Inglourious Basterds
This almost hit the spot!
I can't recall a single Tarantino movie I've ever liked. (I have never seen Jackie Brown, mind you, or Death Proof.) I remember enjoying Pulp Fiction at the point of impact (in the cinema aged 16 or whatever I was) but immediately afterwards feeling queasy, unsatisfied and still hungry, just like after eating the kind of junk food the film obsessed over. I can't even begin to tell you how much I loathed both Kill Bill films; but, then, I can't begin to tell you how much I love Meiko Kaji. But I really enjoyed this one. It was a "pleasant" surprise.
It's a preposterous film that takes the biggest historical liberty in the history of war movies, and I include Isla - She Wolf of the SS. However, amongst the Nazisploitation silliness and slightly overdone spaghetti western posturing (I'm too fond of these films to feel happy about QT-schtick) are some very dramatic and stylish scenes! In particular, the opening segment on the dairy farm ('Once Upon a Time...In Nazi-occupied France') and the 'interrogation' scene/Mexican stand off in the tavern ('Operation Kino'). The script was a lot better than normal - QT curtailed that horrible chatty zeigeisty horseshit to some effect. (Again, the tavern scene deserves praise: details beautifully rendered, tension exquisitely paced.)
It's a shame that Morricone couldn't write a new score for the film because it's lumbered with the usual QT pick'n'mix, a flaw that dragged Kill Bill into self-referential mania and ultimate obsolescence. Not that QT doesn't choose fabulous music. But it's the choice of a great list-maker. And when QT is fucking up his films it's because the list-maker and fan boy has consumed the producer-director, which is what usually happens.
As has been pointed out endlessly Basterds isn't really about war, or Jews, or Nazis, but about Cinema. And that is at the dead hollow heart of QT and his films. But I didn't hate it here. Because it's actually in the very structure of the film, so there's a thematic sheen that almost makes the thing whole. It's as close to profound as the video-shop whizz has got. Also because, as an exercise in style, some parts are, for once, very stylish. (I must mention Diana Krug, who is sensational and almost steals the film from Christoph Waltz, but not quite. Brad Pitt isn't quite as dreadful as people have said, but the accent doesn't help. Which is odd because Brad Pitt can be brilliant and could've eaten this movie alive.)
Enough of this nonsense.
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. Unlike all the rhetorical superlatives stirring up the media hype about Lars von Trier's "Antichrist" (which, admittely, I haven't seen yet but expect to be utter garbage, considering the preposterous statements Trier made in interviews and the way it's received and celebrated in mainstream media by clueless critics), the above assessment is not in the least hyperbolic but simply accurate. Truly transgressive and unpretentiously artful cinema. I think, Bataille would very much approve of this film.
