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Before reviewing Tarantino's new movie, I’d like to make a small premise: I loved Kill Bill! But at the same time, I hated the "phenomenon" that surrounded that film, a commercial, mass phenomenon not seen since the days of DiCaprio in Titanic!
Tarantino was the one who caught the attention of critics at festivals and was snubbed by the general public, the one of "Reservoir Dogs" (copied from Ringo Lam's "City On Fire"! You didn't know that yet?) then came the breakthrough with "Pulp Fiction", which immediately became a cult for its unique narrative style, extravagant dialogues, its unique mix of irony and violence, and remarkable direction...
Unfortunately, after Pulp Fiction, Tarantino's name immediately became an attraction for the masses, a real Hollywood machine! Indeed, with "Kill Bill" we witnessed the complete commercialization of the director!
From an underground director to a director of films for kids who go around with a yellow suit and a katana... in short... Kill Bill was a great film, but too palatable for the general public! Tarantino is a brilliant manipulator of B-movies, not a filmmaker for the masses!! But unfortunately he has become one (unfortunately for us! Certainly not for his bank account!). I believe Kill Bill was more of a great exercise in style than a true film.
Tarantino, beyond his shameless global success, must be considered a "madman" raised on bread and B-movies since he was young, learning the art of directing by copying other films; with this ideology of an unabashed filmophile copycat, Quentin has produced masterpieces that are nothing more than a series of copies made... better than the originals!! In fact, the genre collages proposed by Tarantino in a single film have given rise to something "original" (in quotations) Tarantino is citationism made art! He takes crap and turns it into gold; it's incredible how that man manages to appear original by copying! His only flaw... he sold his soul to Hollywood! Just like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson. For me, this is a bad thing! But there is a positive aspect to all of this...
Now that Tarantino has had commercial success... he can afford whatever he wants! After all, he's "Tarantino", so he’s left behind mass appeal projects like Kill Bill. Quentin, along with his little friend Rodriguez, have indulged in a more personal and less commercial production (like two kids nurturing a dream in the drawer and finally being able to realize it, like Peter Jackson who, after the success of the rings, achieved his great childhood dream... an oversized version of King Kong!)... so here is "Grindhouse" the double film tribute to the 70s-80s (to which Tarantino has dedicated his entire life) released in American theaters with the option "two trashy movies for the price of one ticket" just like American cinemas in the 70s!
Deliberately grainy film, tributes to Italian trash police films, intentional filming errors, end credits appearing unexpectedly during a freeze frame, exactly like the worst trash films of the era! In short... unthinkable things for any modern producer... unless... it's Tarantino doing it! Thanks to his name, he was given the opportunity to conceive such a film, and I finally had the honor of seeing a film in 2007 that had the courage to fully pay homage to that mythical cinema of our childhood (mine, however, started from the 80s).
A truly heartfelt and satisfying tribute! Hence "Death Proof", the first of the two chapters separated by Grindhouse.
Tarantino still proves to be brilliant in every frame! There is not a boring or repetitive shot in the whole movie! His obsessions with shots of details (especially feet), a plethora of tributes and citations, and most importantly, great actors and heart-pounding action scenes! "Death Proof" is a very fun movie! With that taste of underground cinema not seen in a Tarantino film for years (since the days of Reservoir Dogs), there were six of us in the cinema! And I was the only one applauding! Too complicated to appeal to the masses. The dialogues, as usual, are very long (there’s almost a 20-minute one!) tackling little interesting themes from the people's point of view, that is... if you don't have a tiny cinephile culture, it's hard to be satisfied with the dialogues, which are much less amusing than Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs... here it's about the art of cinematic stuntmen, acrobatics, and those unknown films that people don't even know! There are no katana fights or characters like "the Crazy 88"... there are no real catchphrases to repeat outside the cinema... this kind of film can only be appreciated by a cinema enthusiast who can grasp the various tributes and the cinephile sense of the dialogues... sure... there are no shortage of highly spectacular sequences for all tastes... in fact, the protagonist is none other than Uma Thurman's stuntwoman in Kill Bill... in fact, in the final part of the film, our heroine performs a series of breathtaking acrobatics without the aid of special effects! Very spectacular for those who love cinema and the art of cinematic stunts. The finale with the car chase follows the "Vanishing Point" scheme, but Tarantino did not want to resort to today's technical wonders, no computers and very few cameras, most of the angles are just two! And the result is phenomenal!
The cast, in addition to real stuntmen/actors, offers a grand performance by Kurt Russell, in one of his best performances! For the rest, there's something for everyone: film that stalls during projection, misplaced zooms, blurry scenes, the usual Tarantino black and white and the usual strong color contrasts on weak hues (yellow is omnipresent!)! Worth noting is the girls' car which is identical to Bruce Lee's outfit (Kill Bill) in short... for lovers of the past and citationism... "Death Proof" can be defined as a remake of the 70s cinema made into art!!! Great direction, great photography (curated by Tarantino himself), brilliant framing, excellent actors, and above all, great use of DELIBERATELY Trash scenes! An act of love for B-movies that managed to keep me glued to my seat and moved me throughout its duration.
Finally, the Tarantino I wanted!
"Great artists steal, they don't cite!"
Quentin Tarantino
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