Director: Quentin Tarantino
Note: Spoilers Ahead
There's not a filmmaker who frustrates me more than Quentin Tarantino. It's interesting to parallel his career development with Kevin Smith, another wunderkind who grew up from total obscurity into an instant success. Smith's descent into a rabbit-hole of self-referentiality and fan service is really not upsetting - he is not a gifted filmmaker. He has an ear for comedy, but he's in love with his own voice. This, too, is my problem with Quentin Tarantino, who basically hit a home run with Reservoir Dogs, then followed it up with a huge grand slam in Pulp Fiction. Since then, he's basically had carte blanche, and that's where auteurism can be a bad thing.
Tarantino's world is very engrossing - it's in his head, and yet we're usually invited inside. That's a gift in itself - to make what is clearly an extraordinarily personal world accessible to others. So we're in his head from the moment the film begins. At first, he tells a great story, and I'm totally rapt - I don't need to be part of the conversation. Eventually, though, I feel like I'm not really invited - he drones on about this cool album he heard or this awesome movie I've just got to see. Of course I've never seen the movie or heard the album, so now we've got to check it out. Tarantino makes himself into the ultimate fanboy - his goal is not to make his own film with its own soundtrack, but rather to introduce me to a bunch of other films and music. Then he tells me about this girl he was dating who wasn't into this movie or this album, and how he grew tired of her - anyway, my story is here getting convoluted, but my point stands - Tarantino is frustrating. He's frustrating because he takes huge chances in his films that usually pay off, but then he can't seem to get out of his own way. His endless world of references ultimately isn't his own - it's just a pastiche of everything he's experienced. It's ultimately not coherent.
Grindhouse: Deathproof is a very cool idea - a throwback to 70s B pictures, none of which I have ever seen. He is relentless in remaking these films' aesthetic, right down to intentional frame skips and film scratches. There's a scene that's awkwardly shot day-for-night and it seems like it's intentional. The two stories in the film being basically the same is intentional. Throw in some Tarantino dialogue, an evil Kurt Russell, some unbelievable stunts, and we've got us a great picture, right?
Kind of. There's multiple references to white-line pictures like Vanishing Point (which I doubt that two groups of females have ever discussed, ever). There's women who are endlessly discerning about film and music. Quentin himself shows up as a character and makes reference to a 'tasty beverage'. The annoying choices just go on and on until the end, which is one of the greatest fan service moments I've ever seen. Maybe Quentin's world bothers me because in the end, it's too much like my own - Tarantino is the only director I can imagine who goes around quoting his own films.
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