Quintessential QT, and that's a good thing

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2012)

After seeing this on Christmas Day, I can't stop thinking about it. On the surface, Django is just a hodgepodge of celebrity cameos, gratuitous violence, and crowd-pleasing one-liners; but my appreciation for the movie goes beyond the way I would appreciate something like MIB3.
Other reviewers have touched on the fact that this film is very much a production of two (or three) acts. For the most part, the first half of the movie could easily be labeled as a fun, buddy flick. The second half, however, possesses the sort of uncanny, awkward tension that is quintessentially "Tarantino." Tarantino is probably most famous for his use of gratuitous violence, but I think he's at his best when the violence is bubbling just below the surface: the restaurant robbery scene in Pulp Fiction, the opening scene in Basterds, and the whole Bill encounter in Vol. 2 to name a few examples. Obviously, most of these scenes end in violence-- as is the case when Tarantino uses the same device in Django--, but the actual violence doesn't define any of his movies. Tarantino's ability to string his audience along in a state of suspended anticipation is his true trademark, in my opinion.
Tarantino is at his suspenseful best in the second half of Django, and, as enjoyable as Jonah Hill's cameo and other fun moments were, the delicate dialog is what I will look forward to when I eventually see it again. Basterds is still my favorite Tarantino flick, but Django convincingly throws its name in the ring. This is a must-see movie.
P.S. Tarantino's cameo is truly awful.