Flatiron Hot! Review: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained

There’s something to be said for an artist who is out to please only himself. But when the product of the ensuing creative narcissism is so arcane as to be unfathomable to those who do not share the artist’s fetishes, then it is deprived of a certain universal quality present in the greatest of art. It has long been said that Quentin Tarantino has abandoned making movies in the traditional sense and has instead taken up the postmodern indulgence of making movies about movies.

To an extent, this has been the case since Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino’s most critically acclaimed and greatest cinematic achievements possessed more than a few elements of pastiche. But beneath all the allusions and arcane stylistic flourishes, one could still discern a beating heart. With Death Proof, which Tarantino correctly deemed his creative low point, the director completely abandoned any pretense of traditional cinematic ambitions with breakneck style over substance.

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Flatiron Hot! Critic: Homeland Season 2 Review

At its best, Homeland mesmerized us by playing around with our expectations, the show’s writers always seeming to remain one step ahead of us, ready to unveil some new tidbit about Brody that would keep us guessing from week to week. The show knew how to mine narrative gold out of uncertainty and imply layers of character depth behind the twitch of a finger or the utterance of an Islamic prayer. Unfortunately, the latter half of season 2 has taken a much different approach, culminating in a competent but thoroughly underwhelming season finale.

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