A Hateful Film

Rating: 6/10 (29 January 2016)

Quentin Tarantino's latest project is as overdrawn as it is paper thin. Across his eclectic and at times hit or miss career he has stayed consistent with memorable dialogue, except of course for the abysmal Deathproof, yet here it seems aimless, unsure of where it's going and repetitive. How many times can one bare hearing a discussion around bad coffee or a broken door. This is the third installment of Tarantino's pseudo-historical film trilogy, and it hits a new low.
The narrative circulates around a series of misfit, detestable characters all hold up in a cabin during a blizzard. Over the course of their time there we slowly learn more about them and see their distrust for each other grow as the violence escalates. Anyone familiar with Tarantino's work will see the similarity between this and his original film Reservoir Dogs, showing how far he has come on a technical level of filmmaking. Shot in 70mm, this is perhaps his most gorgeous film to date, the sparse landscape shots make use of the 70mm in a way that begs you to see more and escape the three hour confinement of the cabin. One can only hope Tarantino utilises 70mm again before his non-retirement in a narrative that better suits it, with a script that is more worthy of it.
One of the highlights is the original score by Ennio Morricone, taking inspiration from his earlier work on 1982's The Thing (for obvious reasons that don't just include both films featuring Kurt Russell) this is some of his best work in years. Tarantino has often said how he and Morricone have wanted to collaborate; the results elevate the film, amplify the tension and setting to enhance the film as a whole. While it never reaches the highs of what inspired it, this is a score worthy of listening outside of the film itself, and that in many ways is the highest success a film score can achieve.
A main and perhaps the most subjective criticism on the film is just how particularly repulsive the characters of this film are. While it is to be expected considering the amply named title, there is zero relatability because of it. From the very beginning you are hoping these character will just off themselves and be done with it, not just to wrap up the outrageously long runtime, but also for the good of humanity. While Tarantino's characters have never been praised for their good-naturedness, they are often multi-layered enough to engage with and relate too. The characters of Reservoir Dogs are a prime example of how Tarantino can write bad characters while they remain people we can understand. Here however we are left with a cold feeling of neutrality over the fate of these men, while performances are across the board great and committed, they are never likable. Not only are they unmemorable but you'll actively want to forget them.
If Deathproof is Tarantino's worst, then this comes somewhere in the middle of his filmography. This isn't an actively bad film, Deathproof was utterly vacuous and without merit which would make this simply forgettable and derivative of his work. Tarantino is at risk of becoming a parody of himself; prepare to roll your eyes during the opening credits when 'The 8th film by Quentin Tarantino' comes into frame. The level of pretension and self-congratulation there alone is palpable. This isn't even taking into account a quick search through his career will reveal that this is far from an accurate statement. We paid twice for Kill Bill, its two films.
This is disappointing, I wanted so much to enjoy this; I wanted to be able to defend it and say 'hey, it's great, it's like The Thing in Western times', but I can't. As a Quentin Tarantino film this doesn't completely fail, hard-core fans will enjoy this but many will see it as the tedious moral torpor it is. Regardless of how you may view Tarantino and this films questionable race and gender politics, this is a film I won't be returning to anytime soon.