ACTING:
Not a weak performance in the bunch. Standouts imho were Kerry Washington (who had the thankless job of making the romance of her and Django tangible to the audience with very little screentime/lines), Foxx who nailed the transformation from slave to hero while keeping his inner rage in check, and most importantly Sam Jackson. The technical acting chops he showed (the Parkinson's, the old man defeated walk to swagger) was a career showcase, he deserves an Academy nom. Waltz and DiCaprio swagged it out too, but they had easier roles* Also, Walton Goggins gotta stop picking those hick racist roles even though he's great at em, talk about typecasting, lol.

CINEMATOGRAPHY/ACTING:
Has QT ever slept in this category? Extremely pretty, and extremely bloody.

The N Word:
LOL. Overblown. During slavery white people were extremely shitty to black people, anybody offended by the usage must be in some kind of weird denial. The OTHER aspects (Mandingo fights, the Lechter masks the slaves had to wear) were much more disturbing and NEEDED to properly convey what was happening and not be Blazing Saddles 2.

PLOT:
I can't remember if Jackie Brown had a straight narrative, but this is the first time I remember seeing one in a Tarantino movie. It suits him well.

ISSUES
Here is the 'flaw' that O_E is going to run to the ground and whine 'SO THE MOVIE WAS SHITTY!!! ADMIT IT'. The misstep in this movie is the deux ex machine that comes in 2/3rd of the movie which seemed tonally off. Several times the characters paint themselves into corners where through guile and smarts they were able to talk their way out of it...except for one super convenient and illogical mistake by the baddies. It just seemed lazy and took me out of the movie...the subsequent appearance by Tarantino the actor because of the mistake didn't help it either.

Thankfully after this misstep, the vengeance continues in gloriously bloody fashion and leads to a crowd pleasing climax into one of QT's stronger endings (something which he's hit and miss with). I think this is key to the movie's success...while consistent filmgoers are used used to QT quirks just because of the motherfucker of a shadow Pulp Fiction left on cinema...the popcorn crowd really isn't used to long witty dialog with nothing at stake. This is his leanest movie; the conversations actually matter...be it comic relief, moving the plot along, or to ramp up the tension...and his most mature. If DeathProof was Tarantino-ism taken to the point where he totally lost his audience, Django is the closest he's come to meeting them all the way.

Overall, one of the best movies of the year, and in the better half of Tarantino's filmography (definitely better then Inglorious).


*Why hasn't Hollywood given Waltz a real bad ass role yet outside of Tarantino? What a waste. And you can tell DiCaprio had fun twirling that moustache and hamming it up fully evil.