What a film, what a film, what a film !

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2012)

If Quentin Tarantino isn't the best screenwriter of the past 25 years, I don't know who is. This film brings him to two new places: (a) he has written a screenplay rivaling Casablanca in terms of unwasted syllables, and (b) he has found his muse, his Diane Keaton if you will, and that is Christoph Waltz. The film is certainly the best film I've seen this year, and as to its subjective ranking in the Tarantino filmography, well, I'd just be splitting hairs, but I'll put it up there as #1. The direction is sublime, the casting superb and inspired, the cinematography unmatched by anything I've seen recently (including Les Miserables), and although bound to be controversial in some circles, the story line spellbinding. No way that I could capture all the dialog; I will need to see this film over and over again, as I have done with the others, in order to fully capture its nuances. Suffice it to say that Waltz is even better than he was in Basterds, Foxx plays his role to perfection, and the supporting players, notably Don Johnson and Sam Jackson, are about as good as it gets (I will confess that it took me some time to realize that I was watching either.) Violent? Yes. Bloody? Very, but as my daughter is quick to point out, it's a paint-ball kind of bloody, so over the top that it goes well beyond gory-frightening into Toonville, and I mean that in the best way possible. There is so much to this movie, and so much deeper than one would think going in. Run, not walk, run to see it. Man, do I adore Christoph Waltz !