Tarantino has become a self indulgent academic

Rating: 5/10 (13 January 2016)

Despite arguably one of the best opening scenes ever shot, I thought Inglourious Basterds was a 'cold' movie, in the sense that the soul or voice of the maker was painfully absent. It was Tarantino lecturing on cinematic history with the (excellent) cast as nothing more than bloodless puppets (Pitt, Fassbender, Roth) of his cerebral figments. It thought Tarantino had lost his way, that he was disconnected from his art.
And then I saw Django and I forgave him for everything I blamed him for (except for the Jonah Hill sequence), he was back in the Master Seat. Warm blooded, abundantly rich in cinematic joy: one could feel the directors pleasure for the genre and, the characters and above all: the story.
I am not sure what went wrong in Tarantino's head while making The Hateful Eight, but my guess is that he has never overcome the sad early leaking of his script. I can only imagine how this must feel. Since the story was already out there, Tarantino decided to focus on form only (becoming the 70mm posterboy while creating a hermetic stageplay) which in my opinion turned The Hateful Eight into the horrible Frankenstein Monster that is has become. Just a few random thoughts:

It is way too long and unbearable self indulgent sometimes

Tim Roth does a spot on Christoph Waltz impression, really uncomfortable to watch

I don't mind the lack of a classic protagonist, but the impossibility to connect with any of the characters makes the violence actually extremely disturbing and awful to watch. This is quite possible mostly true for Samuel L Jackson scene, where he tries to get Bruce Dern to reach for a gun by telling him he made his son give him head for a blanket since he let him walk bare ass through the snow at gunpoint for two hours. It is really off and Tarantino reveals a chilling fantasy with absolutely no cinematic purpose than to shock the audience. It is in such stark contrast with his trademark 'laugh when there is really nothing to laugh about'. Again, Tarantino on the lecturing seat quoting cinema history with countless references

A completely redundant flashback scene that is supposed to add to the story feels just weird and cerebral - There are too many characters. And you really don't want to connect with any of them.

70mm gives a stageplay feeling to the film which distorted my sense of space and characters on an uncomfortable level

Kurt Russel (who is right up there with Chuck Norris) is just not the man to embody Tarantino's fantasy, not in Death Proof, not in The Hateful Eight

There is so much more but I want to conclude my thoughts with the fact that Tarantino is back at the Inglorious Basterds level: a self indulgent academic who has become fat on facts and form. He 'Tarantinoizes' existing popular film genres, which makes him one of those rare directors who can hide his lack of original inner source in plain sight. He is always dependent on existing vehicles to carry his cinematic vision in. His intelligence in doing so is rather intimidating.

Let's wrap up by giving a great compliment to Robert Bridge Richardson for his excellent cinematography, Ennio Morricone for his score (but I am afraid that the Master has lend his name to this movie as opposed to doing actual composing.), Jennifer Jason Leigh and Walton Goggins for their strong performance and let's move on.
I praise Tarantino for all the work he does on preserving film along with Anderson and Nolan, but he completely lost his way here, being the geek that he is. Just too much form.
Tarantino is unmistakably a mean motherf*cker, but with a big warm heart for story and character. In the absence of this heart he is just a mean motherf*cker, which is hard to watch.
Two more to go to make good, I am full of confidence and look forward to the new 'Tarantino'. In modest 35mm.