The Reader are almost unwatchable to me cause of the stupid crap they do with accents. Subtitles are a great thing and directors/producers should make use of them. 

Melanie Laurent was also really good in this. She reminded me of a cooler version of her character in Indigenes - which is a bad ass movie btdub. 

The best part of the movie and the reason it is a must see, intense, and fun movie, is the basement pub scene. It lasts for freaking ever but, and even if you aren't a Tarantino fan, only Tarantino is able to pull of scenes like it. To involve so many actors, so many personalities, so many story lines, and so many possible outcomes followed by the one outcome you didn't think of, is super cool. My only critique of this scene is I would have done without the one sentence that was used to explain how the German officer figured out they were fakes. The spy, phony guy orders three drinks and uses the british hand gesture for '3' as opposed to the German version of '3'. I think most people could have picked up on it, especially lovers of Tarantino movies that pride themselves on being so cultured and being one's that always "get it." 

I really liked this movie. I missed Uma but I'm sure she'll be back. I'm jacked about Christopher Waltz; that dude is going to be in tons of huge movies now. The Weinstein brothers are decent at letting writers and directors do what they want to do. There are probably several thousand WWII movies but this might be the most fun one. T. considers it his life's work. He apparently worked on the script for 10,00o hours, ha. 


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