Django Unchained

A few months ago, when I wrote about Wes Anderson's wonderful Moonrise Kingdom, I said the best thing about Anderson as a filmmaker was the fact that you immediately knew when you were watching one of his films. That can't be said about many directors. However, it does hold true for Quentin Tarantino, at least to a certain extent. Tarantino probably has more copy cats than any other filmmaker. He has influenced a generation of filmmaker's who want to copy his style. Just a month or so ago, I saw a movie called Killing Them Softly, which I loved, which I called Tarantino-esque. I raved coming out of the theater, calling it one of the best of the year. Then I decided I should wait to see Django until I made the bold statement that Andrew Dominik managed to make a better Tarantino movie than Tarantino. And I'm glad I waited, because Django Unchained is, to put it bluntly, awesome.

The story follows Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz, so damn good) in the 1850s, a dentist turned bounty hunter. He needs to find the Brittle Brothers, three dangerous slave overseers who have a bounty on their head. The problem? He has no idea what they look like. That's how he gets to know slave Django (Jamie Foxx, never better). Dr. Shultz and Django strike up an agreement - Django will point out the Brittle Brothers to Dr. Shultz, he will kill them and then give Django some of the bounty money and set him free. Well, Django takes sort of naturally to killing white folks for money, so they eventually decide to form a partnership which eventually evolves into Dr. Schultz helping Django free his slave wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from dangerous plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio, who blows the roof off this damn movie). And since this is a Tarantino movie, there is as much talking as there is blood shed, and I wouldn't have it any way. When you write dialogue as well as Tarantino (and, really, I don't think anyone alive writes better dialogue), words and monologues can become so exciting, nearly as exciting as shoot outs and mandingo fighting. I'm the rare Tarantino fan who thinks Kill Bill Volume 2 is better than Kill Bill Volume 1. Sure, the first volume has all the crazy fight scenes, but the second volume has that verbal showdown between the Bride and Bill that is just as, if not more, exciting to me.

Tarantino is one of the very few people in all of movie making that has event movies. It feels like if you know there is a Tarantino movie playing at a movie theater, you are going to go and see it, no matter what. He is so stylized, so fresh, so damn good, that each of his movies seems better than the last. I am not going to sit here and say, "Django is the best Tarantino movie ever," because we both know that's not true. But you know you are a good filmmaker when every movie you release is immediately thought of as your best one. Tarantino has created a body of work enviable by most directors.

That's not to see Django is flawless, because it isn't. For starters, after three or four movies in a row (the Kill Bills, Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds) with kick ass, well written, bad ass women, it's sort of disappointing to see Broomhilda. I'm not sure if Kerry Washington just isn't right for the movie, or if the role is just under written. The other major problem is the length of the movie. While the movie didn't feel overly long to me, there were places where they could have edited it down to make it feel faster. My final problem with the film is this - While Tarantino is one of the greatest directors of his generation, his flaw as a filmmaker is not realizing what a terrible actor he is. He keeps casting himself in his movies and, as much as I love him, he's not a good actor! I know he's probably living out some boyhood fantasy, but can't he be satisfied with being a brilliant, influential director?? Those were my three biggest problems with the movie, and other than that, I sort of loved it.

The movie was perfect Tarantino - talky and bloody and funny and dark. The performances were great all around - with DiCaprio, for me, taking top honors. I'm surprised he isn't winning more award season traffic because his performance is so good here, it's worthy. You can tell he's having the time of his life playing this terrible, terrible man. But the performances by the other three main actors - Foxx, Waltz, and Samuel L. Jackson as the most awful character in the history of black cinema, are all equally as impressive. This is two Tarantino movies in a row where Waltz just kills it. He should probably just work exclusively with Tarantino for the rest of his career. I've never been the biggest Jamie Foxx fan, but this role seems tailor made for him. I've read that he wasn't Tarantino's first choice, but I'm sure glad he ultimately got the role. It fit him like a glove.

Ultimately, while this isn't Tarantino's best film, it definitely is one of the best films of the year. As a friend of mine told me, "Run, don't walk, to the nearest theater!"

Grade: B+