Quentin Tarantino’s last few films have crept closer to cinema’s theatrical roots. Sequences occur in contained rooms, recalling the claustrophobic, object-driven narrative environment established by the physicality of the stage. These scenes are dominated not only by the director’s trademark dialogue but also by an assured language of compositional details, which guide our eyes through the frame and divulge information with a meticulous sense of craft. Tarantino’s detractors are bothered by his compulsion to bloat his works with references to cinema’s long, colorful history, as well as an occasional penchant for comically distorting his vested tone. But after recently having the opportunity to re-watch Inglourious Basterds, it became clear that the work overall was more significant than the handful of lame gestures that prevented me from outright embracing it. A filmmaker calling attention to himself is often irritating, especially when he uses dialogue to inject his own opinion of what he’s created. But this isn’t, and shouldn’t be, anything but an unfortunate stumble along a journey that’s far more complex and rewarding than the singling-out of that gesture would imply.

The Hateful Eight is Tarantino’s most confined feature yet, which initially calls into question his use of the 70mm format. Upon first blush, the decision registers as an arbitrary homage to the golden age of American Westerns. While it is that to some degree, it’s also a method to capture minuscule details in the expressions and appearances of each duplicitous character.

The film begins in the early stages of a Wyoming blizzard as John Ruth “The Hangman” (Kurt Russell, channeling The Duke) nears the end of a journey to collect his reward, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Along the way, they encounter two stranded individuals who Ruth reluctantly adopts as passengers. The first man is the clever and cruel Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a bounty hunter we learn fought in the union army during the Civil War and the closest thing the film has to a lead character. The second scoundrel to be happened upon is Chris Mannix (a viscerally animated Walton Goggins), who identifies himself as the newly appointed sheriff in the town of Red Rock, where the entire ensemble is headed.

The four arrive at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a cramped, one-room lodge where they meet the remaining faces that make up the titular hateful eight. Bruce Dern’s Sanford Smithers was a Confederate general during the war. He has made the trek to Wyoming in the twilight hour of his life hoping to learn how his son was killed. John Gage (Michael Madsen), is a reserved, weathered cowboy who is almost certainly hiding something. Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth, chewing scenery in the best possible way) is a sly Englishman who claims to be Red Rock’s new hangman. Last but not least is Bob (Demián Bichir), the suspiciously gauche steward purporting himself as an employee of Minnie, thus the caretaker of the haberdashery in her absence.

It’s easy to argue that the narrative in which characters trapped in an inescapable setting are driven to face one another has been cinematically exhausted in decades prior. But Tarantino’s perspective on popular hatreds harbored throughout American history is strangely essential and unpacked with a necessary dose of self-awareness. He illustrates the tight-knit relationship between prejudice and contempt by procuring a tonal delirium punctuated by comic terror. Underneath lines of dialogue, which are programmed to register as humorous, lie disturbing implications about who our characters are and what they represent. At first, animosity is personified only through verbal slander. When tensions begin to rise, Mobray decides to split the room in half, sending Confederate sympathizers to one corner and supporters of the Union to the other. Later on, as viewers familiar with the sensibilities of Tarantino would predict, this animosity is emulated through the graphic mutilation of flesh. The segregation, however, isn’t the first instance in which folly manifests itself physically.

A percentage of those who see The Hateful Eight will be crushed by the weight of unflinching cruelty that man is capable of. But the film, circumventing all expectations, has the audacity to end on a note of coarsely drawn optimism. We’re shown the worst sensibilities of the soul through bloodied eyes, and as the tumult begins to dissipate, it becomes clear that someone’s hatred eventually had to be compromised. In a sea of gore with no redemption in sight, a subconscious shift in mindset embodies what is perhaps the most vulgar step toward progress ever captured on film.

Quentin Tarantino‘s really got his hands full, huh?

Following the director’s recent comments regarding police brutality—“I’m on the side of the murdered,” he said at a New York City rally on Oct. 24th—police unions across the country, including the Border Patrol and the Fraternal Order of Police, have called for a boycott of all Tarantino films, including his upcoming snowy western The Hateful Eight.

Tarantino’s been defending his stance on the issue, claiming he’s “not a cop hater.” The murder of a New York police officer, Randolph Holder, just a week before his appearance at the controversial protest, didn’t help quell the fiery national debate that quickly erupted around the director’s comments.

Fighting tooth and nail for his right to speak publicly against police brutality is surely the last thing the widely beloved director was planning to do in the final weeks leading up to his eighth feature film, but a shiny nugget of good news has arrived today in the form of a new, awesome trailer for The Hateful Eight.

The movie’s had a rough road—if you remember, it almost didn’t get made at all when the script was leaked to the public by one of star Bruce Dern‘s people (that bastard!). Tarantino scrapped the project in a fit of rage, but thankfully for us he changed his tune. Perhaps most members of law enforcement won’t be coming out to watch the film in “glorious 70mm” this Christmas like the rest of us, but maybe the latest trailer will compel some of them to show up in disguise.

The Hateful Eight stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. Here’s the official synopsis:

Set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces: Bob (Demian Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…

The Hateful Eight drops on Christmas Day, but only in the 70mm format. It releases wide on January 8th on all formats.

Quentin Tarantino‘s long-awaited 8th film The Hateful Eight is set for release this Christmas, but the first real glimpse at footage has just arrived in the form its new trailer. The Hateful Eight collects an impressive ensemble of actors including Taratino’s returning favorites (Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern) along with a couple of new faces (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Demian Bichir, a perhaps-under-wraps cameo from a Foxcatcher star) for this tale of betrayal “six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War.” Filmed in gorgeous 70mm against the snowy mountainscapes of Colorado (in place of Wyoming, where the story is set), this trailer reveals the central cast of characters in all their fur coat, brimmed hat, twanged accent glory.

The Hateful Eight centers on a stagecoach lead by bounty hunter John “The Hangman” Ruth (Russell) as he drives toward the town of Red Rock, where his passenger Daisy Domergue (Leigh) is set to hang. On the road, the two come across Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a former union soldier who has taken up bounty hunting himself, as well as Chris Mannix (Goggins), a Southern renegade that claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Attempting to escape an intensifying blizzard, the four duck into Minnie’s Haberdashery to discover four unfamiliar faces in Bob (Bichir), Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). The travelers attempt to outlast the storm as well as each other, and make it to Red Rock alive.

Let us know in the comments what you think of the latest trailer for The HateFul Eight

Quentin Tarantino continues his new fascination of blending period pieces with grindhouse revenge films in Django Unchained, a movie that fans of Inglourious Basterds will surely enjoy. The setting this time is America several years before the civil war. Slavery is still going strong in the south, and Django (Jamie Foxx) is lucky enough to get freed by King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter who needs him to identify a group of criminals he’s searching for.

Django tells Schultz his story: Him and his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) were branded and auctioned off separately after trying to escape a plantation together, and now with his freedom Django hopes to find his wife and buy her freedom as well. Schultz takes a liking to Django and offers him a deal: Train and work as a bounty hunter through the winter, and once the snow melts they’ll go rescue Broomhilda from the evil plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio) who owns her.

Tarantino surprisingly goes for a straight linear narrative here rather than breaking his story up into chapters, but the film still feels like it’s broken up into sections. The first hour or so follows Django and Schultz around as they try to collect different bounties. This section is probably the strongest part of Django Unchained, with Waltz doing his Hans Landa routine all over again. Naturally Waltz is a delight to watch, and his pairing with Foxx make the two of them a good team. There are plenty of flourishes here on Tarantino’s part, mainly a subplot involving a plantation owner (Don Johnson), but they’re so entertaining that it’s understandable why Tarantino wanted to keep them in the final cut.

Once DiCaprio finally shows up and the plot to rescue Broomhilda starts to take centre stage, the entertainment factor starts to decrease significantly. Foxx, spending most of his time staying quiet when he doesn’t have to make witty comebacks, barely registers once he’s put in the same room as Waltz or DiCaprio. When DiCaprio’s servant Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), a slave whose dedication to his master makes him end up becoming the film’s big bad, enters the picture it’s hard to even remember Django’s presence in some scenes.

And as Django becomes the sole focus towards the end, the bloated 160 minute runtime starts to show. The climax, taking place after an incredibly bloody shootout that showed Tarantino firing on all cylinders, doesn’t have much power to it. Of course Tarantino is still a terrific writer/director, and Waltz, DiCaprio and Jackson are all worthy of awards for their brilliant performances, but Django Unchained doesn’t come close to matching the same level of giddy amazement as Inglourious Basterds. Fans of Tarantino won’t come away disappointed, but he can do a lot better than this.