The N-word stuff, and the treatment of JJL as a punching bag for the audience to cheer, definitely feels like QT thumbing his nose at the audience. It also felt like, at times, for maybe the first time in his whole fucking career, he was actually trying to make a Statement. Which is at once refreshing, because he never does it, and odd, because it doesn't *really* work, since, y'know, he never does it.

So it's hard to figure out. Is he being nasty just to be nasty... or is the reading of the Lincoln letter at the end-- one of the most nakedly and unironic stabs at genuine emotion in his entire body of work-- a political jab at the American ideal? Is all of the violence toward JJL because Tarantino thinks punching the bitch is funny, or is it because he thinks that hatred of women outweighs men's racial biases? (Certainly audiences love watching JJL get punched and watching her scream in pain all of the time, which is tremendously off-putting.) Is he doing all of these things at once, and, if so, which ones is he doing intentionally?

You get the usual from QT, of course. Brilliant performances. Gorgeous RR cinematography and lush Morricone music-- maybe the best shot and scored film in QT's entire filmography. So that's definitely something. There's no ignoring that.

And I'm never one to give QT credit for some shit that isn't there, btw. I've been mocking from the early days of PTP the folks who wax philosophical on all of the deep meanings behind Death Proof and QT's other genre recreations. QT's never been about that. I suspect that's part of what's made him so popular.

Yet he's definitely trying... something here. It's not always successful. It's exciting some times, boring other times. Some characters rule, other characters are definitely undercooked. It's unrepentantly nasty, which isn't really my thing when it comes to movies. But for the first time maybe ever in his career, I left the theater thinking I'd just watch QT attempt to do something political. Which is... interesting, needless to say.

I still don't really know how much I "enjoyed" the film. I'll have to think about it some more. I'm not even convinced I believe the stuff I wrote in the second paragraph above. Maybe it's just because he ditched some of his usual thick layers of ironic detachment here. I don't know. I'll let it marinate. These are my initial thoughts.

(Also, thanks to QT for not showing up like a fucking idiot as an actor. Blissfully, he only appears via narration.)