One certainly has to hand it to Quentin Tarantino — as a film-maker, he has taken violence, hatred and perversity to the next level and has made quite a living from the results. He has also created quite a few amazing two-hour films — unfortunately, most of his movies run more than two and a…
“Someone’s not who he says he is.” I’d fathom a guess that no one is who they say they are in Quentin Tarantino’s latest foray into the West, The Hateful Eight. Motivated by a reward for a murderer (and possibly other factors), the eight hunkered down in a pass stop along the way to Red…
A light-hearted score by Jed Kurzel (“The Snowtown Murders”) punctuates Slow West, first-time director John Maclean’s 84-minute deconstruction of the myth of the frontier. Winner of the grand jury prize in the international dramatic competition at Sundance, the U.K.-New Zealand co-production is a slow burn that is awash in contradictions. Starring Michael Fassbender (“12 Years…
Granted we’ve all enjoyed our fair share of them, but it is still a nice change of pace to watch a Hollywood film that isn’t one of those big budget, high-stakes films with product placements, massive CGI explosions and recycled plots. Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman is a tour-de-force western on the opposite side of…
The wild west was no place for the weak. That notion is front and center in Seth MacFarlane’s comedy, A Million Ways to Die in the West. Along with writing, directing and producing it, he stars as a slight farmer who finds his world turned upside down when he meets a beautiful woman (Charlize Theron)…
If you have missed Captain Jack Sparrow since seeing him in the last installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (2011’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”), fear not, because he makes his long awaited return to the silver screen in what has apparently been dubbed The Lone Ranger. And luckily for director…
Highly influential, passionately inspired, and awfully long-winded, Quentin Tarantino has amassed a filmography that is soaked in self-indulgence. He’s made some great movies regardless, but I find myself now exhausted by his work, even if at times I’m thrilled and engaged. The experience of watching a Tarantino movie tends to be a scattered one, pieces…
