Not even acting though? Actress who played Coretta killed it

The Hateful Eight

Just about until the intermission. It seemed to me that after that point, QT no longer stuck to what he had been building up for quite some time (or at least not to that part of it I liked so much). Ant that's when the film's runtime began to strectch. Little by little, more and more until the end. VO-narration from the director bothered me (the first time in QT's films that I haven't loved his cameo), but most of all I found it ridiculous that he made us rewatch part of the scene. The change of perspective and new plot information was not interesting enough. I didn't like the sudden intrusion of Clue in the plot, felt like Agatha Christie Goes West all of a sudden. But most of all, I felt cheated when Tatum's character was introduced in the story. The flashback chapter that ensued after this felt entirely empty as it did not change anything about how I felt towards the characters or the plot. It reinforced my lack of interest in some aspects of the film (like for instance how completely unnecessary Joe Gage was in this film), introduced some annoying red herrings and in my understanding it was also this chapter - more than anything of what had occured in the first two hours of the film - that formed the basis for the final showdown. The end made me feel like all the careful plotting and suspense building QT had been doing prior to the flashback scene was all just for the sake of it.
So I'm not sure exactly what to make of all these mixed feelings I have. Maybe I need some input from other people who have liked this film? Because here is a movie that I'd love to love but atm cannot.
Dreww? Wanta? Clash? What say you? And Led, what were your reservations since you mentioned you had some? Anyone else?

Agathie Christie is awesome.

Joe Gage was a good background figure.

The Hateful Eight

I enjoyed watching it, went to see it in 70mm which was definitely worth it (although a two hour trip to the theatre in Amsterdam took a lot out of me). There was a great deal about this film that I liked. But also a quite some things that I didn't like. Mostly these are related to plot, which usually doesn't pose that big of a problem for me. But it seems to me that this is exactly what QT was going for with this movie, so it carries a little more weight than usual. Anyway, I only saw it yesterday and will watch it again for sure while I still can. Hopefully again on 70mm.

I definitely like it, and it was interesting to see Tarantino tackle a so classical a film, without him playing around with the form at every turn. It's kind of a relief to see him make a film reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs (and Jackie Brown iirc), where much of its content in terms of plotting and mise-en-scene isn't almost completely fueled by referentiality. This is of course not to say that The Hateful Eight isn't heavily indebted to westerns of the past, but it feels way more like a classic western with a classical structure and visual logic. Were it not for the liberties QT takes concerning violence and character morals that would not be possible in the 1950s, The Hateful Eight wouldn't feel like too much of an anachronism among films like Rio Bravo, Ride Lonesome or Seven Men from Now. I also really admire QT's determination to take more trouble than many other directors in fleshing out his characters, writing them to perfection and then take his sweet time about their dialogue in order to get the highest possible tension out of it, then pit characters against each other, have others form alliances in a way that the character configuration shifts and turns and you can't help but go along with the ride. Totally loved this.
Just about until the intermission. It seemed to me that after that point, QT no longer stuck to what he had been building up for quite some time (or at least not to that part of it I liked so much). Ant that's when the film's runtime began to strectch. Little by little, more and more until the end. VO-narration from the director bothered me (the first time in QT's films that I haven't loved his cameo), but most of all I found it ridiculous that he made us rewatch part of the scene. The change of perspective and new plot information was not interesting enough. I didn't like the sudden intrusion of Clue in the plot, felt like Agatha Christie Goes West all of a sudden. But most of all, I felt cheated when Tatum's character was introduced in the story. The flashback chapter that ensued after this felt entirely empty as it did not change anything about how I felt towards the characters or the plot. It reinforced my lack of interest in some aspects of the film (like for instance how completely unnecessary Joe Gage was in this film), introduced some annoying red herrings and in my understanding it was also this chapter - more than anything of what had occured in the first two hours of the film - that formed the basis for the final showdown. The end made me feel like all the careful plotting and suspense building QT had been doing prior to the flashback scene was all just for the sake of it.
So I'm not sure exactly what to make of all these mixed feelings I have. Maybe I need some input from other people who have liked this film? Because here is a movie that I'd love to love but atm cannot.
Dreww? Wanta? Clash? What say you? And Led, what were your reservations since you mentioned you had some? Anyone else?

But the information about the coffee pot could have easily been given during the first time the scene played - just include that one shot in the sequence and bam. You'd have had all the same narrative info and get the same edge-of-seat effect, just without the VO.

Yes it is a long and painful revenge movie with a shoestring "plot." But it is also a masterpiece of acting, production design, and cultural conception.

A lot of people say this gets boring and wearying after an hour or so but I found it completely thrilling, gripping, entertaining--pretty much every second up to the end. I found as it lost "action" steam it gained thematic weight. It is the truest kind of revisionist western in that it conserves some of the core "values" and tropes of American frontier stories--most notably the white man who in part knows "the ways" of the indigenous--while also foregrounding everything that was awful and left out about the way that period was usually mythologized by white men.

It should go without saying that this film really pushes your face into the blood, gut, and dirt extremely relentlessly but you should know that going in and not hold it against the film.

Part of me can understand why some people feel the film isn't satisfying in spite of its extremity, but I think this is part of the whole point of the film to not be completely satisfying in the obvious way so that it can be more deeply satisfying from a contemplative perspective. It's not just an easy application of acceptable "serious" aesthetics and gritty realism.

Perhaps most importantly I disagree with the people who imply that just because it is excruciating it is therefore a completely "materialist" film with just some tacked on spiritual elements. It is precisely because it rigorously and consistently taking the point of view of spirit-within-matter-and-beyond-matter that it refuses to be satisfying in a purely materialist, unallegorical, "gritty realist" way.

I think my little key to the map of this film without revealing too much would be to notice the breath as a symbolic element. Too often we only consider dialogue or images as having symbolic importance in films, but don't consider sound design, which is crucially important here as it always is with Inárritu. The use of breath in this film both visually and aurally is the ultimate purification of the sensibility of the film--it has the quality both of material but also of being a connection to and reflection of spirit. If you miss this, the film falls apart.

The one element I thought was a bit "try hard" was a certain twist on the majestic bison stampede.

Other than that, an absolutely breathtaking assault on the senses, worth of Lawrence of Arabia or whatever you've got.

1. Carol
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Kumiko the Treasure Hunter
4. The Good Dinosaur
5. Sicario
6. The Hateful Eight
7. Inside Out
8. The Revenant
9. Queen of Earth
10. Ex Machina
11. Love & Mercy