Ugh, QUENTINNN. I know, every time I weigh in to discuss how I feel about our friend QT, we have to have a big fight about it, because some of you love him so much and he is your best friend and you hang out together all the time while discussing how totally influenced by Godard and Bruce Lee and old GI Joe commercials that one scene in his last movie is, which is actually what Quentin Tarantino does to achieve orgasm instead of having sex, so you are his favorite as well, apparently. “But there are sexy ladies! With fight scenes! Being sexy! And fighting,” is what you will say to me, when I discuss his works. And yet, I still vote No on the Listening to Quentin Tarantino Speak and/or Watching His Films Without Developing a Massive Irritation Headache question. But I still love you, even if these Tarantino movies you keep watching are my double-plus-unfavorites! So it is all right, really.
Oh, but guess who named date-rape-fest Observe and Report one of his favorite movies OF THE YEAR? Yep. Vulture just told me about it, so it is true! And also, there is ANOTHER major irritation-source packed away in (SPOILER ALERT) Quentin Tarantino’s list as well. See if you can guess which one it is! And also, Precious? “Hmm, I love how many terrible things happen to a lady in this movie, but it could use more kung-fu fighting,” is probably what Quentin Tarantino (or the version of him I have constructed out of sheer animosity in my head) thought upon seeing Precious.
You know, just this morning I was worrying about losing my edge, what with the very positive place I have arrived at in my life? And yet, all it takes is Quentin Tarantino (YOUR FAVORITE. I KNOW. I WILL NEVER TAKE QUENTIN AWAY FROM YOU, I PROMISE) to bring me right back into a place of productive irritation once again. Good to know!
19 Comments
I am so Not A Fan of His Tarantino-ness, mostly because I’m sick of the Darkness of the Male Genius. There were a lot of capital letters in that sentence, but I feel like these kinds of self-proclaimed brillant men invite them. Mostly, as my favorite Swedish researcher on gendered violence (Katarina Wennstam) put it when asked about Polanski: “There’s a lot of talk about the darkness of these male artists. Really, it’s just good old-fashioned sexist bullshit.”
That Vulture write-up gives me the impression that Hollywood is determined to push Judd Apatow on an unwilling public.
His movies are flopping, Hollywood! That means we don’t want them!
If only they’d spend half that energy pushing Kathryn Bigelow or Amy Heckerling.
Seriously, I will take your QT away from you. Someone needs to, and my blog has like 3 readers, one of whom is my sister, so I have nothing to lose here.
Exactly! Ooh, sexy ladies doing sexy lady things, HOW AVANT-GARDE.
I have never seen a Quentin Tarantino movie. I remain pure of heart. Well, the first sentence is true.
VEE, that’s the best quote ever! It’s my new favorite now, too 😉 That’s like when I was reading this article on Picasso the other day and it was talking all about his formal innovations without once mentioning the violence he does to the female body. I got so annoyed my notes ended up being snarky.
I can’t even say anything. Keeping my mouth shut. Until your Christmas party where I will no doubt bring it up to your face. Ok I will say just this – there are no sexy lady fight scenes in Inglorius Basterds (or however you misspell it) or even Pulp Fiction for that matter. Ok that’s all I am saying.
@Kelly: Oh, Kelly. IT IS OKAY. You and I can actually talk about this. I am referring more to the ten-car pile-up of people leaving, “TARANTINO RULEZ I H8 U ALSO SO DOES MY BEST FRIEND QUENTIN TARANTINO” comments whenever I say the man’s name. Which is not happening today! Thank God!
The most recent QT venture I’ve seen was that one episode of CSI where he guest directed and put dear sweet Nicky in a box for two hours, made him cry, covered him in fire ants and filmed him from a really unflattering angle. I guess I can blame the writers for all but the last one but it was a REALLY BAD ANGLE. Anyway, that was the nail in the coffin (which hopefully did not contain live people and/or doggies) of my QT hate. Needless to say, I won’t be seeing his new film.
Kelly – I spell it Basturds. Is that not correct?
Interesting coincidence that I saw Inglorious Basterds today! (My friend and I agreed that it was about the $1 we each paid to get into the theatre worth of entertainment.) I think it is the only Quentin Tarantino movie I have seen, because I do not watch that many movies. It was definitely a lot more “here let’s scalp nazis” than sexy ladies! And the only two significant Ladies died. It irritated me greatly, because they were both pretty awesome but NOPE YOU DIES NOW. Why do movies and tv have to kill everybody, anyway?
I always feel like QT is the go-to director for men to cite as their ~favorite when they want to sound cultured and smart instead of just admit they’re really into gratuitous violence, endless misogyny and bigotry on a grand scale.
You are so right — I can almost SEE his reasoning between mentioning “Observe and Report” and “Precious” as his annual favorites. That’s really sick.
My art history professor would go on rants about QT so often…one day he told us how the DVD version of Kill Bill he’d ordered had been edited and sucked and how depressed he was over it. He wore black all week (actually, the man ALWAYS wears black).
My younger arty friends are big into QT. Even my older, more refined friend with the collection of experimental art videos cannot examine the Dark Male Genius of why he finds them amusing. (At least those artists don’t get the same fame and fortune as QT.)
– a formerly unknown reader 🙂
@Sady: Well regardless of how I feel about his movies, I believe we can both agree that the man is incredibly skeevy. So I would never claim him to be my best friend. In fact if I ever met him in person I feel it would go like this: I would get really excited and go and give him a big hug (cause I do that kind of thing)then he would do something super creepy like start licking my neck. Then I would be so terrified I’d pee. This would most likely only encourage him. So needless to say, even though I like some of his films, I’d never wanna run into the guy.
My standard line of defense in all QT-related conversations is “I won’t tell you not to like him, but you don’t get to tell me that I should enjoy watching women get brutalized to catchy soundtracks.”
It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I hate Tarantino. He was such an idol of coolness in my youth, it seemed like I had to like him. And I won’t lie: I really did like “Reservoir Dogs”.
But his work really is skeevy. At one point I would’ve said that his work is all style and no substance, but it’s the very fact that there is a sort of substance that’s the problem, since it’s the substance that ruins his work for me.
Thank you for “double-plus-unfavorites”.
I like a couple of his movies, but that doesn’t prevent me from seeing that tons of things in them are problematic (the gratuitous violence, for one). And like Kelly, I think I’d rather avoid meeting him in real life, seeing as he sounds like a creepy ass. I have met enough of those to know that either I end up feeling like I need to take a shower and then hide in a closet, or he ends up crying about how mean I am. Meh.
Every time an awesome feminist blogger bashes QT, a faerie gets hir wings.
My love for this post exists in direct proportion to my loathing of “hip” white boy art.
The only Quentin Tarantino movie I can feel any fondness for at all is “Death Proof,” largely because that’s the only Tarantino movie from which I get the sense that he actually, you know, likes women and believes they should be treated like people.
“Why do movies and tv have to kill everybody, anyway?”
Didn’t you know? Killing people makes stuff “deep”.
True Art Is Angsty and all that bullshit.