Dangerous Review: The Gloriously Inglorious Basterds

How Do I Love Thee, Basterds? Let me count the ways...

1. Writing: every scene is vintage Tarantino in that they all include drama, comedy, tension, set-ups, pay-offs and climaxes, wonderful and insightful transitions and yes, sudden violence. EVERY SCENE contains the aforementioned. Hopefully, one day I will be able to say that about my own writing. In any case, it's a great goal to aspire to.

2. Cinematography: Tarantino always impresses with his ability to call the shots - his camera holds the frame when it needs to, boldly and with supreme confidence. This is exemplified beautifully in the opening scene, which, by the way, is just masterful fucking storytelling through and through on the part of the entire cast and crew. His composition within the frame is on par with any great painter. In lighting, again, I am reminded of the great paintings of the masters. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the opening shots in the French countryside weren't inspired by a Cezanne or Monet landscape. The camera is always placed exactly where it needs to be - if you're paying attention you can see precisely WHY he's chosen the angles and camera moves he has. Also, his camera moves only when necessary, and is always balletic when it does so. There are no extraneous moves.

3. Dialogue: Dare I say no living filmmaker can write dialogue as funny, smart, tense and full of subtext as QT? I dare.

4. Casting: The entire casting is inspired - not what or who you'd normally pick to fill those rolls, yet no one else could fill them. Every single actor is pitch perfect in their parts (let's not even START on the ghastly brilliance of Christoph Waltz's performance). Tarantino didn't sit in some dreary L.A. casting office to fill his needs, he actually went to France to find the French actors, Germany to find the Germans, etc. This is a director who will do whatever it takes to get his exact vision on screen.

5. Score: never dull, never over the top (except when it needs to be), always perfect. Memorable, yet not overpowering.

6. Directing: Tarantino treats all these elements with the studied grace of a symphony conductor, every instrument coaxed to play their parts to perfection and only when necessary. There are moments of drama, melodrama, comedy, ridiculousness, hope, inspiration, romance, mayhem and outright terror (again, often all occurring within the same scene), what more would you ask of a film?

Is Inglorious Basterds perfect? No. But damn near and certainly worth a watch. In a multiplex, on demand, interwebs of a world, it's worthy of viewing if only by virtue of being unique AND well done, a combination that hasn't exactly been clicking in entertainment of late. Yes, Tarantino "borrows" from everything he's every seen - who among us don't, to some degree? But QT does exactly what an artist should do when they "borrow": he takes it, puts his unique spin on it and spits it back out at us. In short, he makes it his own.

If you aspire to make, act in, shoot, light or write films for a living, I'd say Tarantino is required viewing, listening AND reading.